Springfield Armory has just announced the Kuna, a roller-delayed 9mm pistol made by HS Produkt of Croatia.
The MP5 is great, but it’s getting pretty old. For parties interested in roller-delayed 9mm PDWs but want something a bit more modern, they now have the Springfield Armory/HS Produkt Kuna to consider.
Featuring a 6-inch cold hammer forged barrel, the Kuna is sold as a pistol either with or without a Strike Industries folding brace. The brace attaches via Picatinny rail on the rear of the receiver so you can install whatever brace model you desire, or stock if you choose to SBR it. Like the MP5, the Kuna uses a roller-delayed operating system. The smooth, low-recoil shooting experience that roller-delay provides is one of the big reasons why the MP5 was and is so loved, so odds are the Kuna will be a great shooter too.
Other features of the Kuna include a 1/2×28 threaded barrel (comes with multi-port brake installed), a monolithic aluminum upper with integral M-LOK slots and a flat-faced trigger. The charging handle is folding, non-reciprocating and reversible, and the controls are ambidextrous and similar to an AR-15’s. The grip is also AR-15 pattern and can be swapped. As for iron sights, the Kuna ships with a set of adjustable flip-up hybrid sights. When folded down they’re similar to handgun notch sights, and when flipped up they’re more precise aperture sights.
The Kuna uses proprietary 30-round magazines that are made out of a translucent polymer and have a round count molded into both sides. They have metal feed lips and Springfield is selling them for $25 a pop.
Steve Kramer, Vice President of Marketing for Springfield Armory, said this about the new 9mm:
The performance of the Kuna speaks for itself … With its roller-delayed operating system and ruggedly durable design, the Kuna represents the new benchmark of capability.
The Springfield Armory Kuna is available now and has an MSRP of $999 without a brace and $1,149 with a brace included.
CANCON Arizona 2025 is wrapped up! A weekend of fun, sun, and a whole lot of CANS! Here is just a small smattering of what was there this year. Missed it? Join us in South Carolina in November or back in Arizona in 2026!
If you want to see all of CANCON in action, take a look at our RECAP video!
We know what you're thinking; yes, these shirts are for sale, but we've sold out! More coming soon…
Belt-fed alley was a huge success! Did you take a turn on the Minigun or M240?
VIP BAG
Arizona 2025 was our best VIP bag EVER!
PROs Vs. JOES
Pros Vs. Joes was back again with even more Joes going home with some awesome prizes!
BASE CAMP
Something totally new for CANCON Arizona 2025 was the OFFGRID BASECAMP!
A unique hub for outdoor enthusiasts, survivalists, and adventure seekers alike. At OFFGRID Basecamp, you'll discover skill sessions taught by seasoned professionals. These quick, focused lessons cover essential topics like fire-starting, navigation, emergency first-aid, and more
CONGRESS COMES TO CANCON
We were honored to host Congressman Abe Hamadeh at CANCON Arizona last week. While at CANCON, Congressman Hamadeh, a former U.S. Army Reserve Intelligence Officer, learned firsthand about the health and safety value of suppressors and reiterated his pledge to support our Second Amendment rights.
“The muzzle may be quiet, but the message is loud: liberty belongs to the people, not the ATF,” stated Congressman Hamadeh. “For too long convoluted policies and misguided definitions have caused confusion and concern, putting targets on gun owners in attempts to weaken our Second Amendment rights. Enough is enough. I for one, know that we can never do enough to protect our coveted God-given rights, but we must try.”
RONIN WOMEN
We were excited to welcome RONIN WOMEN to CANCON 2025!
“Partnering with Ronin Arms, a leader in integrally suppressed platforms, Ronin Women eliminates common barriers to learning. By reducing noise and recoil, we create a training environment where women can focus on fundamentals without unnecessary distractions. Without the overwhelming sensory overload, shooters aren’t flinching or hesitating—they’re building precision, confidence, and control.”
Thor Targets took one monster of a beating this weekend, but they didn't break! Thousands of people shooting tens of thousands of rounds is an impressive test.
Do you know how to shoot wet? How suppressor wipes work? Here we give some tips and tricks to make your silencers more stealthy.
Suppressors, often called silencers (don’t listen to idiots on the internet—both terms are correct), are a fantastic firearm accessory and can make shooting a significantly more enjoyable experience. Manufacturers have improved silencer technology vastly over the past decade, and cans are getting quieter, more durable, and more affordable. Our selection is easily the best in human history. Still, there are ways to eke out more performance. Here we outline a few ways you can boost your cans’ abilities and dispel a few internet rumors along the way.
How Suppressors Work
For the uninformed or misinformed, one of the main reasons to use a suppressor is to mitigate sound and flash. A simple way to think of this is in two parts: first, the rapidly expanding gases that escape the barrel, and then the sonic crack of the bullet traveling down range. Both sounds can be reduced, the gases with the silencer and the crack with subsonic ammunition.
Subsonic ammo makes everything sound great, and heavier subsonics hit with authority. Israeli 158-grain FMJ and 165-grain Freedom Munitions HUSH are some of our go-to rounds if we want to maximize silencer performance.
A firearms suppressor works by trapping the expelled gases that follow a bullet leaving the barrel. Chambers, created by baffles or other means, trap the gases, causing them to cool and dissipate inside the suppressor and preventing or mitigating them as they exit.
It’s important to note that “first round pop” (FRP) is also something that occurs when the initial shot burns the existing oxygen inside of a suppressor, causing a noticeably louder first round. Though FRP exists with all normal silencers to some amount, people focus on it more with pistol-caliber and rimfire suppressors.
Shooting Wet
Now that we established silencers take hot gases and cool them, let’s talk about ways to allow them to do that more effectively. The most prevalent is making a can “wet” or adding something to the inside of the suppressor to cool the gas quicker. We should note that this practice is only meant for rimfire and pistol-caliber suppressors. Rifle cartridges carry much higher pressures, and adding liquids to the inside of the suppressor can make for a potentially very unsafe environment—so it’s best to leave them out.
Water is an obvious choice for an ablative for a suppressor, though any nonflammable liquid will work (some even swear by Coca-Cola). Placing a tablespoon[ish] amount of water inside the first chamber of the can and swirling it around will help negate the FRP issue, and the next few shots will be quieter. However, the water will burn off quickly, and the suppressor will return to normal function with a magazine. Another popular option is using petroleum jelly inside the suppressor. Once again, about a tablespoon amount in the blast chamber works well. An added benefit is that the jelly will not evaporate or run out of the can, so it stays in place much longer. The petroleum jelly will also take away from FRP problems and last significantly longer than a liquid.
As no good deed goes unpunished, the drawback to making a wet can is that the host firearm will get much dirtier, much faster. When petroleum jelly is used, it will seep back into every crevice of the host. Gas blowback and pressure are also significantly increased; this is particularly painful for shooters whose handgun has an optic. Debris will splatter on the optic, and often cause it to be unusable. This can also happen to your eye protection.
With those downsides, why would anyone want to make a can wet, you ask? Well, according to Blake Young, CTO for Primary Weapon Systems (and holder of nine suppressor technology patents), making a suppressor wet can gain anywhere from 1 to 5 decibels of sound reduction on a 9mm can, and even more with rimfire.
The wipe-and-ablative GSL Pill Box is a perfect pair to the Beretta 21A Bobcat chambered in .22LR.
Suppressor Wipes
Introducing a substance into the suppressor can help cool the gases faster, but what about keeping the gases in the can more efficiently? This is where the old-school wipe comes into play and, in many cases, really shines. Wipes are a consumable, physical barrier the projectile must first pass through and can tremendously aid in containing the explosive gases.
Wipes aren’t a new technology—they’ve been seen in World War II homebrew suppressors using many types of materials, like leather.
Modern suppressors using this old technique have upped the game with modern materials. The most popular is Neoprene 70A. This is currently used in many models from different manufacturers. The Gemtech Aurora II is a great example of both wipes and petroleum jelly, previously discussed. The wipes are pliable and allow a projectile to pass through and essentially seal behind trapping the gases inside the silencer slightly longer. This concept is similar to self-healing targets. The wipes are scored with an X to help the bullet pass through. Dead Air, Lone Wolf, Thompson Machine, Energetic Armament, and numerous others have or currently do use wipes to make suppressors more effective.
The Gemtech Aurora II uses wipes to quash the noise. Since wipes are consumables, the Aurora II can go from looking new (left) to blown out (right) in fairly short order.
Wipes are most commonly used with pistol-caliber and rimfire silencers, but not all. The Energetic Armament Vox S is a rifle suppressor that incorporates a wipe. Pew Science, a newer organization that’s revolutionizing suppressor testing, featured the Vox with and without a wipe. Their findings regarding wipe performance with subsonic 300 Blackout are impressive. With the wipe installed, the suppressor received a rating of 58.9dB and without it received a rating of 48.4dB. This may not mean anything to you right now (you should absolutely go check out pewscience.com), but this is a significant increase in performance. Pew Science provides impressive and exhaustive data sets, so if you’re any kind of silencer nerd, again, go check them out.
Now for the downsides. Wipes wear out—and quickly. Even with the fabric-reinforced materials, wipes generally last between 20 and 50 rounds. When talking to Mike Pappas of Dead Air Armament, he states, “I think the best application is when subsonic ammo is being used, and it may not be as effective as making a can wet, but it also doesn’t create a mess.”
An endcap with a disposable wipe (above), such as the Dead Air Ghost-M, can help take the edge off.
As previously mentioned, wipes create a physical barrier the projectile has to pass through. This means that bullets designed to expand may start the process while still inside the can. In the case of the wipe-and-grease-only Gemtech Aurora II, ammunition must be considered. A small silencer like that seems like a great option for a self-defense situation, before you understand only FMJ ammunition can be used. Any type of expanding ammunition will inevitably expand inside the suppressor, causing catastrophic damage. Accuracy is another topic for wipes. Because the bullet literally touches the wipe, there can be a negative effect on accuracy.
Loose Rounds
It’s possible to assist a suppressor in mitigating sound through outside means. In the old days of Hush Puppies, it’s rumored those operatives would purge oxygen from the suppressor with nitrogen and seal the end of the can with a postage stamp to assist in the reduction of FRP. Using dB foam, shaving cream, water, petroleum jelly, etc. can all achieve similar results. Wipes are useful and, when designed into the suppressor, can mitigate some of the downsides; however, also be aware of the safety concerns when using these.
Editor's Note: This article originally appeared in the 2025 suppressor special issue of Gun Digest the Magazine.
More On Suppressors:
The Suppressor: How They're Made, How They Work, And How To Buy One
Less velocity means less power, but it can also mean a lot less noise. Here we discuss modern subsonic ammo.
Slowing down isn’t something that I am particularly good at. The nature of my life and work makes it fast-paced, often to the point of exhaustion, and the ability to take a minute isn’t always available when I want it. See, slowing down means that some things don’t get done, there is more room for error in the long-term schedule, and the cracks I left become more noticeable if I have a chance to look at them instead of just breeze past.
There’s an art to taking it easy, and it involves being comfortable with the pace. Before I delve too far into my undiagnosed issues, I do want to draw the comparison between this outlook and the subject of subsonic ammunition. We’re taking away the main benefit of bullets—speed—and deliberately seeking to reduce our range and power in the name of staying under the supersonic barrier.
Making things work at these slow speeds is an art, and it comes with challenges that will make you see your cracks as a rifleman.
