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Welcome to CANCON A Fully Suppressed RECOIL Range Day!
Save the date and make your plans to come down on Veterans Day weekend, Nov. 11-13 to the 17 South Rod and Gun Club in Savannah, Georgia.
Hundreds of the newest and best suppressors, firearms, and optics will be on the firing line for you to get hands-on trigger time.
All ammo will be provided, just bring your trigger finger!
Veterans get in FREE Friday, so come spend your Veterans Day weekend with us at CANCON!
SATURDAY NIGHT VIPs will have the opportunity to shoot suppressed with night vision goggles, clip-on night vision optics, IR lasers, tracers, and more.
CANCON will even have activities for kids, making this a completely family-friendly event.
Expect to see hundreds of firearms and suppressors, every one of them available to shoot. Don’t forget your eyes and ears for safety!
Not every day you get to shoot cool stuff like this!
Great food will be available on-site for when you need to recharge between shooting bays.
More information and ticket pre-sales coming soon!
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Designed Machined and assembled in Leupold Optic's Oregon factory, the Mark 5HD scope keeps the company roots firmly planted in its home.
Crafted to redefine accuracy, precision, and optical performance for long-range shooters, Leupold’s award-winning Mark 5HD is a testament to domestic manufacturing. It’s proudly designed, machined, and assembled in the company’s Beaverton, Oregon factory, where Leupold employs over 650 hardworking Americans.
In designing the Mark 5HD line, Leupold’s product specialists asked elite shooters what they needed to put accurate fire downrange faster, and used that input to design a riflescope that provides all the tools necessary — in both quality and features — without the unnecessary extras that add weight and cost for consumers. Combining relentless optical performance, rugged reliability, and user-friendly features in a package that could only be produced by leveraging the 70-plus years of optics manufacturing Leupold possesses, the Mark 5HD has wowed end-users throughout the industry.
Be sure to enter our American Made giveaway, with great gear from great American companies. Click the tab at the bottom right of page to enter.
Pick up a Mark 5HD and you’ll feel the difference; it’s up to 20 ounces lighter than other scopes in its class. Get behind one and you’ll see the difference, from its superior edge-to-edge clarity to its extreme low-light performance. With three revolutions of elevation adjustment, the Mark 5HD was built to max out the performance of the latest long-range rifles and ammo.
The heart of the Mark 5HD is in its ZeroLock adjustments, which provide precise, repeatable tracking with a dead-on return to zero. The M5C3 elevation dial delivers over 30-mils of adjustment in three turns. Visual and tactile revolution indicators are in place to ensure you don’t get lost in the travel, and the auto-lock at zero eliminates the risk of accidentally moving the dial. The windage adjustment is capped and the zero indicator mark has been relocated on the riflescope’s main tube so you can see it without moving your head off the stock of the rifle.
In short, it’s the most dominant long-range, precision riflescope on the market. Best yet, it’s backed by Leupold’s legendary lifetime guarantee, which guarantees performance where other companies warranty failure.
For more information on Leupold Optics, please visit leupold.com.
Top-tier, battle-proven products, Radian Weapons turns out rifles and accessories in which you can trust your life.
At Radian Weapons, we think American gun companies should make or source their parts from right here in the USA. That’s why 100-percent of the firearms products we sell are manufactured in America, by Americans.
We machine the majority of our rifle and accessory components in Redmond, Oregon, using state of the art CNC equipment. At Radian, we’ve prioritized vertical integration of our manufacturing processes over product development to ensure that whenever we deliver goods to the consumer, it’s of the highest quality and reliability standards.
Be sure to enter our American Made giveaway, with great gear from great American companies. Click the tab at the bottom right of page to enter.
The temptation in most industries is to rush new products to market. At Radian, we actively choose not to release “me too” products or rely on sourcing major components for new products from third party vendors. This helps protect our brand integrity, and hopefully gives consumers peace of mind when they purchase Radian products.
Our flagship products are the Model 1 rifle and related receiver sets, Talon ambidextrous safeties, and Raptor charging handles. Featured here:
MODEL 1 – 17.5-INCH 223 WYLDE
Clandestine Desert™ Cerakote Finish (Cerakoted by our finishing business, High Desert Coatings—www.highdesertcoatings.com)
RAPTOR CHARGING HANDLE FOR A15/M4
The original all-billet design with Cerakoted FDE handles.
TALON 45/90 AMBIDEXTROUS SAFETY
The screwless safety design ensures your levers won’t come loose and gives you two throw degree options to choose from. Finished with FDE Cerakote.
Buy with confidence, as all Radian products are backed with a limited lifetime warranty against manufacturer defects.
For more information on Radian Weapons, please visit radianweapons.com.
Best known for body armor, Blue Force Gear also offers the everyday carry essential Micro Trauma Kit.
The Micro Trauma Kit NOW!, or Micro TKN, is our smallest version of the Trauma Kit NOW! yet. It was designed to hold essential lifesaving gear with minimal size in mind. The Micro TKNTM is designed to be worn horizontally with minimal bulk—perfect for everyday carry, for law enforcement professionals, prepared citizens, or in low-profile mission sets. The inner carrier can be deployed with one hand or one finger from either the left or right side by pulling the BLIP featured pull tabs. The Micro TKN consists of two main components – the outer MOLLE or Belt mounted pouch utilizing the Ten-Speed® technology, and a removable insert that keeps medical supplies organized.
Be sure to enter our American Made giveaway, with great gear from great American companies. Click the tab at the bottom right of page to enter.
Supplies
Hemostatic dressing for wound packing/clotting (1 included)
4” Emergency Trauma Dressing (1 included)
9” Medical Grade Easy Tape (6 included)
Tourni-Kwik Compression Tourniquet (1 included)
Heavy Duty Medical Gloves (1 pair of Large sized gloves)
For more information on Blue Force Gear, please visit blueforcegear.com.
Unrelenting in design and execution, the new Berger Bullets Long Range Hybrid Target bullets are engineered for hair-splitting accuracy.
Berger’s new Long Range Hybrid Target bullets™ (LRHT) are 100% Made in the USA and feature a high Ballistic Coefficient (BC), jump-tolerant ogive profile that is Doppler verified with less than 1-percent BC variation.
Long-range target shooters and extreme accuracy enthusiasts endlessly seek a competitive advantage, using sophisticated ballistic solvers, custom drag models, complex optics, and twist-rate calculators, among others. All of these tools are rendered meaningless if the projectile exiting their favorite target, hunting, or Mil/LE tactical rifle is inconsistent and unpredictable. Using advanced proprietary manufacturing processes, Berger’s innovative Meplat Reduction Technology™ (MRT) applies controlled pressure along the nose of each LRHT bullet, producing a homogeneous and repeatable profile for the industry’s most consistent BCs. While a high BC is desirable, shot-to-shot BC consistency is most critical when engaging targets at 1,000 yards and beyond. When you absolutely need to maximize hit probability, never settle for a bullet other than Berger.
Be sure to enter our American Made giveaway, with great gear from great American companies. Click the tab at the bottom right of page to enter.
The story behind the construction of Berger Bullets is simple. We start with virgin copper and lead wire products with the tightest specifications. Then, we manufacture our own signature J4 Berger bullet jackets to unmatched tolerances of less than 0.0003 inches of total indicated runout. What does this mean? A better bullet begins with a concentric jacket! Lastly, we merge the materials into finished projectiles — all within the confines of our Mesa, Arizona manufacturing facility.
Berger Bullets are highly sought after by the leading shooters in the world’s most demanding competitive shooting disciplines, such as PRS, F-Class, Fullbore, long range, and ELR to name a few. New Long Range Hybrid Target bullets are available in .22 caliber, 6mm, 6.5mm, 7mm, and .30 caliber offerings.
New for NRA Show is our line of LRHT Ammunition offerings in 6mm Creedmoor, 6.5 Creedmoor, and 300 Norma Magnum.
For more information on Berger Bullets, please visit bergerbullets.com.
Improving the safety, performance and comfort of soldiers and safety professionals, Oakley Standard Issue has become a trusted first line of defense.