Left to right, .45 Colt, .450 Bushmaster, 8.6 Blackout, .338 ARC and .300 Blackout. Each of these rounds is great for subsonic use in different base rifles
An Objective Look At Subsonic Ammo
For the purposes of this article, we’re going to be talking about rifles and rifle ammunition. Where handguns are concerned, there’s perhaps only a relative discussion on suppressed hunting with larger-bore pistols, such as .45 ACP—arguably the only real choice for use suppressed in subsonic form for medium game. I’ve had great success with pistol hunting with .45 ACP at close range, say inside 40 yards, and the big, slow bullets easily punch through a deer while being paintball gun-like in noise level.
This is very specialized hunting, and most people would be trying to get a lot of speed from something in 10mm, .44 Mag, .357 Mag, .45 Colt and others. You can really crank a 270-grain hardcast up in a Ruger-frame .45 Colt, but that’s just not a suppressor proposition.
In general, when I’m talking about subsonic use, I’m talking about suppressed use. When it comes to subsonic loads without a suppressor, there is—at least to me—no real point unless you want the challenge.
The main issue surrounding this is that subsonic loads are still really loud without a suppressor. People get in their head that firing a subsonic .450 Bushmaster is going to be something like firing a subsonic .22 LR, but it’s not even close … or hearing safe at all. Ballistics with subsonics aren’t great across the board, and there stands to reason that if you’re firing without a suppressor, there’s no actual reason to use subsonic ammunition considering you’ll need ear protection.
The .450 Bushmaster is a great example of a round that benefits from mass in subsonic and supersonic form, but does neither all that great.
Suppressors and subsonic ammo are a match made in heaven, but it isn’t all roses. There are a good number of considerations to make, and picking the right combo of rifle, barrel length, cartridge, suppressor and ammo is important. You need to see subsonic ammunition in the modern sense as a part of a wider system.
It’s only recently that we’re seeing specialized ammunition emerge that’s largely dedicated to subsonic use. These ideas have taken a while to enter the mainstream consciousness of American shooters and hunters, and there’s still a great deal of misunderstanding involved that might trip people up.
For starters, every subsonic chambering I can think of still has a supersonic ability. For instance, you can shoot some really heavy .300 Blackout loads but still use the cartridge in 110-grain form supersonic. Bear in mind that many pistol-only suppressors can handle the mild .300 BLK subs but aren’t to be used with supersonic versions. This has to do with the pressure that the suppressor can handle. Now, you can simply adapt many rifle-rated cans to pistol use, but the other way around isn’t feasible unless you’re absolutely sure an errant round won’t make its way into your magazine, or your buddy wants to give it a go with his own ammo.
Most subsonic cartridges also have supersonic abilities. Here’s an assortment of supers, notable are rounds that have virtually no subsonic utility, such as 6.5 Creedmoor and 5.56 NATO. The BHA 77-grain OTM is pretty hard to beat. Don’t handicap it to .22 LR levels.
The next and more important point is that people tend to look at this type of ammunition as a function of the cartridge, not the bullet itself. Take for instance the .450 Bushmaster, a widely used straight-walled cartridge. In supersonic form, it’s still of somewhat limited range, and I consider it to be good to around 200 meters from a 150-meter zero. Even with excellent ammo like Hornady and Remington, it still has a good amount of drop. In general, I am zeroed a mil high at 100 meters, right on at 150 meters, and 1 mil low at 200 meters.
That’s easy math, but compared to something like a .308 Win., 6.5 Creedmoor or 6 ARC, this is abysmal.
However, at short range, the .450 is known to be an absolute hammer of a round out of compact guns. I see no reason to ever go over 16 inches in barrel length, and out of that length you get the best performance for both supersonic and subsonic loads. Of note, the 395-grain Hornady Sub-X is arguably the best option for this caliber in subsonic form, and it’s quite different from its supersonic counterparts. The drop from zero is not just inches, but entire mils. If you plan to shoot both supers and subs, you’ll need an optic that can track this, such as the Leupold MK5 HD I use. It’s very simple to dial up your subsonic zero off your super zero, but don’t forget to pop it back down, otherwise you’ll be firing quite high.
Of note is that all subsonic loads suffer thusly. The velocity is by necessity under the sound barrier, so most ammo is loaded just a touch north of 1,000 fps. Regardless of caliber, you’ll need to compensate for some substantial drop off your zero. The issue here arises from the fact that gravity is utterly unforgiving, and even our most technologically advanced subsonic loads have essentially the same shortcoming.
Now, it’s arguable how far of an effective range subs have. This is a pretty hotly debated topic, and I lean toward the more conservative side of the argument: Subs are a short-range proposition and should be treated as such. Flight time matters a lot, as does ammunition consistency. If you’re following along, these are some of the cracks that appear as you slow down. Minor variations in distance to target and velocity can dramatically impact where your bullet … well … impacts. The longer the distance, say 100 to 200 meters, the more variables come into play that, with a supersonic rifle cartridge like .308 Win., you wouldn’t begin to experience until ranges of 500 yards or more.
180-grain .308 Win. round-nose subsonic, 168-grain Hornady Match and 150-grain Remington Tipped Core-Lokt. The .308 is a very versatile round but is a poor choice for subsonic use.
Subsonic loads past 100 yards will show you what kind of rifleman you are, just like shooting at 1,000 yards with a supersonic load will. Your mistakes and the faults in your ammo will be shown.
What is ‘Proper Power?’
I’ve killed a fair amount of medium to large game animals with subsonic loads. In my experience with the topic, I’ve seen no real indicator that the game being hit knew if they were tagged by a bullet under the speed of sound compared with being hit with a supersonic load.
In my experience, if you can master the drop of a subsonic load, in general, you can kill anything. There’s a notion that you need a certain number of foot-pounds to kill animals of a certain size. This is a great thing to consider as a baseline, and there are plenty of writers with decades of experience on me that can give insight. However, the writers of the era prior were racing to talk about speed and power—here I’m talking about deliberate handicaps.
Subsonic pistol loads, especially old designs like these in .45 Colt and .44 Special, are known performers at close range, especially with Keith bullets.
Subsonic loads will rarely, if ever, generate the “proper” number of foot-pounds for game. We’re talking rifle bullets going slower than most common 9mm practice loads. The subsonic game in my view throws conventional rifle bullet ideas out the window; it’s a somewhat new field all things considered. It’s only because the system of rifles, cartridges, bullets, suppressors and optics exist on the same level of advancement that we can begin to explore their combined benefits.
What needs to be addressed about subsonic loads is that, in most cases, we are taking a bullet out of a conventional rifle that’s simply slow. Take for instance the old 180-grain .308 Win. loads in the article photos: This was what we had before .300 Blackout, and it wasn’t altogether great. There wasn’t really a good way to stabilize heavy .30 bore loads in a common 1:12 or 1:10 twist; all these barrels were made for supersonic loads. The disparity in technology wasn’t a downside. Nobody was really serious about this type of load without suppressors in common usage. The thinking had to change, and as time wore on, it certainly did.
However, the ideas about the bullets themselves would take time to evolve.
The only general ways to increase effective lethality in subsonic loads is to increase mass or experiment with bullet materials to get a desired result. In my view, .30-cal subsonics are anemic for game, even with bullets of high mass for the caliber. To be absolutely frank, a 300-grain class, .338 bore is about the current technological peak of subsonic development. That said, I have been working with the 8.6 (.338) Blackout since commercial barrels came out, and the .338 bore represents a sweet spot that can be defined by the concept of sectional density.
Thirty-caliber subsonics are anemic compared to .338 bore. The .338 ARC is 50 percent heavier than .300 Blackout and .308 Win. subsonics.
In layman’s terms, sectional density is a very important aspect of bullet performance in flesh. Think of it like a train. For the given width of a train car, you’re fixed. Now, keep adding train cars behind it, and you have more behind it in a linear fashion. The more cars you have, the harder you hit given the width of your initial car. This is a simple illustration, but it works.
Large-bore subsonics pack a lot of weight but are short in terms of sectional density. This is the difference between dedicated subsonic rifle bullets and slower bullets made for supersonic use. Thirty-cal subs lack enough mass to be firmly in that sweet spot, despite many having great sectional density. Forty-five-cal and 9mm-class rifle subs tend to be high mass, but short and fat, with wide frontal areas, making them less than ideal for penetration and velocity retention—not that you’re losing much being under the speed of sound as it is.
The .338 ARC, with its 307-grain Sub-X bullets and highly efficient case design, makes for very little powder consumption and a very effective, high-mass bullet that retains energy very well over the ranges subs are effective. Of note is the moderate twist rate it has as opposed to 8.6 Blackout, which itself has a super-fast 1:3 rate, making solid alloy bullets somewhat of a necessity to prevent jackets from stripping. The .338 ARC is, at least in my point of view, the superior cartridge in that it launches a more flexible bullet at the same speed with less powder in a smaller case. Larger bore subsonics take a lot more powder to push a less efficient bullet at the same speed.
The 338 ARC (right) and 8.6 Blackout. These two rounds play in the same arena, but the .338 ARC launches a more commercially viable bullet in a gentler twist with a more efficient case design. For subsonic use, it’s objectively superior to 8.6 Blackout.
There’s a larger debate on the merits of .338 ARC against 8.6 Blackout, but the former is a SAAMI-approved design, whereas the 8.6 is still a wildcat. Wildcats, of course, have merit, but in terms of what generates commercial success, the 8.6 likely has a limited lifespan, all things considered. We see this happen in many arenas where competing companies developed similar rounds for similar platforms at the same general time.
Case capacity is a thing to consider when looking at subsonic efficiency. Note the size of these bullets compared to their brass.
The 8.6 is a nice round; make no mistake that wildcats have been the basis for many of our favorite rounds. The twist rate is just, well, a bummer. The .338 ARC has the potential to be “the” subsonic chambering with all its many substantial benefits for reloaders and hunters. Picking an area to win is paramount today as we stray from jack-of-all-trades cartridges. Trying to accomplish too much has become something of a death sentence for otherwise great designs.
The Future
I suspect the .338 ARC will continue to develop as the premier subsonic field round. The jury is still out, as it’s very new—but the era of the dedicated subsonic cartridge is only beginning. In the realm we’re operating, there’s a lot being asked of a bullet, and, if the velocity is a fixed variable, the rest becomes subjective and open to experiments and trials.
We’re realistically working inside a fixed set of dimensions: the AR-10 and AR-15 mags, long and short bolt actions, and commercially viable bore diameters. The spectrum of what we can accomplish in terms of commercial success is limited and, for as much thinking we do outside the box, we need to see that within the box is where we’re innovating.
I look forward to seeing how these modern .338 bore rounds perform after several seasons and some more development by third party companies. I’m excited to slow down a bit and enjoy life inside 200 yards for a change. The fast stuff will always be getting faster, but there is a certain level of satisfaction that comes from waiting for something a bit closer and quieter.
Editor's Note: This article originally appeared in the 2025 suppressor special issue of Gun Digest the Magazine.
More On Suppressors:
The Suppressor: How They're Made, How They Work, And How To Buy One
When it comes to the 10mm vs .45 ACP, application decides the winner.
Points to consider when deciding between the 10mm vs .45 ACP:
Cartridge application
Recoil sensitivity
Potential need for fast follow-up shots
Handgun size (.45 has more compact options)
Average engagement range
Price per round (one is a bit more spendy than the other)
The quest for the perfect handgun is ongoing and always evolving. In recent years, at least among those with a yen for powerful semi-automatic pistols, a gauntlet of sorts has been laid down: 10mm vs .45 ACP. Funny thing, go back 40 years or so and this debate wasn’t really … well … a debate.