For over 20 years, Oakley Standard Issue has manufactured all ballistic products at their factory in Foothill Ranch, California. Products are designed, materials are sourced, and products are tested right here in America.
The Oakley SI Ballistic M Frame Alpha is our latest flagship product. Alpha is an eco-system; the product contains a frame, goggle, and helo-gasket with a lens interchangeable between all three. No matter the mission, the user can configure the product to his or her needs. Range work, close quarters battle, mobility, and even freefall are many of the environments applicable. Oakley Prizm Technology within the lens brings high contrast and definition. Specifically, Prizm Shooting was developed with the Army Marksmanship Unit and gives greater clarity to targets in different light conditions.
Designed with extensive input from our military and first responder community, Alpha is now authorized for wear on the Special Operations Eyewear Program (SOEP). SOEP, regarded as the highest standard for protective eyewear, certifies that all components are made in the USA and offer the highest level of protection. Available in multiple lens and frame color configurations.
Oakley Standard Issue was formally established in 2000. Committed to serving our military and first responders, Oakley SI offers exclusive pricing for products for active-duty military, government, first responders, and veterans.
A passionate gun parts and accessories company, Overwatch Precision has the kit to make you pistol run like a top.
The OP TAC Trigger System is a patent-pending seven-piece upgrade for your Smith & Wesson MP 2.0 that reduces total travel and pre-travel by 50 percent. Engineered by us from the ground up, this kit provides the unmatched performance you have come to expect from all OP products.
Through state-of-the-art manufacturing techniques, our trigger bar is held to industry-leading tolerances using a progressive die manufacturing process, a metal forming technique used in aerospace manufacturing that guarantees the most consistent performance and highest quality parts. This process, coupled with a space-age NP3 coating, provides the end user with the highest quality trigger bar ever offered.
TAC Trigger
Our proven TAC trigger is both functional and aesthetically pleasing, with features immediately identifiable as Overwatch Precision’s intellectual property. The overall design has been the go-to for Glock pistols since we released it in 2016, and its overall shape and function have been refined to excel in this new platform. With pre-travel reduction and a flat face, this self-correcting contact point aids in a linear rearward pull and increases accuracy. The indexing lip helps the shooter consistently place their finger on the trigger in the exact same spot every time, helping muscle memory and overall consistency.
The Sear
At the heart of this system is our NP3 coated sear. With a proprietary sear angle and large radius, this sear allows for a light and consistent break that can be tuned to the shooter’s preference with the two trigger return springs provided.
The Plunger
This product has a proprietary radius that replaces the OEM chamfer and creates a measurable “hump” in the trigger pull. This Swiss CNC’d part, coupled with NP3, creates a smooth pull to the wall. The plunger spring provides constancy and safe operation of this part, as intended by S&W.
The Trigger Springs
We offer two different trigger return springs with this kit. Standing by our ethos of serious-use defensive weapon components, we include a 4.5-pound return spring for duty or carry use for a dependable, predictable break. With the growth of USPSA popularity and participation in and amongst firearm enthusiasts, we also offer a 3.2-pound spring. Please note, this spring is not suitable for carry.
North Carolina based G-Code produces solutions for ever gun and tactical carry situation under the sun.
At G-Code, we don’t have a flagship product; what we have is a flagship philosophy and an unyielding commitment to excellence in everything we do. We don’t see ourselves as a company of products — we’re far more than that. G-Code is a solutions company.
Our purpose has always been to solve problems for our customers. We do this with design and innovation, and although our efforts manifest in products, we never sit back and feel like “we have arrived.”
Be sure to enter our American Made giveaway, with great gear from great American companies. Click the tab at the bottom right of page to enter.
Likewise, execution in our workmanship is paramount in its importance to us and to our customers. Our fit, finish, and function must always be unquestionably second to none.
To this end, G-Code products have always been, and will always be, 100-percent American made using only U.S.-sourced raw materials and components. At G-Code, we count it our privilege to provide tactical carry solutions to the men and women who serve in our military, law enforcement, and the civilian concealed carry communities.
This is why when you buy G-Code, you buy American, you buy quality … because we simply will not sell anything else!
The bipod has long been a tool used by shooters to obtain a more steady firing position in the field or on the range. However, in its many years of use, the fundamental design and function of a lot of traditional “stiff” bipods have not changed all that much.
Swagger Bipods, a Nebraska-based manufacturer, has developed a couple of bipods that offer the shooter a ton of flexibility and functionality, all while remaining incredibly lightweight. Using what the company calls Crazy Legs Technology, these bipods afford the shooter a wide array of shooting positions. The flexible, hyper-extending Crazy Legs are shock-corded and are easily adjustable with a simple twist motion.
Gun Digest Editor in Chief Eric Conn had the opportunity to experiment with a Swagger bipod this winter while sighting in for an upcoming predator hunt and came away very impressed with the bipod's flexibility and ease of use.
For more information on these great shooting aids, check out the video above, or visit the Swagger Bipods website.
Charter Arms has just launched the Boomer series, snub-nosed revolvers that feature ported barrels.
Ported barrels are a very hot trend for carry pistols at the moment, and Charter Arms figured, why not give the same treatment to their revolvers? The result is the new Boomer series.
Based on Charter Arms’ Bulldog line, the Boomer revolvers feature 2-inch extruded 416 stainless steel barrels with twin vertical ports for reduced muzzle flip, trenched rear sighting systems and concealed hammers. The lack of a traditional front sight or hammer should really help facilitate a snag-free draw, but you’re probably not going to win any bullseye matches with it. Let’s be real though, this is a belly gun. The Boomer revolvers are being offered in 9mm, .38 Special, .357 Magnum and .44 Magnum, and each of those are available with either a stainless steel or black passivate finish. All versions ship with a black rubber grip.
Nick Ecker, Owner, President and CEO of Charter Arms, said this about the new series:
We couldn't be happier to offer this updated version of our hugely successful Boomer Revolver … Customers have praised its concealability, accuracy, and design. This new series offers the ultimate in defensive revolvers.
Charter Arms' new Boomer revolvers have MSRPs that range between $451 and $545 depending on the model.
Bullet setback is more common than you think, and it’s dangerous. Here discuss how to deal with it and why you should carry an EDC knife.
When it comes to everyday carry, most of the discussion swirls around guns, holsters, ammunition and training. Sometimes we get so caught up with these topics that we overlook the little things, and as it has often been said, the devil is in the details.
Here are some EDC considerations concerning ammunition, along with an introduction to a knife that’s just too good not to mention.
Carry Ammo Replacement
Police departments usually mandate the replacement of carry/duty ammo at least once per year. Some do it twice a year, each time they qualify. This is a great time to replace carry/duty ammo because it can shoot during qualification, providing another opportunity to verify the reliability of that ammo with duty handguns.
You should be doing something similar.
Don’t overlook the importance of an EDC knife and the routine replacement of your carry ammo.
Ammunition is very resilient and can last for decades if stored and cared for properly. When I was working the street, an elderly lady gave me a 1911 magazine loaded with .45 Auto ammo she’d found in a dresser drawer. She said her deceased husband had brought it back from World War II. I took it to the range and shot it, and it worked just fine, so why all the fuss about replacing carry ammo?
Over time, especially with exposure to wide temperature swings, gun lubrication and even perspiration, brass cartridge cases can corrode and that corrosion can impact reliability. (This is one reason most carry loads utilize nickel-plated cases.) Also, moisture and sweat could possibly cause primer and powder degradation.
For less than $100, you can replace all your carry ammo at least once each year and find a little peace of mind. However, you might need to replace your carry ammo more frequently if you unload your defensive pistol often.
Bullet Setback
When a cartridge is chambered in a pistol, the force of the bullet impacting the feed ramp can sometimes push the bullet deeper into the case. This is called bullet setback, and it can be dangerous.
In the 1990s, bullet setback in the .40 S&W cartridge was common due to repetitive chambering. Bullet setback has clearly occurred in the .40 S&W cartridge on the right.
In the mid-1990s, when the .40 S&W was becoming the law enforcement cartridge of choice, there were a rash of incidents where Glock pistols went kablooey during firearms qualification. It was discovered that those officers had been unloading their pistols at the end of each shift and then rechambering the same cartridge before the next shift. This created bullet setback, which substantially raised pressure. It’s estimated that 0.10 inch of bullet setback in the .40 Smith & Wesson can cause pressures to double.
To avoid this, some shooters will move the round they take out of the chamber to the bottom of the magazine. It’s rare that a single chambering can cause bullet setback with high-quality ammo, but for those unloading and reloading all the time, that round at the bottom of the magazine will eventually make it to the top and be rechambered again.
You could mark each unchambered cartridge with a permanent marker so you’ll know when it resurfaces, or you could just toss it and replace it with a new one. (My carry guns remain loaded all the time, and in the event I do need to unload, I mark the cartridge and move it to the bottom of the magazine.)
If you throw away cartridges you’ve unchambered, you are essentially replacing your ammo—one round at a time, so annual or semi-annual ammo replacement is not necessary. The downside is that you do not get to shoot that ammo. If you mark each round when you unchamber it, eventually you’ll have marked all the ammo in your gun and extra magazines. Then, you can shoot it up—checking for reliability—and replace it. Most modern ammo is resilient enough to be chambered in a pistol twice without experiencing bullet setback.
Giant Mouse ACE Elmer
No, this column is not about knives; it’s about defensive handguns. But a knife should be a part of your everyday carry just as much as a handgun, because you could end up in a hand-to-hand self-defense situation where you’ve lost your gun or your gun doesn’t work. (Maybe it stopped working because of corroded ammo or bullet setback.)
The Giant Mouse ACE Elmer is a great self-defense knife for everyday carry.
There are several considerations for an EDC knife. It should be atom-splitting sharp, light, compact and unobtrusive to carry, and it should either be a fixed blade or a folder that you can open to a lock with one hand.
I rely on other Giant Mouse blades for hunting, general-purpose cutting and survival/bushcraft-type chores, so I was excited to see their newest EDC knife. It’s built for Giant Mouse by ProTech, and like all the Giant Mouse ACE series knives, it’s made with premium materials. It’s called the “Elmer,” and while this might seem like an odd name for a knife, it won’t be after you hear the story.
The genesis of this knife is a man named Elmer. Elmer served in the 36th Texas Infantry Division during WWII. He survived five major invasions, beginning in the desert chasing Rommel and ending up in Berlin rubble. He returned home and carried on, the way so many like him did. This knife is cool and confident, and more deliberate than decorative, and it honors a great American.
The Elmer is an automatic knife with a single push button for opening and unlocking. It has a CPM MagnaCut stonewashed and slightly upswept 3.2-inch blade that’s 0.107-inch thick and has a Rockwell hardness of 62. The handles are either blue or black aluminum with a milled titanium pocket clip for right side, tip-up carry, and it weighs 3.2 ounces. The action is fast, the lockup is positive, and out of the box you can shave with it.
But this blade is better suited to tendon cutting or bicep-splitting action, and in a pinch, it’ll peel an apple or pick a splinter, too. It rides comfortably in your pocket and is lightning fast to deploy. If you want one, you best make your move now: The Giant Mouse ACE Elmer is a limited edition and retails for $365.
Editor's Note: This article originally appeared in the March 2026 issue of Gun Digest the Magazine.
BLADE Show Texas will kick off the ’26 show slate in style.
Knives and knifemakers planetwide and most everything else keen, utilitarian and covetable will inundate the 5th Annual BLADE Show Texas March 20-21 in the Fort Worth Convention Center.
The show will host over 400 exhibitors and thousands of knives from such countries as Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, Italy, Russia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden and elsewhere, not to mention top American custom knifemakers, ABS master and journeyman smiths and knifemaking members of the Knifemakers’ Guild; the lion’s share of members of the South Texas Slipjoint Cartel; the BLADE Show Texas custom and factory knife judging awards; and some of the world’s leading factory knife companies, including current and past winners of BLADE Magazine Knife-Of-The-Year® Awards.
Get ready for some Texas steel set on sizzle.
The Fort Worth Convention Center will be crawling with cutters, with gobs of custom and factory knives—from low end to high end, stock removal to forged, fixed blade to folder—tomahawks, swords, sharpeners and more. And if the exhibiting makers don’t have what you want, the exhibiting custom knife purveyors and factory retailers probably will—and if they don’t, they can put you in touch with who does.
For knife hobbyists and novice and veteran makers alike, the show’s comprehensive selection of knifemaking supplies and suppliers will have the materials, tools and equipment to make the knife of your dreams. From the latest steels, handle materials, hardware and sheath materials to most every knife part extant, the show’s suppliers should have it.
Knife Awards
Zero Tolerance will be among the top factory exhibitors featuring the sleekest folders and fixed blades. ZT’s ultra-lightweight (1.9 ounce) 0117 Duralock folder in CPM MagnaCut stainless
steel and carbon fiber will be among them.
Country of origin: USA. MSRP: $300.
The knife judging competitions will recognize the best of the show’s custom and factory knives that are entered. The custom award categories, with last year’s winners in parentheses: Best in Show (Dionatam Franco); Best Bowie (David Lisch); Best Fighter (Dionatam Franco); Best Damascus (Pedro Fornari); Best Hunting Knife (Josh Fisher); Best Folding Knife (Tom Overeynder); Best Kitchen Knife (a Luke Dellmyer/Richard Patterson collaboration); Best M.A.C.K. (Jared Oeser); Best EDC (Evan Nicolaides); Best Art Knife (Paul DiStefano); Best of the Rest (Josh Taylor); and Best Slipjoint (Evan Nicolaides).
The factory award categories, with last year’s winners in parentheses: Best in Show (Poikiloblade); Best EDC (Dauntless Manufacturing); Best American Made (Dauntless Manufacturing); Best Imported (Poikiloblade); Best Fixed Blade (QSP); Best Folder (a Pro-Tech/Vero Engineering collaboration); and Best of the Rest (Vero Engineering). The custom and factory knife judging is reserved exclusively for show exhibitors, all of whom received packets with complete details on category descriptions, judging rules and more prior to checking into the show.
What's Next
World-class South African knifemaker Bertie Rietveld (left) returns to help headline the international contingent of knifemakers.
BLADE Show Texas will be the first of three BLADE-Show-sponsored events for 2026, the other two being the grandaddy of them all, the 45th Annual BLADE Show June 5-7 at the newly named Cobb Convention Centre-Atlanta (formerly the Cobb Galleria Centre), and BLADE Show West 2026 at the Salt Palace Convention Center Oct. 9-10 in Salt Lake City, Utah.
CANCON East is back in the Carolinas for another year!
Welcome to CANCON A Fully Suppressed Range Day! The World’s Favorite Suppressed Shooting Festival!
CANCON is back again on the East Coast: Clinton, South Carolina. Join us at The Clinton House, May 8th-9th, 2026 for an action-packed weekend of fully suppressed shooting!
The Clinton House Plantation Shooting Complex is a massive venue and gives CANCON the room we need to expand! Located just 45 minutes south of Greenville, South Carolina, 1 hour north of Columbia, and 2 hours southwest of Charlotte, NC.
More space means more shooting lanes and more sponsors! Find more guns to shoot, more suppressors to test, all for one low ticket price!
Get on the 1,000-yard and 1-mile range and send some lead way, way down range!
Clinton House has tons of FREE onsite parking! Shooting all that free ammo will make you hungry, so stop by the concessions to refuel!
General admission is available Friday and Saturday, May 8th & 9th, $50 per day, or save money and get the entire weekend for just $85!
More information and ticket pre-sales are now available at the CANCON WEBSITE!
Early Access to CANCON from 2PM to 4PM on Thursday May 7th, followed by a catered dinner. Access to CANCON from 9AM to 4PM on May 8th & 9th, plus the legendary VIP Swag Bag!
VIP SWAG Bag from CANCON, Arizona
PROS Vs. JOES, SHIRTS, AND MORE
Returning to CANCON is PROS Vs. JOES! We select a random participant from the crowd to go head-to-head against a seasoned pro shooter. Can an everyday Joe outshoot a Recoil Pro in a high-stakes shooting competition? If they do, they win BIG!