Proof of the 10mm's popularity, Colt has reintroduced its classic Delta Elite, now with a rail.
The new kid on the block, an oddity at that, the 10mm never really got out of the shadow of the grand old .45 ACP. Closing in upon its centennial birthday, John M. Browning’s masterpiece stood alone when it came to big-bore semi-auto cartridges. The 10mm, with all its potential, looked ready to fade away from early glory, following the likes of the .44 Auto Mag and other powerhouse semi-auto cartridges.
Then a funny thing happened. In the early years of the 21st Century the 10mm rose from its ashes. And while Col. Jeff Cooper’s darling has never become quite the belle the .45 Auto has remained, it certainly has turned heads enough to become a consideration among those who yearn for big and bad.
So, in the grand battle of 10mm vs .45 ACP, which is it to be? The answer — like everything in the gun world — isn’t as clear-cut as simply jumping on one team or the other. Both are excellent, with plenty of crossover application. But at their quick, each excels a little more than the other at certain tasks.
For more than a century the .45 ACP has been a standby, and likely will be for a century more.
If your answer isn’t “Give me one of each!” then you need a long hard chew on what you plan to do with your new 10mm or .45 ACP before getting one. Doing so, you're more likely to find the brute that best serves your needs.
10mm vs. .45 ACP Comparison
10mm Auto
Bullet Diameter: .400 Max COL: 1.26 Case Length: .99 Common Bullet Weights: 155gr, 180gr, 200gr Velocity Range: 1,050-1,410 fps Year Developed: 1983
.45 ACP
Bullet Diameter: .452 Max COL: 1.17 Case Length: .898 Common Bullet Weights: 185gr, 230gr Velocity Range: 770-900 fps Year Developed: 1905
Energy: The 10mm delivers more energy on target compared to the .45 ACP. An example, a 200-grain 10mm load delivers around 500 foot-pounds of energy, whereas 230-grain .45 ACP delivers around 375 foot-pounds. Winner: 10mm
Velocity and Trajectory: 10mm has a much faster velocity, thus have a flatter trajectory than the .45 ACP. However, at most handgun ranges this trajectory is negligible. Winner: 10mm
Recoil: Generally, the 10mm loads produces significantly more recoil than the .45 ACP when fired from pistols of similar weight. Winner: .45 ACP
Cost and Availability: The cost of 10mm ammunition is similar to .45 ACP, however, specialized 10mm loads tend to demand a premium price. Winner: Draw
Self-Defense: Both the 10mm and .45 ACP are proven self-defense rounds, however, given the 10mm’s recoil it can prove more difficult to place accurate follow-up shots. Winner: Draw
Animal Defense: Given its high-velocity and ability to deliver a massive amount of energy on target, the 10mm is among the most popular backcountry pistol rounds presently. Winner: 10mm
.45: Close-Quarters Star
Purpose designed as a man stopper, the .45 ACP has shined in the role for more than century. Most know the story, at the turn of the 20th Century the .38 Long Colt had a poor showing against determined opponents in the Moro Rebellion. In turn, the U.S. Military went searching for a more substantial replacement. Looking forward by looking back, it was decided something along the lines of a .45 Colt would fit the bill.
A match made in heaven, the .45 ACP and M1911.
As luck would have it, John Browning was working on the perfect cartridge at the time — the .45 ACP used in the Colt 1905. Eventually matched with his legendary 1911 pistol, the cartridge and handgun went on the make history. Both served the U.S. Military with distinction for the better part of the 20th Century, including both World Wars and numerous smaller conflicts. Standard bearer statue achieved, it continues today as a favorite of armed citizen and a law enforcement alike, offering manageable power with proven results.
Aside from its ability to dissuade an attacker with sizable chunks of copper-jacketed lead, the large-bore round won favor because of a less recognized asset — it isn’t a bear to shoot. Certainly out of most pistols it generates more recoil than say the 9mm, but not a universe more. Give time, practice and willingness to learn, only the truly recoil sensitive are nixed from the .45. The vast majority of other shooters can master it.
The effort to become competent with the cartridge out of the many pistols chambered for it is worth it. In the skilled hands, the .45 ACP absolutely sings. Watch a practical pistol or steel challenge match and consider, the majority of the pistols being accurately redlined are chambered for the short, fat cartridge.
How does the .45 ACP achieve the seemingly contrary ends of power and manageability? Simple, it’s a low-pressure cartridge that shoots heavy bullets slowly. Take, for instance, a relatively average .45 ACP self-defense round, such as a Remington’s 230-grain Golden Saber. It leaves the muzzle at 875 fps, yet at this velocity it’s working with 391 ft-lbs of energy. Not blistering hot by anyone’s standards, but within typical self-defense ranges it has more than enough punch to get the job done. The Achilles’ heel of the cartridge, the further you have to shoot, the more difficult it is to achieve accuracy — the .45 drops, a lot, fairly quickly.
.45 ACP Ballistic Data
Load
Bullet (grains/type)
Muzzle Velocity (fps)
Muzzle Energy (foot-pounds)
Federal Premium Gold Medal Match
185gr semi-wadcutter FMJ Match
770
244
PMC Bronze
185gr JHP
900
333
Fiocchi Defense Dynamics
200gr JHP
890
352
Blazer Brass
230gr FMJ
830
352
Speer Gold Dot
230gr JHP
890
404
As a self-defense option, particularly with today’s bullets, the .45 is Mojave rattler potent. While research is required to ensure satisfactory penetration from a defensive round, most bullets they're loaded with have mind-blowing expansion potential. At the extreme end, such as Winchester’s Ranger T-Series, the projectiles are fully capable of mushrooming to 1 inch in diameter. That equates to undeniably devastating wound channel.
Furthermore, the .45 ACP's common use also gives it the advantage of ample handguns and ammo options. The iconic 1911 still soldiers on, not only made by Colt, but a slew of other manufacturers — Kimber, Springfield, Remington, SIG Sauer and many more. Additionally, the .45 is also available in a number of other makes and models, such as the Springfield XD, Smith & Wesson M&P, Glock (21, 30, 36, 41) and nearly everything else not considered a pocket pistol. There’s even a healthy selection of compact pistols in the caliber, given the .45’s popularity for concealed carry. Rounds for those guns? If a store sells handgun ammunition it is a safe bet they’ll have .45 — at the bare minimum ball.
10mm: Multitalented Masterpiece
10mm Auto Specs:
Famed firearms instructor and all-around firearms guru Col. Jeff Cooper set out to do the impossible in the early 1980s — improve on the .45 ACP. A fan of the cartridge, he aimed to design an option that had superior ballistics and improved barrier penetration performance. Inspired by a wildcat, the .40 G&A, Cooper believed he had found a model to dethrone the king.
Ready for the field, a Glock G20 Gen4 SF hunting set up with a 6-inch barrel and Leupold Delta Point reflex sight.
In concept, his “.40 Super” would pitch a 200-grain bullet at velocities in excess of 1,000 fps, more than enough to dust the .45 on all counts. Roughly, it would achieve 20-percent more velocity at the muzzle than the .45 and flirt with doubling its energy. Hard hitter fails to capture Cooper's ultimate goal. The idea eventually transformed into the 10mm and became a reality when he teamed up with gunmaker Dornaus & Dixon and Swedish ammo manufacturer Norma. As good as it looked on paper, in execution the “Big Ten” stumbled out of the gates.
The first gun chambered for the round — the Bren Ten — became notorious for its production issues and was priced like it was cast from gold. Then the 10mm round itself had its issue. By all accounts, it lived up to Cooper’s billing. The original 200-grain loads screamed from the muzzle at 1,200 fps, with a bone-crushing 759 ft-lbs of energy. In FBI testing, a 170-grain JHP from Norma ended up with the best “Wound Value” score. But it proved a handful.
Hot whiplash to shoot compared to semi-auto pistol at the time, 10mm shot-to-shot split times were painfully long. Not exactly ideal in the FBI's eyes, who adopted it for a short time in the 1980s and 90s. And the recoil was none too easy on the guns either, with a tendency to break them down before their time. The final nail in the coffin — at least in professional use — was a mid-velocity round that achieved the same terminal performance, while creating a highly shootable 10mm. The thing was, less powder meant excess case, a problem solved with the advent of the .40 S&W.
The Bren Ten Handgun, designed by Jeff Cooper, enjoyed a lot of buzz in the 1980s. However, the 10mm pistol was a bulky and expensive product in a market full of small and cheap alternatives.
Colt with its Delta Elite and Glock with its G20 and 29 — along with a handful of diehard ammo makers — kept the 10mm from slipping into obscurity in the dry years after the FBI abandoned the caliber in the mid-1990s. Then, almost miraculously, interest in the 10mm peaked again after the turn of the century and in recent years has flirted with fever pitch. Difficult to say why shooters have re-kindled love for the nearly forgotten handful (most likely versatility), but in the past few years the market has responded.
Though not as widespread as the .45, nearly all the major gunmakers and a few boutique outfits offer the 10mm. Of the more notable are the Ruger SR1911, SIG Sauer P220, Remington R1 Hunter, Dan Wesson Bruin and Springfield Armory 1911 TRP RMR. Colt even dusted off its Delta Elite and Glock added the G40.
An interesting twist, while the 10mm is still popular as a self-defense option, it has punched a toehold in the hunting world. Reaching further with a substantial payload, the cartridge has been found chasing whitetails up north and hogs down south. Some even used as bear insurance out west.
10mm Auto Ballistic Data
Load
Bullet (grains/type)
Muzzle Velocity (fps)
Muzzle Energy (foot-pounds)
Hornady Custom
155gr JHP
1,410
684
PMC Bronze
170gr JHP
1,200
543
Sellier & Bellot
180gr FMJ
1,165
542
Blazer
200gr FMJ
1,050
490
Speer Gold Dot
200gr JHP
1,100
537
Buffalo Bore Outdoorsman
220gr Hard Case Flat Nose
1,200
703
Given varied applications, ammunition selection has blossomed along with its popularity. Since it fills certain niches, not every round is suitable for every application. A sledgehammer hunting round, such as Buffalo Bore’s 220-grain Heavy Outdoorsman, will make a hole in an attacker, no doubt. But if pass through is a concern, it might not be a wise choice for self-defense.
10mm vs .45 ACP Terminal Performance
When it comes to affect on target, the short answer is that 10mm is the winner. Its greater velocity simply translates to more energy transfer and more damage. But that's not the entire story.
Velocity and energy aren't the only things that impact terminal performance, as the diameter of the projectile plays a factor in what the wound cavity will look like as well.
Obviously .45 ACP has the edge there, but how much does it really matter? When looking at Lucky Gunner's ballistic gel tests of hollow point ammunition, the most expanding load of 10mm only achieved an average diameter of .81 inches, and it took a lightweight 155-grain load to achieve that. Meanwhile, the most expanding .45 ACP achieved an average diameter of .99 inches. That's over twice that of the original projectile's diameter and it was with a standard-weight 230-grain load. That means the .45 is making a hole that's almost .2 inches bigger than the 10mm, and depending on the ammo the difference can be even more extreme.
Does that mean that .45 ACP actually has better terminal performance? No, because expansion isn't the whole story either. The reality is that when it comes to effect on target, the wound cavity created is the best metric to look at, and 10mm's velocity still beats out .45's larger diameter in that respect. A good, modern expanding .45 ACP bullet will create a wound cavity almost as devastating as a 10mm, but at the end of the day the wound cavity made by a defensive 10mm round of the same quality will simply be a bit bigger.
10mm Vs. .45 ACP Ballistics
As far as reaching out and touching things goes, 10mm Auto wins again due to its higher velocity. While neither of these heavy handgun rounds were designed for long-range precision, their drop is relevant to both self-defense and hunting, so let's see how a .45 ACP and 10mm Auto Speer Gold Dot load compare to each other.
If my math is right, at 25 yards the .45 ACP will have only dropped .3 inches more than the 10mm, but at 50 yards the .45 will hit 1.5 inches lower than the 10mm. For typical self-defense distances, .3 inches doesn't matter too much, but if you're looking for a handgun hunting cartridge that can reach out a bit farther the 10mm is the clear winner. Plus, you never know when you might have to make an Eli Dickens-tier shot, and the 10mm's flatter trajectory will help with that too.
Who Wins Out In 10mm vs .45 ACP?
If you're in the market and weighing the 10mm vs .45 ACP, the question shouldn’t be “Which one should I buy?” That will get you nowhere. To get the right cartridge and the gun to launch it you should ask yourself, “What do I plan to use it for?” Arguably anticlimactic, fully admitted, but most sober decisions play out that way.
Ruger's 10mm SR1911
Economical and excellent up close, the .45 ACP is an exceptional choice for a self-defense, plinking and competition. The cartridge hits hard close range, makes big holes and has a proven track record saving lives. A more lenient recoil, it is also easier to become competent within a shorter amount of time and potentially is a faster option if follow-up shots are a concern. Less recoil also makes it a more logical choice if you’re looking for a compact carry gun.
Given its long lifespan, there are simply more pistol options to choose from for the .45 ACP. In turn, you have a greater likelihood of finding exactly the right pistol for your purposes, whatever they might be. And in the long run, it will prove cheaper to shoot. Ammo, at least at time of writing, is abundant and easy on the pocketbook. There are a lot of options, including self-defense, that falls below the 50-cents per round mark.
Conversely, if you have a yen for a handgun that reaches out, hits hard and — if you happen to reload — has more room to work with, your money might be better spent on a 10mm. Definitely, it’s the choice if you’re aiming at handgun hunting or need protection against four-legged predators, instead of simply two. Not that the “Perfect Ten” isn’t a capable self-defense cartridge — it is. Only it requires more time and effort to become truly proficient with, outside its lightest loads. This is especially the case if you opt for a smaller-framed model.
Smith & Wesson M&P 2.0 in .45 ACP.
Given the cartridge is in its renaissance, you’re also limited in your pistol choices. Certainly, there are more options every year, but they are a fraction of what’s available for the .45. You don’t get to be as choosy. Things are brighter on the ammo horizon, there are more choices, and, as mentioned before, it perhaps has more handloading potential. Overall, a 10mm is tougher on the pocketbook. There are options less than 50-cents per round, but mostly range fodder. The self-defense stuff quickly gets up to $1 and above each trigger pull.
In either case — and like with all guns and cartridges — you should practice due diligence. Not only consider what you plan to use your 10mm or .45 ACP for, but also test drive the makes and models that get your trigger finger itching. Only after you drop the hammer will you know if you have found the right gun and cartridge. Do enough legwork and whether you settle on 10mm or .45 ACP, you will find either rock solid if they match up with your needs.
10mm & .45 ACP FAQ
Is a 10mm more powerful than a 45 ACP?
Yes. 10mm Auto has a higher muzzle velocity and more energy than .45 ACP, it also retains more of that velocity and energy over greater distances. That said, “more powerful” is pretty vague when it comes to comparing handgun cartridges, and .45 ACP's larger diameter and typically heavier projectiles lends itself to potentially better expansion with hollow-points.
Is 10mm Louder Than .45 ACP?
Yes, all else being equal 10mm Auto is louder than .45 ACP primarily due to its higher muzzle velocity. Standard 10mm ammo is always supersonic, which results in more noise as it breaks the sound barrier. Standard .45 ACP on the other hand is naturally subsonic, making for a quieter shooting experience and a more ideal round for use with a suppressor.
Will a 10mm Stop A Grizzly Bear?
Yes, but only with proper shot placement. 10mm is on record as having killed grizzly bears before, but you still have to do your part to hit the right spots.
Why Did The FBI Get Rid Of 10mm?
While the FBI did adopt 10mm Auto and then subsequently decommission it, it's only partly true to say that they “got rid of it.” The cartridge's hefty recoil combined with the large grips of the Smith & Wesson 1076 pistol were too much to handle for most average FBI agents, leading them to adopt .40 S&W instead. However, FBI HRT and SWAT teams did continue to use it, at least for a period.
What is a 10mm handgun good for?
10mm handguns are relatively versatile in their usefulness due to the several different styles and sizes that are now available. Boasting significantly more power than 9mm, 10mm is capable of putting down grizzly bears, bandits and everything in between. That power also makes 10mm handguns viable for hunting game like whitetail deer and boar. As long as you can handle the stronger recoil, a 10mm handgun would be a good choice for certain kinds of hunting, bear defense, some forms of competition shooting and even for protection against human attackers as a home defense or concealed carry gun.
Galco has just announced the Masterbilt Master Agent Shoulder System for small-frame revolvers.
Even in our modern world of micro-nines, snub-nose revolvers are still excellent concealed carry guns. For those who still rock a small-frame wheelgun, Galco has just announced the Masterbilt Master Agent Shoulder System for seven different models.
As part of the Masterbilt series, this holster is made with premium quality leathers and constructed by Galco’s most experienced craftsman. That not only makes it extremely handsome, but allows the holster to have an excellent fit out of the box with little or no break-in period. The Master Agent features an open front design and a diagonal gun angle to provide a smooth, fast draw and good concealability. The system also features an elasticized nylon strap with an alligator clip and an optional belt loop for securing the rig to your other side.
The Master Agent is currently offered for the Charter Arms Undercover 2-inch model as well as for six Smith & Wesson J-frames including the M36 2-inch, M60 2 1/8-inch, M640 2 1/8-inch, M640 PRO/M642 UC, M642 and the M649 Bodyguard 2-inch. A good selection, but I'd like to see them add fits for the Ruger LCR as well.
The Galco Masterbilt Master Agent Shoulder System is available in only a right-hand configuration and only in black. It has an MSRP of $280 and it’s available now.
Federal has just announced a new American Eagle .32 H&R Magnum load featuring an 85-grain Jacketed Soft Point bullet.
.32 H&R Magnum isn’t exactly the most popular cartridge, but there are still plenty of individuals out there who own revolvers chambered for it and they still need good ammo to feed them. That’s compounded by the fact that .327 Federal Magnum revolvers can shoot .32 H&R Magnum as well where it makes for a great reduced-recoil option. Now, shooters have one more choice in the form of Federal’s American Eagle 85-grain JSP load of .32 H&R Magnum.
Packaged in boxes of 50, the new .32 H&R Mag. load features clean-burning powders, Federal primers and brass and an advertised muzzle velocity of 975 fps using a 4-inch test barrel. Designed with practice and target shooting in mind, Federal says that the new load features similar recoil to self-defense and competition loads to facilitate the best training possible.
Chris Laack, Federal Handgun Ammunition Product Manager, said this about the new load:
This new 32 H&R 85-grain JSP load is a perfect target shooting and training load for use with all the new guns from Smith & Wesson, Ruger, Taurus, and more … It provides recoil and velocities similar to those of self-defense, offering a familiar feel and realistic practice.
MSRP is $47.99 per 50-round box and it is currently being delivered to retailers.
If you do low-light handgun training, you may want to take a look at the Strike Industries EMP With LED illuminated Glock baseplates.
Done any low-light training? Competed in a night match? I’ve done both—a bunch of times. Strike Industries now offers an LED-equipped baseplate for your Glock magazines: the EMP with LED. When I saw that, my reaction was, “I’ve gotta try one of those.” Strike Industries was happy to send some and the rep mentioned offhand, “We’ve gotten some flak on these.” I looked into it, and the flak can be summed up as: “Why would I give away my position with a light on my mag?”
I was stunned speechless—and those who know me know how rare that is. Really? Position? Were they not paying attention to the need for safety in training or competition? That’s the intended use of the LED baseplate. Anyone who thinks it’s a tactical tool needs someone to help dress them before they leave the house.
I’ve done night training. Besides not tripping over stuff and keeping the muzzle in a safe direction, I want the instructor and others to know where I am as I try to soak up the lesson. If that means wearing a set of glow-in-the-dark Mickey Mouse ears, fine. I’m there to learn. The same goes with a competition. I want to win, but I want to go home in one piece, with no extra holes. So, again, knowing everyone knows where I am at all times matters to me.
And then there’s the matter of magazines. Yes, Glock magazines (what Strike makes right now) are inexpensive, but they aren’t quite disposable. Everyone at the match has spent time getting their eyes night-adjusted (or using NODs). At the end of each stage isn’t the time to fire up a thousand-lumen tactical light to find dropped magazines.
The Strike web page also mentions using the EMP with LED as a low-level light, navigation aid, finding things in the dark, etc. Me? Not so much. I have other lights—ones that don’t have bullets attached to them—to use for searching or finding the keyhole in the lock. Just training and competition for the EMP with LED, thank you.
Simply swap your existing baseplate for the Strike, and you’re good to go. Be sure and assemble properly, as the battery only works one way.
Each EMP with LED adds length to the magazine, but doesn’t add capacity. It holds a 2032 battery (included—thank you Strike), and it’s kinda sorta water-resistant. I take that to mean it’ll stand up to the rain, at least as much as you’ll put up with in training or competition. Don’t expect to go swimming with it. Seawater is a specified no-no. The extra length makes it easier to pry a mag out of the pistol if it hesitates to drop, but the extra ounce and a half should induce most magazines to fall freely.
I’m knee-deep in snow right now, so I have no idea how well it holds up to being dropped on gravel. But the LED is recessed into the mag extension, so it looks pretty well protected. I suspect it’d take a peculiar set of circumstances to result in your LED getting whacked just right and thus quitting.
To repeat: This isn’t the baseplate you’d select heading out the door to fight the good fight or whatever. It’s what you select to train for the fight or the match you intend to win, in a safe and orderly fashion.
Editor's Note: This article originally appeared in the May 2025 issue of Gun Digest the Magazine.
If you want to find the best 5.56 NATO suppressor, you need a lot of ammo, cameras, and a few people willing to risk bodily harm. RECOIL has all of that and more, and put it to good use testing a host of suppressors at CANCON South Carolina 2024!
We take a look at the history of the National Firearms Act, making and apprehending criminals through tax laws since 1934.
A hand-processed, paper-intensive, firearm background check system that costs Americans millions of dollars annually to implement is no doubt an archaic way of doing business today. But few, if any, people have ever suggested that government processes are the model of efficiency. Unfortunately, while change may be on the horizon, it’ll take much effort and many years to see improvement for the simple reason that far too many people still agree with the following statement:
“A sawed-off shotgun is one of the most dangerous and deadly weapons. A machine gun, of course, ought never to be in the hands of any private individual. There is not the slightest excuse for it, not the least in the world, and we must, if we are going to be successful in this effort to suppress crime in America, take these machine guns out of the hands of the criminal class.” Testimony of Attorney General Homer Stille Cummings as recorded in National Firearms Act: Hearings on H.R. 9066 Before the H. Comm. On Ways & Means, 73rd Cong 1 (1934) [NFA Hearing].