CANCON T-shirts will be available for pre-order and at CANCON! These are high-quality shirts that feel great and look awesome.
CANCON Carolians 2024 shirts, new shirt coming soon!
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Savage has just announced the next generation of the venerable Model 110 with 15 new models to choose from.
The Savage Model 110 has been around since 1958, and while the line has been well-loved in the meantime, Savage just decided to give it a facelift. Initially featuring 15 new purpose-built models available in a wide range of chambering options, the next-generation Savage Model 110 boasts a slew of excellent upgrades throughout.
110 Core Hunter Pro.
One of the most significant upgrades is the new AccuFit V2 system integrated into the stock. Using Savage’s Quick Set Dial (QSD) system, the length of pull and the comb height can both be finely adjusted on the fly without any tools. Some models that feature a pistol grip will allow for changing the grip size with different modules as well. The stocks’ ergonomics have also been generally improved. Other upgrades to the new Model 110 rifles include smoother bolt travel, an improved extractor claw and a dual ejector system. Savage says the AccuTrigger system has been improved as well, and the rifles will now ship with reliable-feeding synthetic magazines that are backwards-compatible with legacy 110 models.
110 Trail Blazer.
Beth Shimanski, Vice President of Marketing at Savage Arms, said this about the new line:
The 110 is our longest standing rifle, and for good reason … This model has helped make Savage Arms what it is today, and it will be a part of the future of Savage for a very long time. Building on the next evolution of AXIS that was launched in 2024, the new era of the 110 exemplifies Savage’s ability to maintain our standing as heritage brand while staying at the forefront of innovation.
MSRP for the next generation Model 110 starts at $720 for the Trail Blazer model and goes all the way up to $3,640 for the Ultralite Elite V2.
We discuss some highlights from Clayton Cramer’s Lock, Stock and Barrel to learn more about the origins of American gun culture.
American gun culture is often portrayed as a modern invention, an outgrowth of industrial manufacturing, clever marketing or frontier mythology. According to this view, firearms were rare in early America, ownership was limited, and widespread civilian gun use emerged only after the Civil War.
That story is neat. It is also wrong.
The historical record tells a far different story, one in which firearms were not merely common, but expected; not reluctantly tolerated but legally required. In early America, gun ownership was not a lifestyle choice or political statement. It was a civic duty.
Few works document this reality more thoroughly than Lock, Stock, and Barrel: The Origins of American Gun Culture by Clayton Cramer, which draws directly from colonial statutes, travel accounts and original source material. The picture that emerges is unmistakable: American gun culture did not have to be invented. It arose naturally from the conditions of colonial life.
The Myth of Rare Guns
The idea that early Americans lived largely unarmed gained traction in the late 20th century through revisionist scholarship that claimed firearms were scarce and tightly regulated. Those claims did not survive scrutiny. Key works were exposed as deeply flawed and sometimes fraudulent. Yet, the narrative persisted in more subtle forms.
The appeal of that narrative is understandable. If guns were rare and socially disfavored in early America, modern gun control appears less like innovation and more like restoration. But history does not cooperate.
When Gun Ownership Was Mandatory
Colonial lawmakers did not fear an armed population. They feared an unarmed one.
In 1619, Virginia enacted one of its earliest statutes requiring men “fitting to bear arms” to bring firearms, swords and ammunition to church. Worship was not exempt from danger, and preparedness was considered essential, even in the pews.
South Carolina and Georgia followed similar paths. By the mid-18th century, South Carolina required every white male to attend church armed, with churchwardens tasked with inspecting weapons and ammunition. These laws were enforced, not symbolic.
Maryland went further. In 1641, settlers seeking title to land were required to possess a “serviceable fixed gun,” along with powder and lead. Firearms were not just tools of defense; they were prerequisites for full participation in colonial society.
These statutes reflect a worldview fundamentally different from our own. Arms were not viewed as threats to public safety. They were seen as safeguards of it.
Guns Beyond the Militia
Modern discussions often attempt to confine early firearm ownership to militia service, suggesting that guns were collective instruments rather than personal tools. But militia laws assumed private ownership. Individuals were expected to supply their own arms, maintain them and keep them ready.
Firearms lived in homes, traveled on roads, guarded farms and protected families. The same musket that might be inspected at muster was used to hunt, defend property and respond to emergencies. There was no sharp divide between “military” and “civilian” arms.
Even age restrictions cut the opposite way of modern law. Teenagers, often as young as 15, were legally required to possess arms for militia duty. There were no colonial prohibitions on youth ownership. Responsibility, not restriction, was the governing principle.
Guns, Travel and Everyday Life
Firearms were not confined to moments of crisis or formal militia service. They were integrated into the routines of everyday life. Colonial laws frequently required travelers to be armed, recognizing that roads were dangerous and law enforcement sparse or nonexistent. In some colonies, individuals traveling alone were prohibited from doing so unless armed, while groups were expected to ensure that all members carried weapons sufficient for collective defense.
Hunting further reinforced firearm ownership and proficiency. Game was abundant, markets were limited, and refrigeration nonexistent. A firearm was often the difference between sustenance and hunger. Accounts from travelers and settlers routinely describe the ease with which food could be obtained through hunting, precisely because firearms were so widely owned and competently used.
Even indentured servitude did not break this expectation. In several colonies, masters were legally required to provide firearms to servants upon completion of their term, ensuring they could fulfill militia obligations and provide for themselves as free men. The right—and responsibility—to be armed was not reserved for an elite class. It was part of becoming a full participant in civic life.
These practices underscore a critical point often missed in modern debates: Firearms were not exceptional objects requiring justification. They were assumed necessities, woven into the fabric of work, travel, worship and community defense.
Pistols, Repeaters and Reality
Another common myth holds that early Americans owned only long-guns and had little interest in pistols until manufacturers like Colt created demand through advertising. The record again says otherwise.
Newspaper advertisements for pistols appeared in American cities as early as the 1720s. Gunsmiths routinely made and sold handguns throughout the colonies. Repeating firearms (pepperboxes and other multi-shot designs) existed well before the 19th century.
Samuel Colt did not invent America’s interest in handguns. He met a market that already existed.
Culture by Necessity
Gun culture in America was not born in boardrooms or advertising campaigns. It emerged from necessity. Colonial life was dangerous, unpredictable and decentralized. Survival required competence, preparedness and self-reliance.
Firearms were part of that equation, not as talismans, but as tools. The law reflected that reality, reinforcing ownership rather than restricting it.
Understanding this history does not require romanticizing the past. It requires honesty about it.
Editor's Note: This article originally appeared in the March 2026 issue of Gun Digest the Magazine.
I take you through Douglas Barrels’ factory to show you how they’ve been handcrafting super precise barrels for over 75 years.
When I began wildcatting the 2Fity-Hillbilly cartridge—now the .25 Creedmoor—a decade ago, I had two rifles made up for it. The second rifle was a Remington Model Seven with a 1:8 twist barrel, and when Hornady introduced the .25 Creedmoor, I was excited to finally have factory ammo for my rifle. Unfortunately, Hornady’s factory ammo is loaded with bullets that require a 1:7.5-inch twist, and the ammo did not shoot well in my rifle.
So, I was left with a dilemma: Do I keep handloading for my rifle … or re-barrel it?
I’d ordered my 1:8 twist 0.25-caliber barrel from Douglas Barrels in Charleston, West Virginia, and my personal gunsmith Jerry Dove at Dove’s Custom Guns installed it on my Model Seven. With my handloads, that rifle shot very well. I used it to take a big nine-point whitetail in Nebraska and several other deer. Since I already have a brand-new Christensen Arms Ridgeline FFT rifle in .25 Creedmoor—with the correctly twisted barrel—I didn’t see much sense in refinishing my Model Seven into another .25 Creedmoor. Instead, I sent the rifle to Douglas Barrels for the installation of a different barrel in a different caliber and chambering.
The author with his rebarreled Remington Model Seven (center) with Travis Beasley (left) and Travis Asbury (right) of Douglas Barrels.
A Legacy Barrel Maker
When I was much younger, I was heavily involved with traditional muzzleloading rifles, and back then you could not be around muzzleloading rifle enthusiasts without them talking about Douglas Barrels. When I first learned about Melvin Forbes and his tack driving featherlight New Ultra Light Arms rifles, I found out he used Douglas Barrels exclusively. That’s the barrel Melvin put on my first NULA rifle, which was chambered in .35 Remington.
Douglas Barrels has a stellar barrel-making reputation that began in 1948 when a hobbyist gunsmith named G.R. Douglas founded the company. By 1954, Douglas was fully committed to fabricating premium, “ultra-rifled” custom gun barrels. Douglas pioneered a unique push-button rifling approach, where a handmade carbide button is pressed through a barrel hydraulically, and using a gear-driven process, the button displaces instead of subtracts metal to form cleaner rifling than is achievable with the cut rifling practices. The company has occupied the same building since inception.
When it comes to modern barrel making, machines and automation play a part, but there are some things humans need to do with their hands if you want a high-quality barrel.
Douglas Barrels has a long history of supplying winning shooters, long-range professional marksmen, and the U.S. Military with ultra-rifled barrels that have delivered results. The walls at Douglas Barrels are covered with awards of the unrivaled success their barrels have achieved. Also, Douglas Barrels is the only gun barrel manufacturer to have had a barrel on the surface of the moon during the Apollo missions—and the rifle Bradley Cooper’s character used in American Sniper was fitted with a Douglas Barrel.
Aside from their unique 75-year technique of gear-driven push-button barrel rifling, some other things set Douglas Barrels apart. Unlike some of the big-name barrel makers you read about in all the gun magazines and see splashed all over social media, Douglas does very little advertising, and they have not engaged in big marketing campaigns. They’ve never needed either to get business—the word of mouth of satisfied customers has and always will be the best marketing available. This allows them to offer their services at very competitive prices.
Everything at Douglas Barrels, from the barrels they turn out to the tools they use to make them, comes from within their own shop and is tried to absolute precision.
The other difference is experience: Not only does Douglas still use the same techniques and even the same machines they built their reputation on, but the experience of their technicians is unrivaled in the barrel-making industry. They have an average time in service of about 20 years. Travis Asbury—the plant manager at Douglas Barrels—has been with the company for 2 decades. Asbury’s father worked for Douglas Barrels, and Asbury’s first visit to the company was on his way home from the hospital the day he was born.
Unquestionably, when it comes to precision barrel making, there are mechanical tolerances that must be maintained, but Asbury and some of the other long-term Douglas employees also have that “feel” for what’s right and what’s not. It’s a skill that can only come from crafting, looking at and gauging thousands of barrels by hand and by eye, for many years.
Master barrel maker Travis Asbury scrutinizing a finished barrel after air gauging at Douglas Barrels.
When I was visiting Douglas, Asbury tossed a newly bored barrel on the rack where a light could shine through it, and he told me to look through the bore and see what I thought. I did, and the barrel looked damn good to me. Asbury said, “Let me see.” In a matter of seconds, Asbury said, “I’m glad you don’t work here. That barrel is sh*t. It will never leave this factory.”
Two years ago, Rodney Chiodo and a couple of his close friends purchased Douglas Barrels. Chiodo is a businessman from Pennsylvania, but more importantly, Chiodo is a hunter, shooter and handloader. Just a few minutes after I met Chiodo, we were talking about the different ballistic advantages of various cartridges, handloading techniques and about the deer we did and didn’t kill last season. Years back, Chiodo had purchased a barrel from Douglas, and he’d driven down from Pennsylvania to pick it up. He became enthralled with the company, the employees, and the character of both. When the opportunity to purchase Douglas Barrels presented itself, Chiodo was all over it like a rut-crazed buck on a hot doe.
Hand tools are part of the process at Douglas Barrels because—though they use some automation—their craft is tied to humans with unparalleled barrel making skill.
The new ownership is committed to maintaining the high standards Douglas Barrels is known for, but also in helping Douglas step into the future. They’ve made substantial investments in new machinery, rededicated the company to maintaining their industry-leading four-week delivery times, created an all-new customer-friendly website to make online barrel ordering easier and hired a new metallurgist. Douglas Barrels now implements MET (Metal Enhancement Technology) and a new lapping-type process for all their barrels. During my visit, it was refreshing to see that this legacy company will continue to deliver even better barrels as they approach 100 years of business.
Douglas Barrels sources the best chrome molly and stainless-steel that is available worldwide for the barrels they craft.
Proof in Precision
But, back to my rifle. As mentioned, one advantage with Douglas Barrels is that they will not only make you a barrel in the caliber you want, at the length and contour you want, and with the twist rate you want, but they will also install that barrel on your action and chamber it for whatever cartridge makes your heart go pitter-patter. Douglas has a large catalog of carrel contours, but one of the coolest machines they have is a barrel contour duplicator. This allows Douglas to match the contour of the barrel they make you to the barrel they’re replacing on your rifle.
With my rifle, I made it rather easy for them: The first Douglas barrel I ever owned was the 0.35-caliber barrel on my NULA rifle in .35 Remington, so I specified a 0.35-caliber barrel with a standard Remington contour and a 1:12 twist rate, chambered in .35 Remington. The common twist rate for a .35 Remington is 1:16, but I wanted to specifically shoot the Tipped Controlled Chaos bullets from Lehigh Defense, and Mike Cyrus of Lehigh Defense suggested the 1:12 twist rate.
Douglas Barrels’ master gunsmith, Travis Beasley, made the barrel, installed, crowned and chambered it, and like with all the barrels Douglas makes, it was air-gauge tested and—most importantly—it held up to the eyeball scrutiny of Asbury.
Travis Beasly talks Richard Mann (left) through the barrel-making process at Douglas Barrels.
Cyrus picked the re-barreled rifle up for me, and while he had it, he worked up some handloads for the Lehigh Defense 180-grain Tipped Controlled Chaos bullet. After he dropped the rifle off, I tested it with those loads and two factory loads, including a hardcast load from Buffalo Bore. The handloads shot great, but the real surprise was Federal’s factory 200-grain load that averaged almost three-quarters of an inch. I think G.R. Douglas, Chiodo and even Asbury—with his keen barrel-peering eyes—would have been proud of how it performed. I sure was.
In today’s world, you’d not expect a custom-crafted rifle barrel installed and chambered on your action at the cost of less than $700—all finished up in less than four weeks—to deliver dime-spitting accuracy. But the guys at Douglas didn’t think it was a big deal at all. Hell, they’ve been making barrels that shoot like this and doing the same thing for a long, long time.
Handloads with the 180-grain Lehigh Defense Tipped Controlled Chaos bullets delivered consistent sub-inch groups.
Shooting Results: Remington Model Seven w/18.5-inch, 1:12 twist, Douglas Barrel
Load
MV
ME
SD
Precision
180-grain Lehigh Defense TCC
2,375
2,255
11.1
11.1
200-grain Federal Soft Point
1,936
1,664
31.9
0.79
230-grain Buffalo Bore “Heavy” Hardcast
2,063
2,175
22.5
1.24
Notes: Muzzle velocities are the average of nine shots measured with a Garmin XERO C1 chronograph. Precision is the average of three, three-shot groups.
Contact Information:
Douglas Barrels 5504 Big Tyler Road Charleston, WV 25313 (304) 776-1341 DouglasBarrelsLLC.com
Editor's Note: This article originally appeared in the March 2026 issue of Gun Digest the Magazine.
A quick look at .17 Remington Fireball, another brainchild of P.O. Ackley.
One of many wildcats dreamed up by P.O. Ackley through the years was the .17/221 Fireball, which is the .221 Remington Fireball case necked down for bullets measuring .172-inch in diameter. When Las Vegas gunsmith Vern O’Brien started building custom rifles around the small Sako L461 action, he obtained permission from Ackley to chamber them for the .17/221 but decided to rename it the .17 Mach IV. O’Brien offered the same chambering in custom single-shot pistols built on the XP-100 action, but called it the .17 Mach III, due to lower velocities from their shorter barrels.