“Predatory criminals.” “A very serious national emergency.” “The armed underworld.” These dramatic emotion-provoking descriptions uttered by Attorney General Cummings in 1934 during the first few minutes of his Congressional testimony were designed to sway Congress into passing national gun control through America’s tax code. As the spokesperson for the Department of Justice, his focus on addressing crime by restricting and inconveniencing law-abiding Americans hardly differed from the gun-control rhetoric disgorged by today’s anti-gun politicians. In his effort to “sell it,” Cummings blatantly declared that law-abiding Americans needed to endure the inconvenience of the law to allow the government to deal with criminals.
Without any substantiation, Cummings told his audience that twice as many people existed in the armed underworld as there were in the Army and the Navy combined. His proposed gun-control law imposed a mostly unaffordable tax on importers and manufacturers of firearms, dealers, machine guns and most other firearms. Firearms excluded from the law were “ordinary shotguns or rifles.” It also created a national registration system that would easily allow the arrest, prosecution, and conviction of anyone in possession of a firearm without the proper paperwork.
One difference between Cummings and modern gun-control advocates is that Cummings admitted that a ban on any particular firearms, including machine guns, would be unconstitutional. But, he claimed, Congress could tax firearms instead. He urged Congress to impose a 100-percent tax on machine guns. And that is, of course, ultimately what they did.
The National Firearms Act (NFA) imposes a $200 tax on machine guns and other firearms (with a $5 tax on items classified as “any other weapons”). In 1934, when the NFA passed, this $200 tax was equal to the average cost of a machine gun. To set the stage for how much an imposition the tax was on Americans, keep in mind that according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, in 1934, the average person earned $1,524 per year. Also for comparison’s sake, the average house in 1934 cost $5,970, and a Studebaker truck cost $625. This 100-percent tax was extremely prohibitive for the average American, equivalent to over $3,600 today, according to the U.S. Inflation Calculator.
But what caused the most concern from this initial draft of the NFA for Second Amendment supporters wasn’t the misplaced blame on sawed-off shotguns and machine guns or the 100-percent tax. The bigger problem faced by Constitution-loving Americans was that the bill proposed a tax on, and a national registry for, the ordinary pistol and revolver.
The initial NFA bill, H.R. 9066, defined “firearm” as “a pistol, revolver, shotgun having a barrel less than 16 inches in length, or any other firearm capable of being concealed on the person, a muffler or silencer therefor, or a machine gun.”
By including pistols and revolvers, the NFA followed the trend of the time. Gone were the days of the 1700s and 1800s when the law required Americans to be armed. In the 1920s, other bills had already been proposed to restrict pistols from crossing state lines. Ironically, the argument in favor of one of these pistol-restricting bills was that homeowners could instead keep a “sawed-off shotgun,” which, according to Senator John K. Shields, a Democrat from Tennessee, was “far more deadly and surer than the pistol.”
More handgun-restricting bills followed Senator Shields’s failed attempt. In 1930, several bills were proposed to restrict interstate commerce in pistols, revolvers, machine guns and shotguns or rifles that had their barrels sawed off or shortened (without specifying a length). Firearms: Hearing on H.R. 2569, H.R. 3665, H.R. 6606, H.R. 6607, H.R. 8633, and H.R. 11325 Before a Subcommittee of the H. Comm. On Interstate & Foreign Commerce, 71st Cong. 1-3, 7 (1930).
Clearly, H.R. 9066’s focus on pistols and revolvers was nothing new to Congress. But to date, the prior bills had failed. The old saying that laws are like sausages (no one should see them being made) held true in the makings of the NFA. The NRA and other opponents to the bill ultimately relented by accepting the tax on and registration of firearms, if pistols and revolvers were removed from the bill’s mandates. The compromised, restrictive NFA that gun owners live with today does very little, if anything, to deter crime, fails miserably as a revenue raiser, and costs Americans millions of dollars annually to implement.
Keep in mind that the central idea of the initial draft of the NFA was to skirt the Constitution and Congress’s inability to enact a federal ban of firearms, and instead use Congress’s revenue-raising power and its power to regulate interstate commerce to tax and register almost all firearms (except non-concealable rifles and shotguns). This end-run around the limitation on Congress’s power and the Constitution was admitted repeatedly during the hearing.
It’s interesting to note that H.R. 9066’s original definition of “firearm” failed to include items that ultimately wound up in the NFA as enacted. For example, the earlier bill didn’t include silencers for firearms not capable of being concealed on the person, such as for rifles or shotguns. It also didn’t include rifles with barrels under a certain length. Unnamed “experts” had purportedly been consulted about what the length of a “sawed-off shotgun” was, and reportedly, the bill was lenient in allowing barrels as short as 16 inches, because 18 or 20 inches was a “better maximum length.”
The current law exemplifies the arbitrariness of what constitutes a “sawed-off” length, as it allows rifle barrels of 16 inches, but shotgun barrels must be 18 inches. H.R. 9066 also had what can only be described as a “FUBAR” definition of “machine gun,” which included both automatic and semi-automatic rifles if their magazines held 12 or more rounds.
Gun Control Then and Now
Not surprisingly, the authors of the initial gun-control bill were similar to today’s usual gun-control suspects—ignorant of firearms, their forms and their functions. The bill was, like many gun control laws, a feel-good, emotional response on behalf of the ignorant to the crime problems of the time.
In the NFA hearing, Karl T. Frederick, president of the NRA, pointed out that the bill’s definition of “machine gun” was “wholly inadequate and unsatisfactory.” As mentioned, the proposed definition deemed a gun that fires automatically or semi-automatically more than 12 shots to be a machine gun. Frederick pointed out the distinguishing feature of a machine gun was not its magazine size, but its function upon a single pull of the trigger. During his testimony, one frustrated Congressman (Woodruff), in addressing Frederick, said “magazine or the clip or whatever they use to hold these cartridges.” If an image of Dianne Feinstein just crossed your mind, take a moment to delete it and read on.
Despite not having any data, statistics or even suggestion that these firearms were used in criminal activity (or that the tax would control the criminals), lawmakers advocated to add additional firearms that would be subject to the tax. For example, later in the bill’s hearing, Republican Harold Knutson from Minnesota suggested adding rifles with a barrel under 18 inches to the bill. There had been no suggestion that shorter rifles were a crime problem. Similarly, the record is completely devoid of any factual data that suppressors were used in criminal activity warranting any type of restriction, and no one bothered to bring this issue up.
Criminals Will Still Get the Guns
At the initial NFA Hearing, Adjt. General Milton A. Reckord, who was also vice president of the NRA, got directly to the point that the DOJ wasn’t approaching the crime problem properly.
Reckord compared the law to the Volstead Act: “The honest citizens are not going to be bothered with such restrictions. They won’t obey the law, and you are going to legislate 15 million sportsmen into criminals; you are going to make criminals of them with the stroke of the President’s pen.”
Both Major General Reckord and NRA President Frederick pointed out that any knowledgeable person knew that the criminals would still get guns, despite the new law. In fact, the famous gangster, John Dillinger, who was repeatedly mentioned during the hearing as a primary example for why the law was needed, stole his guns. Reckord and Frederick suggested that the correct solution would be for the government to focus on punishing criminals with guns.
Gangsters like John Dillinger were mentioned by name at the NFA hearings as a method of justifying its necessity.
The bottom line is that no one, not even the Attorney General, expected the criminals to comply. In agreeing that the criminals would not obey the law, Cummings argued that the bill was designed to make it easy to convict criminals for their noncompliance with the tax code—if a suspect has a machine gun and no paperwork, they could be prosecuted. He cited the arrest, prosecution and conviction of Al Capone as an example of a known, violent and slippery criminal who was apprehended because of the income tax law that he violated. The attorney general’s goal, and his logic, was that this new tax law would similarly help law enforcement apprehend the John Dillingers of the time for violating the tax code rather than any of their violent criminal activity.
Many of the arguments against the NFA were similar to the arguments made by Second Amendment supporters today: Gun control doesn’t affect criminals. Automobiles cause more deaths than firearms. Handgun owners with concealed-carry permits are law-abiding citizens, and crime will increase if you take guns away from them. Frederick also made the point that police forces in rural communities are inadequate, and the law would prevent people in smaller communities from obtaining weapons needed for self-defense. Those in favor of the new law replied that people don’t need pistols for self-defense, just rifles or shotguns, and the Committee Chairman claimed that he had “never heard” of anyone needing a pistol for self-defense.
Frederick pointedly stated that, “I do not think we should burn down the barn in order to destroy the rats. I am in favor of some more skillful method of getting the rats without destroying the barn.” He reiterated that gun-control laws don’t reach the “crook” at all, just the honest man. To support his position, and to combat the suggestion that people don’t use firearms lawfully for self-protection, Frederick had compiled and provided newspaper articles on law-abiding citizens using firearms in self-defense. His arguments, of course, had factual support, unlike the purely emotional arguments in favor of the bill.
What About the Second Amendment?
Not everyone was willing to accept an end-run around the Second Amendment to apprehend violent criminals for non-violent behavior. Some even saw the danger of criminalizing law-abiding Americans who simply didn’t have the correct paperwork. Rep. David J. Lewis of Maryland commented on what was to him a blatant attempt to violate the Second Amendment. He stated that he “never quite understood how the [gun control] laws of the various States have been reconciled with the provision in our Constitution denying the privilege to the legislature to take away the right to carry arms.” Cummings responded to Lewis that, “We are dealing with another power, namely, the power of taxation and of regulation under the interstate commerce clause. You see, if we made a statute absolutely forbidding any human being to have a machine gun, you might say there is some constitutional question involved. But when you say ‘We will tax the machine gun’ and when you say that ‘the absence of a license without payment of the tax has been made indicates that a crime has been perpetrated,’ you are easily within the law.” Cummings’s logic was simple: No prohibition of firearms was proposed, just regulation and criminal prosecution for those who did not comply.
Dealers and Manufacturers
The proposed law would not tax only the purchasers (transferees) of the NFA-defined firearms, but the dealers and manufacturers as well. One congressman put on the record that he would like to put pawn-brokers and dealers in used firearms (“those people,” in his words) out of business, if he could. Interestingly, W.B. Ryan, president of Auto Ordnance Co., manufacturer of the Thompson submachine guns, spoke in support of the NFA.
Merchants and law-abiding citizens continue to bear the burden of outdated, costly and unnecessary legislation.
When NRA President Frederick spoke to the issue of taxing dealers, he pointed out that an annual dealer tax of $200 would eliminate 95 percent of the dealers in pistols. Similarly, the proposed $5,000 tax on manufacturers was much too high for any smaller companies to pay.
Modern NFA
After the initial hearing on H.R. 9066, a modified version of the NFA was proposed in June of 1934, H.B. 9741. This is the bill that was ultimately passed and enacted as the National Firearms Act. Representative Robert Lee Doughton, a Democrat from North Carolina, introduced this bill. It passed the House and Senate and was signed into law by President Roosevelt all in the same month. It was, as suggested in the final hearing by Rep. Doughton, a law that was supposed to no longer put the citizenry at the “mercy of the gangsters, racketeers and professional criminals.”
He touted that the bill no longer affected pistols and revolvers, so that “law-abiding citizens who feel that a pistol or a revolver is essential in his home for the protection of himself and his family should not be classed with criminals, racketeers and gangsters, should not be compelled to register his firearms and have his fingerprints taken and be placed in the same class with gangsters, racketeers, and those who are known as criminals.” Congressional Record, 73rd Congress, June 13, 1934, 11400.
Due to the rise in crime that Prohibition and the Great Depression created, the laws to deal with their collateral damage quickly followed. Although the Volstead Act was repealed in 1933, the NFA was enacted in 1934.