As is commonly seen in more than one wildcat, dimensions can vary slightly among makers of chamber reamers, which means that even though at first glance the .17 Remington Fireball appears to be the old .17 Mach IV with a different name, a closer inspection may reveal minor dimensional differences. For this reason, Remington discourages the firing of .17 Fireball ammunition in rifles chambered to .17 Mach IV and vice versa.
General Comments
Even though case dimensions of the .17 Fireball can differ a bit from those of the .17 Mach IV, the two cartridges are virtually identical in powder capacity and for this reason their velocity potential is the same. Capable of accelerating a 20-grain bullet along at over 4,000 fps, the trajectory of the .17 Fireball is quite flat, and mild recoil makes the little cartridge lots of fun to shoot.
Contrary to what has been written about the .17 Mach IV in the past and will likely be written about the .17 Fireball in the future, neither cartridge is capable of matching the velocities of the .17 Remington, which is on a modified version of the more capacious .223 Remington case. It has also been written that bullet jacket fouling builds up more rapidly in a rifle chambered for the .17 Remington, but the original author of Cartridges of the World found this to be untrue when the three cartridges are used in barrels having bores of equal quality and smoothness.
.17 Remington Fireball Loading Data and Factory Ballistics
If you like snubbies, you’ll want to check out the new Lipsey’s Exclusive Smith & Wesson Field Ethos Model 36.
Smith & Wesson has been releasing a lot of really cool distributor-exclusive revolver models lately, and the latest is this Field Ethos Model 36 from Lipsey’s. While Smith clearly didn’t cut any corners when it comes to this J-Frame’s form, it looks like it has plenty of function, too.
Chambered for .38 Special +P, the Field Ethos Model 36 has a 5-shot capacity, a 1.88-inch barrel and, thankfully, no lock on its side. It has a bobbed hammer, but its double-action only trigger pull should still be buttery smooth thanks to its Performance Center action job.
Other features of this Model 36 include a gold bead front sight/integral notch rear sight, a beautiful carbon blued finish on its cylinder and frame and a Tyler Gunworks premium walnut boot grip. The revolver also comes with the Field Ethos logo engraved on its side plate.
MSRP for the Lipsey’s Exclusive Smith & Wesson Field Ethos Model 36 is $1,100 and it’s available now.
We address some of the downsides, and upsides, of carrying a revolver for self-defense.
The Western lawman. Cop movies set in the 1970s and ’80s. Detective pulp novels with dames and private investigators. Wyatt Earp. Roger Murtaugh getting too old for this sh*t. All these share two common traits: unironic mustaches and deadly wheel guns. But there’s more to the revolver than history, pop culture, and a throwback to ancient days.
Wyatt Earp.
There are people in the gun world who wonder why this far into the 21st century anyone would choose a revolver over a modern semi-auto pistol. Well, we’re glad you asked. We’re reminded of the late Pat Rogers and his old axiom: “The mission drives the gear train.” In short, for some people, and some situations, the revolver can be the dreaded “just as good as,” or an even better.
While it is true that the modern military-grade semi-auto service pistol has replaced the revolver for hard use in defensive carry, police and military service, this in no way means the revolver isn’t a capable handgun for defensive and sport use.
To start, let’s address what’s often perceived as an issue when revolvers are considered for defensive carry use: the deadly duo of low ammunition capacity and slow reload speed.
Ammunition Capacity
This is actually a non-issue for the concealed carry paradigm. We can learn quite a bit by examining what has happened in real-world incidents. To borrow a line from Tom Givens, when speaking of experiences from his students who’ve actually been in defensive shootings: “three shots in 3 seconds at 3 feet” is still what a typical defensive shooting looks like.
It’s here that it’s worthy to note Givens is also famous for saying, “The primary cause of needing to reload is missing.”
The gunfight a cop has is often very different than the one a concealed carrier has in the streets—and even then the wheel gun usually holds enough.
To pursue this idea further, we draw on the research of friend and mentor Keith Jones. Jones is a Vietnam combat vet, nearly 40-year police officer, multiple gunfight winner, very competent researcher and gun guy. Back in the days when coppers only carried revolvers, Jones looked at the experiences of the officers in his area. He found that in 199 incidents, from 1970 through 1988, there was only one (!) instance where the officer had to reload to prevail in the fight.
Everything else was settled with the five or six rounds available in the wheel gun.
The patrol officer shootout is often a very different fight than we see in the concealed carry/defensive pistol realm; suspects fight more aggressively to avoid arrest, multiple suspects are more likely to be involved, and there’s a duty to pursue. Yet in these 199 incidents, the revolver clearly had enough capacity to get the job done.
Claude Werner, a gifted instructor, noted researcher and generally the smartest guy in the room tells us the average number of shots fired in the defensive gunfight is 1.43.
Reliability
An underappreciated advantage of the revolver is the rate of malfunctions that occur in real-world fights. Although the military-grade semi-auto service pistol is clearly more tolerant of abuse and hard service than the revolver, all semi-auto pistols are subject to malfunction when the shooter uses a weak grip, is floating the gun one-handed, if the ammunition is underpowered and if the pistol is poorly lubed and/or full of dust bunnies.
While the “six for sure” mantra of revolver proponents is a myth, it’s a fact the revolver is vastly more tolerant of a poor grip and garbage ammunition.
While the “six for sure” mantra of revolver proponents is a myth, it’s a fact the revolver is vastly more tolerant of a poor grip and garbage ammunition.
Even though yours truly started in the defensive handgun world in the days when cops carried by-God-steel-framed-revolvers and leather gear, uses for the wheel gun nowadays include backup gun/lightweight carry gun, hunting/“kit gun,” general fun shooting and training gun.
Being an old cop, using the snubby as a backup gun was a natural thing. Over the years we have tried several semi-auto backup guns but have repeatedly come back to the snub due to some very concrete advantages that this platform gives versus the semi-auto pistol.
An airweight snub, such as an S&W 642 or a Ruger LCR, generally carries on an ankle or in a pocket better than any semi-auto pistol. It also draws more cleanly and consistently when pushing speed. The snub can be reliably fired with hard muzzle contact, clothing interference or even through a pocket. The shape of a snubby often makes it conceal better than a similarly sized semi-auto, and this shape also makes it easier to get a shooting grip on the gun when carried in deep concealment.
In extensive testing, shooting and training with various pocket pistols over the years, not one can equal the reliability of an S&W or Ruger snub. The perceived advantages of higher capacity and faster reload speed are siren songs, but the .38 snub still wins the reliability game—along with the aforementioned cleaner draw and speed to a first-shot hit.
Accuracy
It’s boringly common to find service-grade revolvers in .38 Special and .357 Magnum capable of 1- to 1½-inch groups off of a rest at the 25-yard line. The same cannot be said of service pistols. Groups as small as 6 inches at 100 yards with a 4- or 6-inch .357 Magnum revolver, fired in single action, from a rollover prone isn’t terribly difficult.
This level of accuracy starts to shade into carbine territory. For this reason, the midsized .357 Magnum revolver, such as an old Ruger Security Six or S&W model 66 or 681, can easily be a “go to the woods” gun.
Ease Of Training
An advantage of the double-action revolver over many of the modern striker-fired pistols so popular now is the revolver is easier to use for dry-fire practice and for “ball and dummy” training at the range.
The DA revolver can be dry-fired repeatedly without the need to reset the trigger, and when used in specific drills, the ball and dummy exercise can be done without the need to buy or load dummy rounds into the gun. Dry practice is typically underappreciated as a skill builder, but it’s critical to the development of trigger control. Trigger control is the toughest pistol skill to learn, and the most easily perishable when neglected.
The revolver has a simpler manual of arms and it’s impossible to “forget” that one has a round in the chamber after the magazine is removed, which can be a real advantage to the novice shooter.
While the snubby as a defensive firearm is often thought of as an “expert’s gun,” that idiom hasn’t panned with either officers or students.
Here’s a recent personal example: A gentleman decided he wanted to buy a defensive firearm but had no idea where to start. At the range he was able to handle and fire several semi-auto pistols and revolvers. He preferred the simplicity of the revolver and eventually bought a Ruger LCR in .38 Special. In follow-up sessions at the range, he went from having never fired a gun in his life to being able to keep 100 percent of his shots in the “down 0” zone of an IDPA target out to 10 yards.
He achieved this level of marksmanship in less than 100 rounds fired in conjunction with approximately four hours of practice.
Versatility
Revolvers still maintain a significant edge over semi-auto pistols for large game hunting or large animal defense. While big-assed semi-auto pistols such as the Desert Eagle exist, they’re far from being handy, easy to carry or quick into action. They look cool in movies though. Service-sized pistols such as the Glock 20 in 10mm simply pale in available power level when compared to even middle-of-the-road loadings for the .44 Magnum. Said .44 Mag is itself easily outclassed by things like a heavy-loaded .45 Colt, .454 Casull, and more. While you can hot rod a semi-auto, it can also bring its own issues such as stoppages due to excessive slide velocity.
From silver to black, irons to optics, 9mm to magnums—the 21st century still has a ton of revolvers around. Try one out.
A 4-inch .357 Mag has the ability to safely fire any .38 Special or .357 Magnum ammunition that will chamber in the gun. This includes defensive carry with JHPs, snake and rodent whacking with shot loads, plinking and small game with wadcutters, predator control with lightweight hollow points, deer hunting with heavier versions of the same and bear protection with high-penetration ammo.
For just plain fun that translates well to serious purposes, it’s hard to beat live fire with a good .22 revolver. For this reason, some favorite handguns are .22 wheel guns. Though we’d be hard pressed to pick a favorite, the Ruger LCR in .22 LR and the S&W 317 and 43c are currently seeing the most use for training and plinking. Each of these guns displays a high level of accuracy, with near zero recoil. Each is capable of reliably firing .22 CB, short, long, and long rifle ammunition, in either standard or high velocity loadings—not possible with a semi-auto pistol.
But What About Reload Speed?
To address the persistent issue of the worry about the need to reload in a defensive shooting scenario, note that revolver science has been well developed over the past 100-plus years.
For the snubs, ensure the chamber edges are chamfered or otherwise smoothed to avoid catching the bullets during the reload. This simple step in prepping the defensive revolver for carry is similar to making sure your semi-auto pistol has a flared magwell or mag funnel for speed reloading. In the revolver, it pays off in dividends.
There are a number of methods and accessories and doodads for revolver reloads that have been developed over the years, and most of them work well if you put in the work yourself.
For concealed carry, a Bianchi Speed Strip makes for a small package. Instead of completely filling these up, having four rounds instead of five or six significantly reduces your time to target. Getting that last round or two in the cylinder takes more time than the previous four. It may sound strange but do it on the shot clock for yourself.
If you can get away with a larger footprint, Jetloaders or Safariland Comp speedloaders can give you a reload of under 5 seconds with practice. USPSA reload speed this isn’t, but it’s certainly better than fumbling with loose rounds.
There’s also an old-school copper skill of reloading two with eyes down range, in case you need to close the cylinder and engage an aggressive bad guy (a hard won lesson from the Newhall fight …).
Carry The Damn Thing
It’s no small comfort that research has yet to find a case where a police officer was able to access a backup gun and didn’t survive the fight. The lesson here for cops is this: Carry a backup gun and quit worrying about things like magazine or ammo interchangeability with your primary pistol.
This same lesson translates to the concealed-carry world. “What gun?” and “How many rounds on board?” are vastly secondary to the ability of the carrier to have the gun with them at all times. And the ability to draw quickly from concealment. And place one to three effective hits on target at a car length or less.
If you can’t find an instructor who can teach you these skills, seek out a crusty old cop; he’ll know what to do.
Editor's Note: This article originally appeared in the March 2026 issue of Gun Digest the Magazine.
Looking for a new iron or piece of kit to enhance the one you already own? Check out these 7 new bits of guns and gear to grow your firearms wish list.
TALO Exclusive Girsan MC1911 Negotiator in .38 Super
It’s true that 1911s in .38 Super don’t get enough love these days, but it’s an excellent chambering option. It also pairs very well with gold accents, and that’s exactly what’s being offered with the new .38 Super TALO Exclusive Girsan/EAA Corp MC1911 Negotiator. This 5-inch barrel 1911 has a 9-round capacity, an adjustable rear sight, a fiber-optic front sight, a lightening cut slide and a skeletonized trigger. It features a hand-tuned action and Picatinny rail as well, and the cherry on top is its titanium nitrate “gold” finish on the barrel and accents on its barrel bushing, magazine release, hammer, safety and beavertail. MSRP: $1,060
Chiappa Rhino 60DS L-Frame in .44 Magnum
Finally, the Chiappa Rhino in .44 Magnum is here. The .44 Magnum is a big, powerful round with pretty stout recoil, so it’s the perfect match for the kick-taming nature of the Rhino’s low bore-axis, bottom-chamber firing design. The revolver’s weight and strength stay balanced despite the larger size thanks to its 7075-T6 aluminum frame, steel barrel and steel breech shield. The ergonomics have been improved as well thanks to the addition of twin finger stops and a revised interface for the Hogue rubber grip. Other details of the .44 Magnum Rhino are its 6-inch barrel, six-round capacity and fiber-optic sights. They’re available with either a black, white nickel or gold PVD finish, and each Rhino ships with a hard case and an owner’s kit. MSRP: $1,745
Sightron S6 10-60x56mm ED Field Target Scope
Airgun, small-caliber field target and benchrest shooters have reason to be excited following Sightron’s announcement of this rifle scope. Designed to withstand the recoil of everything from the heaviest big-bore airguns to .50 BMG rifles, the S6 10-60x56mm ED was tested and shock-rated to 1,000Gs for more than 10,000 cycles. That’s a pretty tough piece of glass. Speaking of glass, inside the scope, there are 15 Japanese optical-grade glass lenses, as well as two Extra-low Dispersion elements designed to massively boost optical resolution. Camera-grade multi-coatings also help to increase the scope’s light transmission, contrast and clarity while reducing color fringing, flare and chromatic aberrations. You have the choice between two new purpose-built reticle options—MOA-2FT and MH-FT—and it can be ordered with or without its 145mm diameter magnetic side-wheel for rapid adjustments. MSRP: $1,800 scope only // $2,000 wheel bundle
WOOX 1913 Compatible Stocks
A lot of new guns these days come with a segment of 1913 rail on the rear of their receivers for attaching a stock or a pistol brace. As this method of stock attachment has grown in popularity, so has the aftermarket of available stock options, giving shooters more choice than ever when deciding exactly how they want their gun to look and feel on the shoulder. WOOX has entered the fold with its new line of 1913 compatible stocks, and while the aesthetics won’t appeal to everyone, those who want to add a dash of wood and class to an otherwise black gun will find WOOX’s lineup an attractive new option. The family features two models currently—the 1913 Edge and the 1913 Woody—but both are available as either a fixed stock or a folding stock. MSRP: $230 fixed // $300 folding
Henry Repeating Arms SPD Predator
Henry is calling its new SPD Predator “the most accurate lever-action rifle ever built.” Chambered for .223/5.56, it’s built on the same architecture as Henry’s Lever Action Supreme Rifle … but with a few tricks up its sleeve to increase its accuracy potential. The most important one is a match-grade 416R stainless-steel barrel tension-wrapped in carbon fiber. Topped off with a 1/2×28 threaded muzzle, this barrel will provide shooters with better rigidity, faster cooling and less weight. The SPD Predator also features a forged carbon-fiber Picatinny rail for optic mounting, a gray laminate buttstock and forearm with an adjustable comb system, a crisp, user-adjustable trigger tuned at the factory to 4 pounds and compatibility with standard AR-15 magazines. Oh yeah: It ships with a Harris S-LM bipod, too. MSRP: $2,510
SIRT TruBreak
Trigger control is one of the most crucial aspects of handgun shooting, and dry fire is a great and cheap way to refine your skills at home. SIRT just released an interesting new gadget that takes trigger control practice to the next level. Called the TruBreak, the device will only break and reset the trigger if it’s pulled back perfectly straight. If your press drifts to either side, it will result in a dead trigger and require you to slap the bottom of the fake magazine well to reset it. Fair warning, SIRT says it’s extremely addictive to play with and that people are calling it a “fidget spinner for shooters.” For a toy that will improve your shooting skills, being addictive isn’t so bad. MSRP: $50
MDT STS Buttstock
Standing for Skeleton Traditional Stock, MDT’s new STS buttstock is the solution for shooters who want the accuracy and modularity of a modern precision chassis but with traditional rifle ergonomics. Designed for the LSS Gen3 Chassis System, the STS features an overmolded rubber grip, tool-less cheek riser adjustability, vertical buttpad adjustability, an integrated M-Lok rail for bag rider attachments and a QD sling mount. Length-of-pull is adjustable as well, and the package ships with four spacers. It’s offered with either a black or FDE finish. MSRP: $400
Editor's Note: This article originally appeared in the February 2026 issue of Gun Digest the Magazine.