The NFA, as enacted, defined “firearm” as “a shotgun or rifle having a barrel of less than 18 inches in length, or any other weapon, except a pistol or revolver, from which a shot is discharged by an explosive if such weapon is capable of being concealed on the person, or a machine gun, and includes a muffler or silencer for any firearm whether or not such firearm is included within the foregoing definition.” Since 1934, this definition has been revised and expanded through additional laws, such as the Firearm Owners Protection Act, as well as through the ATF’s interpretations of the statute (such as the ongoing “Sig Brace” conundrum). Suffice it to say that the NFA’s definition of firearm is a living, breathing beast that has not yet been slain.
Why are these particular firearms subject to the tax code and registration? Because in the eyes of the 73rd Congress, they were the firearms used by the criminals whom law enforcement were somehow unable to apprehend any other way.
Although the current NFA remains a gun control law written in a tax code (found in Title 26, United States Code section 5801 et. seq., which is the Internal Revenue Code and enforced by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, formerly under the Department of the Treasury, but now overseen by the Department of Justice), it carries hefty criminal penalties. As intended, the law allows the apprehension and prosecution of those who don’t pay the tax or who otherwise fail to comply with the registration (paperwork) requirements. As predicted by Major General Reckord, it’s a pitfall for unsuspecting gun owners who can easily and unknowingly violate the NFA and commit an accidental felony.
While this “tax code” was touted as a law that wouldn’t place law-abiding Americans in the same class as criminals, it in fact does. Given our modern technology and the later passage of the Gun Control Act (which requires modern, computerized background checks), we should continue the effort to eliminate this costly and unnecessary piece of legislation.
Editor's Note: This article originally appeared in the 2025 suppressor special issue of Gun Digest the Magazine.
A quick look at the speedy but moody .17 Remington.
The .17 Remington was introduced in 1971 as a new chambering for Remington’s 700 series bolt-action rifles. The case is based on the .223 Remington necked-down to .17 caliber, with the shoulder moved back .087 inch to lengthen the neck while retaining the same shoulder angle. The .17 Remington is similar but not identical to the .17-223 wildcat developed about 1965.
Experiments with .17-caliber rifles go back to 1944, when P.O. Ackley, the well-known gunsmith and experimenter, developed the .17 Ackley Bee based on necking down the Improved .218 Bee case. There are a number of other .17-caliber wildcat cartridges made by necking down .22-caliber centerfire cases, such as the .221 Remington Fireball, .222 Remington and more. Remington, New Ultra Light Arms, Wichita and Sako offer rifles in this chambering.
General Comments
The .17 Remington has had a steady, though unspectacular, sales record since its introduction. Its greatest drawback is that it is a special-purpose cartridge suited almost exclusively for varmint shooting. For the sportsman who wants a rifle only for that purpose, this is not a disadvantage, but those requiring a rifle for both varmint and deer hunting would be better served with some other cartridge.
With the 25-grain hollow-point bullet loaded by Remington and similar bullets available for handloading by Hornady, the .17 Remington must be rated as a short-range varmint cartridge. On the other hand, it has certain advantages, such as minimal recoil and ricochet probability, and a very flat trajectory due to the high initial velocity of over 4,000 fps.
Disadvantages of the chambering include rapid barrel fouling, extreme sensitivity to slight charge weight variation and limited component availability. Factory-loaded ammunition is available from Remington and in the Nosler Varmageddon line. Moly-plated bullets and cleaner-burning powders can eliminate the rapid fouling problem.
.17 Remington Loading Data and Factory Ballistics
Bullet (grains/type)
Powder
Grains
Velocity
Energy
Source
25 HP
IMR4064
22.5
3,800
801
Hornady
25 HP
IMR4320
24.7
4,000
888
Hornady
25 HP
IMR4895
23.8
3,900
845
Hornady
25 HP
IMR3031
21.6
3,800
801
Hornady
25 HP
N135
22.8
4,040
906
Vihtavuori
20 AccuTip
FL
–
4,250
802
Remington 29162
25 HP
FL
–
4,040
906
Remington 28460
Note: Remington cases and Remington No. 7½ primers used in all loads.
Attaching a suppressor to a barrel shouldn’t be complicated, but it often is. Here we give an overview of the most common types of suppressor mounts.
Do you think I need to go with a QD- or a HUB-style mount on my suppressor? What about direct-thread, is that even a thing anymore?”
Chances are good that, if you know little about silencers or have stepped away for a few years, that previous sentence sounded like absolute gibberish. However, it’s not something uncommon to hear when you’re around a group who knows their stuff when it comes to mounting a can to the barrel of a firearm.
For better or worse, there are many ways you can attach a suppressor to a firearm. Each one has its pluses and minuses … and those considerations should play an important role when it comes to your decision making.
Direct-Thread Attachment
At one time, the most common method of suppressor attachment was directly threading a can to a barrel. Just like the name suggests, you have a threaded barrel that accepts the female threads of the suppressor you want to attach. If your only exposure to silencers has been through movies and television shows, this is probably the method you have seen on screen.
Barrel threads allow for a direct-thread method of suppressor mounting, but some obscure threads—such as this M96 Swedish Mauser in M25x55—might require an adapter.
However, the thread pattern can vary, depending upon the barrel diameter and caliber of the firearm in question. At one time, it was a potluck among thread patterns, as factory-threaded barrels were a rarity on most firearms from the inception of the National Firearms Act in 1934.
Perhaps the introduction of the AR-15 rifles in 1960, with their ½x28-inch thread pattern, made this more popular as silencer developers pursued military contracts.
The benefits of a direct-thread mounting system allow easy installation and removal via the common threads. Often, with precision type shooting, this is a desirable method, as the silencer indexes on the muzzle in the exact same position every time it’s reattached.
Direct-thread attachment is also usually the cheapest method, as the QD and HUB systems that we’ll look at next feature the added expense of purchasing mounts and adapters that are fairly costly for what they are.
Hand threading a silencer on or off a direct thread mount can be rather time consuming, but it’s a small price to pay.
Drawbacks to the direct-thread method include the threat that the threads can have the potential to strip or cross and become misaligned. This is usually only seen with older machinery cutting the barrel threads at the factory, or by a gunsmith, and the lathe or dies are not completely within specifications.
Another potential issue with this attachment system was that a shooter could place an incorrect caliber silencer on the wrong firearm. Calibers such as .22 LR, 5.56 NATO and 9mm Luger, for example, all share a common thread pattern of ½x28. To their credit, Colt briefly threaded the 9mm versions of the AR-15/M16 in ½x36 to bypass this issue.
The only other issue of concern here can be that some shooters find direct-thread mounting to be time consuming while attaching, depending upon the length of the threads. Some of us like to think of them as a basic—but somewhat universal—solution, depending on the thread pattern and what it fits.
The QD Mount
When suppressors and “modern sporting rifles” made their big comeback in the early 2000s, there was an issue regarding the direct-thread style of attaching a can to a rifle. Many of these rifles had timed flash suppressors or muzzle brakes installed that had to be removed and typically installed again after the silencer was no longer in use. Additionally, many shooters in this niche would move one suppressor around to different rifles that shared the same thread pattern.
A QD device uses coarse threads on the rear of the suppressor, and, in this instance, it engages by means of a ratchet system.
The easiest way to solve this issue was to use a muzzle device that had external threads, so the suppressor would quickly attach to the device threads as opposed to the barrel threads.
These types of silencers would oftentimes use an additional method of retention, such as a ratchet or a latch to secure the silencer, as opposed to just a few coarse threads.
A rather unique solution was developed by Heckler & Koch for use on the MP-5, known as the Tri-Lug. For this mount, the barrel of the MP5 had three fins, or lugs, which allowed a suppressor with a female corresponding part to close over and secure to it, by giving the silencer a quick twist under spring tension. Attachment and detachment could be accomplished in a few seconds. The biggest pitfall to this type of system was regular, ongoing maintenance of the spring.
An unexpected bonus for shooters using the QD mounting system was that certain suppressors of a larger caliber could be used on smaller caliber rifles … if there was a common external size to the mounts. So, a .30-caliber silencer intended for .308 Winchester could be paired with a rifle chambered in 5.56 NATO with common-sized QD mounts. This was a huge value for shooters, who could now move one silencer among a score of different rifles, so long as they invested in that system.
Another worthwhile mention here, particularly if investing in an older model that may be discounted, is to opt for the muzzle brake version of the mount as opposed to a flash hider—especially if the baffles are made of something expensive, like Inconel or titanium—and you’re pairing it to a rifle that shoots full auto or has a short barrel. The brake, being made of steel, will act as a shield to the muzzle blast. This is what’s known as a sacrificial baffle, as it takes the brunt of that initial blast and reduces wear on the first baffle in the can.
The primary issue with any of the QD methods was that there was no uniformity across the board for silencer manufacturers. In certain cases, the mount had as much time and input into development of the mounting system as they did with the silencer itself.
With certain QD mounts, there was the issue of the suppressor not correctly indexing to the same point consistently, especially if it was a ratcheting type. This would often shift the shooter’s point of impact.
Around a decade ago, while working with a major silencer distributor, a question was asked: “Why don’t all these manufacturers just use a common mounting system?” After all, when you’re testing different silencers on different rifles and pistols and the mounts need to be timed or glued in with Rocksett or Loctite with different degrees of torque, it can seem like a large investment of time to change out these systems. This carries over if you’re a dedicated shooter with multiple silencers by different manufacturers.
The answer was, “I don’t think we’ll ever see that in our lifetimes.”
HUB (Hybrid Universal Base)
But, things started to change around 2014.
The HUB adapter makes mounting different silencers very easy … and it’s quickly becoming an industry standard.
That was the year SilencerCo came out with a suppressor known as the Omega 300, built around a base called the Bravo Mount. The Omega 300’s Bravo Mount used a 1.375×24-inch thread pattern. A year later, the company unveiled the Hybrid 46 with the same thread design … and the Hybrid 46 was key to what would happen next.
This HUB Adapter threads onto an existing barrel in ⅝x24, allowing the shooter to mount a can with a compatible HUB endcap.
The Hybrid 46 was the most universal silencer available when it was launched. It could handle almost any rifle caliber, from 5.56 NATO to .308 Winchester—as well as .45-diameter calibers, like .45-70 and .458 SOCCOM. A different base with a piston allowed it to work on centerfire handgun cartridges, too, such as 9mm and .45 ACP. It could be said that the Hybrid 46 not only handled all these different calibers, but it handled them all well.
And this was how the HUB-style mounting system was born. The Hybrid Universal Base (HUB) promotes similar can dimensions and a 1⅜x24-inch thread pattern. Because its capabilities were so prolific, many other suppressor manufacturers were eager to adapt to the system.
Dead Air’s KeyMo adapters allow your host firearm to be equipped with a HUB-compatible suppressor.
The HUB gives shooters the ability to match almost any suppressor to a firearm without being married to any manufacturer for the sake of a $100 mount on every rifle … and then having to change mounts with the purchase of a new silencer. It’s the first true plug-and-play method for most silencers on the market today.
Future Trends
With the acceptance of the HUB and the dominance of direct-thread suppressors, along with the bulk of QD mount-dedicated silencers in the wild, it’s difficult to predict any future advancements, apart from simple improvements on the HUB. If any change might be implemented on a broad scale, it would need to come from firearm manufacturers en masse.
For example, changing barrel threads on rifles from a right-hand pitch to a left-hand pitch might be better as a base-mounting solution, since the adapter would not come loose with the silencer during removal.
The Sierra 5 is one of Dead Air’s finest silencers and can be mounted using HUB or KeyMo.
There’s currently a clip-on design made in Austria, known as the Limex MKD44, designed for the Glock 44 model in .22 LR. This suppressor attaches to the Picatinny rail of the pistol, has a huge internal volume, and seems to be very effective at noise reduction. It could resolve issues with aftermarket thread barrels that might not be concentric. Plus, it could eliminate the need for suppressor-height sights if its development was picked up in the United States by a good manufacturer.
Apart from those potential rumblings, the next stage of can-mounting innovation might possibly have to wait until the time when our laser sights can silently poke holes in things … or we can set phasers to stun.
Editor's Note: This article originally appeared in the 2025 suppressor special issue of Gun Digest the Magazine.
More On Suppressors:
The Suppressor: How They're Made, How They Work, And How To Buy One
We hit the range to test out two Weatherby Model 307 rifles, the Alpine CT and the Adventure SD, to see which one is best.
Roy E. Weatherby started his firearms company in 1945. He was a handloader and rifle shooter, who enjoyed creating his own cartridges. Weatherby built their first rifles on Mauser, Springfield and Winchester actions, and chambered them for high-velocity magnum rifle cartridges Roy developed and championed throughout his lifetime. These and later Weatherby rifles built on the famous Mark V action (1958) were gorgeously stocked with fancy wood and pronounced Monte Carlo combs and grips.
But that was a long time ago, and during the next half-century, things changed. Weatherby still offers the elegant Mark V rifle, but the wants of modern hunters—combined with modern manufacturing techniques—have evolved.
Two of the newest rifles from Weatherby offer a stark comparison of the company’s history. One is a throwback to the type of rifle that made Weatherby famous, while the other is a rendition of what’s currently trending with modern hunters. Weatherby builds both new rifles on a new action they call the Model 307. The number designation is the telephone area code for Sheridan, Wyoming, where Weatherby is now located.
The 307 Action
This 307 is the first new action from Weatherby in a half-century. It consists of a fully cylindrical carbon steel receiver, purposely designed to accommodate the vast array of stocks, triggers, rails, mounts and magazines currently manufactured for compatibility with the Remington 700 action. But even though the 307 action shares this compatibility, it’s not a Remington 700 action. There are several notable differences.
You can buy a Model 307 action from Weatherby and build your own rifle using a wide array of aftermarket stocks.
For starters, the bolt release on the 307 action is located just above the stock line on the left side of the action, and it’s a toggling button. The bolt can also be field stripped without any tools, and in place of the often-criticized Remington extractor, there’s a M16-style extractor. The top of the receiver/action is drilled for scope base installation and utilizes 8×40 screws. All Model 307 rifles come with a TriggerTech trigger, with an extremely short over-travel that’s user adjustable down to 2.5 pounds.
Though the Model 307 Weatherby action is very similar to a Remington Model 700 action, the Model 307 bolt has an M16-style extractor.
Other common features include a two-position safety, threaded muzzles that come with Weatherby’s radially ported Accubrake, and the ability to work with various bottom metals and AICS detachable box magazines. Some Model 307 rifles come from the factory with detachable magazines. Weatherby even offers the 307 action by itself ($749) for those who want to build their own rifle. Currently, Weatherby is offering nine different rifles on the 307 action, and we examined two that were starkly different.
Model 307 Alpine CT
Specs
Length: 43.5 to 48 inches Weight: 6.0 to 6.3 pounds Barrel: 22 inches, plus 2 inches with muzzle brake Action: Weatherby 307 Trigger: TriggerTech Field Trigger Capacity: 2+1, 3+1, or 4+1 depending on chambering Finish: Chocolate Brown Cerakote Stock: Exposed carbon fiber with WYO brown and backpack brushed sponge pattern accents Available Chamberings: .240 WBY MAG, .243 Winchester, .257 WBY MAG, .280 Ackley Improved, .300 WBY MAG, .300 Winchester, .308 Winchester, 6.5 Creedmoor (tested), 6.5 PRC, 6.5 WBY RPM, 6.5-.300 WBY MAG, .300 PRC, 7mm Backcountry, 7mm PRC Price: $2,249
Pros
Very accurate
Modern-style ergonomic stock
Lighter than the Adventure SD
Cons
Comb height and length-of-pull are not adjustable
With its 24-ounce Peak 44 Bastion stock and its BSF 416R stainless-steel, carbon-fiber sleeved and tensioned barrel, the Alpine CT is a perfect example of the type of rifle modern hunters are screaming for.
The reasonably high comb with its negative drop allowed for a good cheek weld with proper eye alignment with the scope, but it also helped mitigate recoil on the face.
The stock’s comb is high, but with a negative drop it manages recoil very comfortably, and the nearly vertical pistol grip is very comfortable when shooting from a support like sandbags or a tripod or bipod. The muzzle is threaded at 5/8×24, and it comes with an Accubrake installed. Barrel length is cartridge dependent and ranges from 20 to 26 inches, with finished rifle weights coming in at between 6 to 6.3 pounds. A TriggerTech adjustable trigger is standard, as is a hinged floor plate.
Though the Model 307 action is compatible with detachable magazines and matching bottom metal, the Alpine CT has a hinged floor plate, which makes it very comfortable to carry the rifle at the balance point.
Unlike many modern precision bolt-action hunting rifles, the Alpine CT doesn’t feed from a detachable magazine. This might be a detractor to some, but it makes carrying the rifle in the field with one hand at the balance point much easier.
The Alpine CT Weatherby 307 rifle was a tack-driver with the Federal Fusion 140-grain load.
This was a very precise shooting rifle that easily met Weatherby’s Model 307 sub-MOA guarantee. I did most of the shooting with the suppressor, because I don’t like muzzle brakes, but the DST brake does have some notable features. It’s a directional brake; it needs to fit the barrel in a certain way, so it comes with a lock ring. The brake is also flat-sided, which makes it easy to remove or install with a wrench.
Model 307 Alpine CT 6.5 CM Shooting Results
LOAD
VEL
SD
ENG
PRECISION
Hornady 120-grain CX Outfitter
2,922
14.1
2,275
1.01
Remington 129-grain Core-Lokt Tipped
2,880
12.2
2,376
1.08
Federal 140-grain Fusion
2,727
17.1
2,312
0.63
AVERAGE: 0.91
NOTES: VEL= average muzzle velocity, SD=standard velocity deviation, ENG= average muzzle energy, PRECISION=average for three, five-shot groups fired from a sandbag rest at 100 yards, using a Swarovski Z8i 2-16x50P riflescope set at maximum magnification.
You could argue that what’s missing from the Alpine CT is length-of-pull and comb-height adjustability. While it’s true both are features appreciated by precision long-range shooters, they add weight to a hunting rifle that’s carried a lot more than it’s shot. Other Weatherby Model 307 rifles do come with some stock adjustability, but they’re all noticeably heavier. For the dedicated backcountry hunter, I think this is the best Model 307 rifle of the bunch.
Model 307 Alpine CT Deals
Sportsman's Warehouse
$2,050
Scheels
$2,100
Model 307 Adventure SD
Specs
Length: 44.25 inches Weight: 7.7 pounds Barrel: 26 inches, plus 2 inches with muzzle brake Action: Weatherby 307 Trigger: TriggerTech Field Trigger Capacity: 3+1 Finish: Graphite Black Cerakote Stock: Fancy walnut with rosewood forend, grip cap and maple diamond inlay Available Chamberings: .240 WBY MAG, .243 Winchester, .257 WBY MAG, .270 WBY MAG, .270 Winchester, .30-06 Springfield, .300 WBY MAG, .308 Winchester, 6.5 Creedmoor, 6.5 PRC, 6.5 WBY RPM, 6.5-300 WBY MAG (tested), 7mm Backcountry, 7mm PRC Price: $1,949
Pros
Very accurate
Classic, attractive aesthetics
Cons
Heavier than the Alpine CT
This rifle is a throwback to the early Weatherby rifles with their distinctly exaggerated and beautifully figured wood stocks. The stock on the Adventure SD is crafted from fancy walnut and a rosewood forend and grip cap, with checkering at the wrist and along the forend. The stock has two traditional sling swivel studs in the common locations, it’s fitted with a thick, red recoil pad and has a hinged floor plate.
All metal surfaces have a graphite black Cerakote finish, and the bolt handle knob is round. Barrel length is cartridge dependent and ranges from 22 to 28 inches, including the Accubrake, which can reduce felt recoil by as much as 53 percent. The barrels have fluting and are slim and trim, with ½x28 threading on the muzzle.
The Model 307 Adventure SD has a round bolt handle, and like all Model 307 rifles, it comes with a TriggerTech trigger and two-position safety.
This rifle performed to perfection and balanced very nicely right between my hands. Admittedly, with its 6.5-300 Weatherby chambering and the muzzle brake installed, it was ear-splitting loud. With a suppressor installed, it was almost as long as a Kentucky rifle. However, it shot very well in both configurations from the bench and field positions.
The Weatherby Adventure AD in 6.5-300 Weatherby Magnum shot the Weatherby factory 130-grain Swift Scirocco load very well.
Model 307 Adventure SD 6.5-300 WBY Mag. Shooting Results
LOAD
VEL
SD
ENG
PRECISION
Weatherby 127-grain Barnes LRX
3,459
11.6
3,374
1.35
Weatherby 130-grain Swift Scirocco
3,477
12.5
3,221
0.95
AVERAGE: 1.15
NOTES: VEL=average muzzle velocity, SD=standard velocity deviation, ENG=average muzzle energy and PRECISION=average for three, five-shot groups fired from a sandbag rest at 100 yards, using a Swarovski Z8i 2-16x50P riflescope set at maximum magnification.
A brand-new Weatherby Mark V has a suggested retail price of $2,749. It’ll transport you back to the 1960s when that rifle was what established the Weatherby brand. Granted, the Adventure SD might not be quite as elegant as a Mark V, but, without question, it’s a great shooting, head-turning, gorgeous rendition of the classic Weatherby rifle. I appreciate the use of carbon fiber in modern rifle stocks and barrels, and the weight reduction aspect it brings. But it’s difficult to hold and shoot a rifle like the Adventure SD and not imagine carrying it on a once-in-a-lifetime adventure for a Rocky Mountain elk or on an African safari.
Model 307 Adventure SD Deals
Sportsman's Warehouse
$ 1,676
Guns.com
$1,591
Picking a Winner
It’s difficult to compare two rifles that are so different when trying to select which one might be best. Left to shooting performance, the Alpine CT edged out the Adventure SD from the bench. However, just as the Adventure SD looks like a classic Weatherby rifle, it was chambered for a high-performance magnum cartridge. The Adventure SD shot well from the bench too, but its magnum recoil couldn’t be ignored. Had it also been a 6.5 Creedmoor, the results might’ve been closer.
As for field shooting, which matters more when it comes to a hunting rifle? I shot more consistently with better balanced Adventure SD from unsupported positions. However, when shooting from a tripod and a bipod, I found the Alpine CT more manageable.
I think what’s more important than which rifle might be the “best” is that Weatherby is now offering a very diverse collection of rifles on a new action, and that you can expect them all to shoot very well. In the end, the question mostly comes down to whether you want a rifle that looks like it just crawled out of the 1960s or if you want a very evolved and modern bolt-action hunting rifle.
I’m a bit torn, but I think I’d have to go with the retro rifle, because there are just too few examples of great shooting rifles like this to choose from these days.
Editor's Note: This article originally appeared in the May 2025 issue of Gun Digest the Magazine.
If you’ve been shooting for a few years, it’s time to get your blood lead levels checked.
I first met Tom in 2011 at the MGM Ironman 3-gun match, a legendary, high round count blast fest in the Idaho desert. We bullshitted between stages, hit it off, and the bromance continues to this day. At the time, he’d just returned from a deployment, and was 230 pounds of tattoos and hate, the archetypal Special Forces senior NCO who’d been blown up twice and shot once, recovering and returning to duty each time.
Evidently, the only thing that could kill Tom … was Tom.
Fast-forward a couple of years and we ran into each other at some firearms industry event or other. He’d lost 60 pounds and was moving like a 90-year-old-man. “What’s wrong with you, dude?” I asked. “That’s the trouble,” he replied. “No one knows.”
If you’ve ever seen someone waste away in front of your eyes, you know what a punch to the gut it can be, and I was pretty sure I was going to be shopping for a new dark suit and black tie in the next couple of months.
Fortunately, at that same Idaho 3-gun match was EJ Redding, who became part of the Tom circle. EJ is a force of nature, a grizzly bear of a man who’s a Montana potato farmer for most of the year, and a state lobbyist in the offseason. Knowing people who have the ear of politicians is occasionally a good thing, and EJ interceded on Tom’s behalf, getting a tame senator to lean on the VA, who wound up sending him to the Mayo Clinic in Cleveland.
It turned out that Tom was dying of heavy metal poisoning. Whether it was through years of running suppressed Mk18s in shoot houses or through exposure on target sites in sandy places, his levels of lead and other heavy metals were off the charts.
It turns out, among shooters, it’s not as uncommon as you’d think.
It’s Seemingly Everywhere
Lead is used in many industries, and while levels of lead contamination in the United States have come way down in the past 50 years, there’s still a risk of encountering contamination outside of the range. Since its use as an anti-knock agent in gasoline was discontinued in 1996, the biggest source of lead compounds in the environment has been removed.
And one upside to being one of the most widely distributed and longest-used poisons is that we have a pretty good handle on symptoms and treatments. Or at least we used to. Because the average citizen nowadays has such limited lead exposure, testing for heavy metals is usually not included in annual physicals … and the medical community has lost the tribal knowledge we used to have regarding heavy metal poisoning.
Unfortunately, symptoms can be varied, diverse and shared with many other causes, which can make diagnosis more difficult, especially if a physician lacks experience in dealing with heavy metals. Chronic lead exposure can lead to fatigue, problems with sleep, headaches and anemia, as well as a lack of concentration, depression, nausea, abdominal pain, lack of appetite, loss of coordination and numbness and tingling in the hands and feet.
Lead concentration is measured in micrograms per deciliter of blood. An ideal concentration would be zero, but the CDC has set the bar for a concerning blood lead level at 10ug/dl—above this and you should get treatment. Most symptoms usually start at around 40ug/dl, and things get worse from there.
Heavy Metal Sources in Ammo
In its solid, metallic form, the risk posed by lead is negligible, unless you’re dumb enough to swallow it. It’s only when it reacts with other elements to form soluble lead salts that it becomes a problem, as these can then enter the bloodstream.
Hydrochloric acid in your stomach will react with metallic lead to produce lead hydrochloride, so make sure you take the usual precautions to minimize exposure when visiting the range. Don’t eat or smoke until you’ve thoroughly washed your hands, and if you’ve spent all day on an indoor range, at least change your outer clothes before returning home. Lead dust will be present on your clothing, and you’ll be exposing your family to it when you walk in the door.
Thirty-five to 40 percent of inhaled lead dust will be deposited in the tiny air sacs of your lungs, with the remainder being exhaled. Of that amount, 95 percent will be absorbed into the bloodstream, and 15 percent of that will be deposited in your bones and organs.
Lead salts are commonly used as priming compounds and hence are present in the propellant gases created every time you press the trigger. If you shoot suppressed, you’re going to be exposed to more gas than uncivilized heathens, so if your eyes are watering after sending a few rounds downrange from your favorite AR, it might be time to think about a better charging handle and an adjustable gas block. Or switching to a piston gun.
Diagnosis And Treatment
So, what do you do if you think you might have been exposed to heavy metals? Get tested, right?
Not so fast.
If you go to your primary care provider and ask them to refer you to be tested, it’s almost a certainty that they’ll sign you up for a regular workplace-type testing protocol, which measures the levels of toxins in your bloodstream.
Once lead gets into your system, it takes some serious doctor-assisted effort to get it out.
“Normal blood level testing for chronic exposure to heavy metals is next to useless,” explained Dr. Yu-Ree Hyun, a naturopathic doctor in Scottsdale, Arizona. “Because your body can’t process and excrete heavy metals very well, they end up being stored in bone, organs and fat tissues. In order to test with any degree of accuracy, you have to knock them out of the tissues and into the bloodstream—we use the same procedure for treatment.”
As this graph indicates, the author’s lead levels are off the charts, due in large part to a lifetime of shooting.
Chelation therapy is a process whereby chemicals are introduced to the body that bind to lead and other heavy metals to form stable compounds, which can then be processed and excreted through either urine or feces. Usually administered through a series of intravenous infusions, it’s similar to chemotherapy in cancer patients and can take the same amount of time, with comparable side effects. In milder cases, oral chelators can be taken. Yes, you’re going to feel like sh!t for the duration of treatment, but it’s better than long-term illness or death.
Tom wound up undergoing chelation therapy for almost 2 years, after testing showed blood lead levels of 3300ug, as well as concentrations of barium, antimony, mercury, thallium and tin, which should have killed a normal human. He has follow-up treatments every 6 months but is back to picking up 500 pounds off the floor and spends the best part of his retirement with his two young kids, teaching them outdoor and survival skills, taking them to wrestling and Brazilian jiu-jitsu classes, and, yes, shooting.
In case you were wondering about the meaning of the headline of this article, R53.83, it’s the IDC-10 Diagnosis Code for the heavy metal challenge test. Your physician is probably unaware of it; share it with them and ask to be tested. Unless you take agency for your own health, you’re not going to find out if you’re being poisoned by the activity you love.
Editor's Note: This article originally appeared in the 2025 suppressor special issue of Gun Digest the Magazine.
If you want to find the best 5.56 NATO suppressor, you need a lot of ammo, cameras, and a few people willing to risk bodily harm. RECOIL has all of that and more, and put it to good use testing a host of suppressors at CANCON South Carolina 2024!
When you’re not at home, how do Stand Your Ground laws impact your ability to legally defend yourself?
Following last month’s exploration of Castle Doctrine, which examined the right to defend yourself within the sanctity of your home, let’s explore its broader and more controversial counterpart: Stand Your Ground.
Understanding the Foundation
Castle Doctrine provides a clear foundation for self-defense within one’s home. It removes the obligation to retreat when facing a threat inside your home. But what happens when that threat arises outside your home? This is where Stand Your Ground comes into play.
Stand Your Ground laws reinforce the recognition of the right to self-defense to any place where a person is lawfully present. Under these laws, a person has no duty to retreat before using force—even deadly force—if they reasonably believe it’s necessary to prevent the imminent threat of death or grave bodily harm. Unlike Castle Doctrine, which is limited to the home, Stand Your Ground allows individuals to defend themselves in public spaces without first attempting to retreat.
The Legal Framework
The concept of Stand Your Ground isn’t new, as many media outlets often portray. States like Indiana have had some version of Stand Your Ground since at least the late 1800s. In the 1877 case of Runyan v. State, the Indiana Supreme Court opined that, “The weight of modern authority, in our judgment, establishes the doctrine, that, when a person, being without fault and in a place where he has a right to be, is violently assaulted, he may, without retreating, repel force by force …”
Today, over 30 states have adopted some form of Stand Your Ground. Florida’s statute is among the most well-known. It states that a person who is justified in using or threatening to use deadly force “does not have a duty to retreat and has the right to stand his or her ground if the person using or threatening to use the deadly force is not engaged in a criminal activity and is in a place where he or she has a right to be.”
Indiana’s law similarly affirms that a person has no duty to retreat if they reasonably believe that force is necessary to prevent serious bodily injury or a forcible felony. Though, Indiana law does not explicitly use the “Stand Your Ground” terminology.
The Zimmerman Trial and Media Misunderstanding
Despite its long-standing presence in American legal tradition, Stand Your Ground became a media flashpoint during the 2012 trial of George Zimmerman for the shooting of Trayvon Martin. Many media outlets framed the case as a test of Florida’s Stand Your Ground law. However, Zimmerman’s defense wasn’t based on Stand Your Ground but on traditional self-defense principles.
Zimmerman claimed that Martin attacked him and pinned him to the ground, preventing any possibility of retreat. Since Stand Your Ground only applies when retreat is possible, it was legally irrelevant in that case. Nevertheless, the media portrayal of Stand Your Ground as a “license to kill” persisted, fueling heated political and racial debate.
The Racial Narrative and Statistical Reality
A common criticism of Stand Your Ground is that it disproportionately benefits White defendants and harms minority victims. However, data from the Tampa Bay Times and the Crime Prevention Research Center challenge this assumption.
In Florida, Black defendants make up 34 percent of those who invoke Stand Your Ground, even though they account for only 16.7 percent of the state’s population. Furthermore, Black defendants invoking Stand Your Ground are acquitted at a higher rate (by 4 percentage points) than defendants. Most cases where a Black defendant successfully invoked Stand Your Ground involved the killing of another Black person.
This data calls into question the racial narrative and suggests that Stand Your Ground isn’t inherently biased—it provides legal protection to anyone, regardless of race, who faces an imminent threat of violence.
Stand Your Ground Legal Protections and Limits
Stand Your Ground, like Castle Doctrine, isn’t an open-ended justification for the use of force. For a claim of self-defense under Stand Your Ground to succeed, the following conditions must typically be met:
The person using force must be lawfully present.
The person must not be the initial aggressor.
The use of force must be reasonable and proportional to the threat faced.
The threat must be immediate and unlawful.
If any of these elements are missing, a Stand Your Ground defense will likely fail.
The Philosophical Debate
While Castle Doctrine is broadly accepted as reasonable, Stand Your Ground is more controversial because it recognizes the right to self-defense in public spaces. Critics argue that it escalates violence and undermines public safety. Supporters counter that it empowers potential victims by not placing the burden on them to retreat, allowing individuals to protect themselves without fear of legal repercussions for failing to escape an attack.
The value of Stand Your Ground is that it reduces the ability of overzealous prosecutors from second-guessing split-second decisions made under life-or-death pressure, and it relieves the innocent potential victim of the burden of attempting to retreat. Jurors, sitting in the calm of a courtroom, might wonder why a defendant didn’t flee. Stand Your Ground removes that element of hindsight, allowing individuals to defend themselves without being punished for failing to find an escape route.
Balancing Freedom and Responsibility
Stand Your Ground is a natural extension of Castle Doctrine, reinforcing the right to self-defense beyond the home. The principle reflects a fundamental belief in personal responsibility and individual autonomy, but it also demands that those who invoke it act reasonably and in accordance with the law.
Understanding these laws and their limitations is crucial for responsible self-defense. The right to protect yourself is fundamental, but with that right comes the responsibility to use force wisely and within the bounds of the law.
Stand Your Ground isn’t a license to kill. It’s a legal safeguard that allows individuals to defend themselves without the obligation to retreat—but only when the circumstances justify it. Like any tool of personal liberty, it must be wielded with care, understanding and respect for the law. Finally, even when the law doesn’t mandate retreat, it’s crucial to remember that the best course of action is to avoid a potentially fatal confrontation whenever it’s possible to do so without endangering yourself.
Editor's Note: This article originally appeared in the May 2025 issue of Gun Digest the Magazine.
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