Staccato has just updated its HD line of 2011 pistols with the compact, integrally-compensated C4X.
With the goal of making an extremely versatile 2011 that was equally parts a compact defensive pistol and duty weapon, Staccato has just added the HD C4X to its lineup. Co-developed with an elite law enforcement tactical surveillance unit, the pistol feels just as good on the hip as it does in the hand putting shots down range. I had the chance to shoot one at Staccato’s Vegas range day this year, and to put it simply, this thing shoots flat.
The Staccato HD C4X features a 4-inch integrally-compensated barrel, a lightweight aluminum frame, an HD HOST optics-ready slide and a compact grip that provides a flush-fit capacity of 15 rounds of 9mm. Even better, it uses Glock-pattern magazines, and each gun ships with two steel 15-rounders. Other features of the C4X include its crisp 4- to 4.5-pound trigger, its 3.6-inch captive flat wire recoil system, fully ambidextrous controls, improved ergonomics and tall iron sights that sit forward of the red dot mount.
Paul Smith, Vice President of Product at Staccato, said this about the new 2011:
The Staccato HD line continues to evolve based on real-world use and direct feedback from professionals and customers … With the Staccato HD C4X, we set out to create a compact and extremely versatile pistol that can confidently be carried on duty, for personal protection, or both. This platform reflects our commitment to giving customers a high-performance option they can trust in any situation.
The C4X is a sweet little package; the only downside is that it has an MSRP of $3,500. It will start shipping to dealers on February 16th.
Shadow Systems has just announced the AXIO pistol line, designed around a steel chassis for enhanced controllability and recoil management.
As popular as Glock pistols are, many shooters have always felt that they’re lacking in certain departments. This gave rise to a huge industry entirely dedicated to improving them with aftermarket components and modifications. It also resulted in companies like Shadow Systems that iterated on the design to build their own pistols with improvements throughout the whole gun. The company's different models have garnered an excellent reputation among concealed carriers, duty users and even competitors over the years, but the latest addition to its catalog was designed from scratch to crank performance up to 11. Called the AXIO line, the new 9mm pistols are built around a steel chassis to reduce recoil and improve shootability.
The AXIO pistols’ precision-machined steel chassis was designed to add mass and efficiently distribute it to key areas for enhanced controllability, as well as improve balance, rigidity and slide-to-frame fitment. Another important feature is the new Overstroke Slide System that reduces recoil and ammo sensitivity by increasing slide travel and dwell time.
There will be two variants of the AXIO available, the standard and the PRO, and each of those will be available with a longer 4.4-inch barrel as well. All models feature interchangeable grip panels for improved ergonomics, but the standard version will ship with textured polymer panels and the PRO will ship with machined steel panels. Both versions will also feature Shadow Systems’ next-generation trigger system, but the standard model will have a 4-pound trigger while the PRO will have a 2.5-pound pull weight. Naturally, all AXIO pistols will be optics-ready as well.
Trevor Roe, CEO of Shadow Systems, said this about the new pistols:
AXIO wasn’t about adding features for the sake of differentiation … It was designed from first principles, with an uncompromising focus on recoil control, build quality, and a striker-fired trigger system engineered to set a new benchmark. Every design choice was made to elevate how the pistol shoots and how confident the shooter feels behind it.
Shadow Systems AXIO pistols will begin shipping in spring of this year, and each gun will come with two 18-round magazines. MSRP for standard models will start at $2,000 and $2,250 for AXIO Pro models.
The Midwest Industries Bounty Hunter Series of stocks and arm braces offer a bold new way to work with the big irons.
Unconventional? Absolutely.
Practical? Most definitely.
More fun than having to watch your kid’s first baritone recital while the Super Bowl is on? Just a little.
The Bounty Hunter Series is designed to deliver consistent stability across a wide range of revolver calibers, from small to large. Its multiple points of contact enhance shooting accuracy, giving every revolver shooter the confidence to center-punch targets every time. The stock and arm brace are properly aligned for seamless integration with iron sights and red-dot mounts, ensuring quick target acquisition and improved performance.
Each stock features five quick-detach sling sockets and holds six rounds of ammunition.
I’ve you’ve never before shouldered your revolver, you’re certainly missing out.
The heart of the Bounty Hunter Series beats around its robust construction. A big iron, after all, delivers a big payload at both fore and aft. The grip, stock and Z-beam are all made from 6061 hard-coat anodized aluminum, allowing this series to combine lightweight performance with exceptional durability. Plus, the hard-coat anodizing ensures resistance to wear and tear, making it a dependable companion in even the most demanding conditions.
Every revolver is a function work of art, and the Bounty Hunter is designed to match it.
For enhanced comfort, the Series features polymer textured grip panels, a polymer cheek piece and a rubber butt pad. These elements all work together to provide superior recoil management, facilitating complete control throughout the shot cycle, regardless of how many rounds you send downrange.
The Bounty Hunter stock attaches to the grip with a single thumbscrew for very fast takedown … or folding.
One of the standout features of the Bounty Hunter Series is its shell plate holder, which includes three universal shell holders. This innovative addition allows you to store up to six rounds of ammunition, compatible with any revolver caliber. Ammo, after all, is useless if you cannot access it quickly. Whether you’re at the range or in the field, this feature ensures quick access to your rounds without sacrificing mobility.
A hardened steel takedown thumbscrew allows for easy disassembly, making storage and transport a breeze. And, the design also incorporates five (yes, five) quick-detach sling sockets, offering customizable sling configurations to suit your preferences. Set it up exactly as you want it.
Proudly made in the USA, it’s also noteworthy that the Bounty Hunter Series comes with a lifetime warranty, nodding toward the confidence in quality upon which Midwest Industries has built its reputation.
In a way, the Bounty Hunter Series is more than just a stock or arm brace—it’s a symbol of innovation, quality and performance. It’s a statement that says, “There’s more than one way to shoot a revolver … and I’m here for all of them.”
There’s nothing conventional about the Bounty Hunter stock, but then again, there’s nothing conventional about shouldering a revolver, either.
Midwest Industries Bounty Hunter Series Specs
Available as a stock or arm brace, designed for enhanced stability and control across small and large revolver calibers.
Constructed from 6061 hard-coat anodized aluminum for the grip, stock and Z-beam, ensuring durability and lightweight performance.
Polymer textured grip panels, a polymer cheek piece and a rubber buttpad for superior comfort and recoil management on the stock version.
Properly aligned height for seamless use with iron sights and red-dot mounts.
Multiple points of contact improve shooting accuracy and control.
Ambidextrous design for right or left-hand shooters.
Includes a shell plate holder with three Midwest Industries universal shell holders, compatible with any revolver caliber and allowing six rounds of ammunition to be stored.
Hardened steel takedown thumbscrew enables easy disassembly for compact storage.
Equipped with five quick-detach sling sockets for customizable sling configurations.
Designed with lots of room for easy firearm handling and operation.
Made in USA with a lifetime warranty.
Weight: 1.75 pounds
Editor's Note: This article originally appeared in the February 2026 issue of Gun Digest the Magazine.
I hit the range with Vortex’s new Relay system to see just how much easier advanced technology can make shooting.
Technology is one of those funny things in the shooting industry. For some reason, people have this notion that batteries don’t belong in guns, and the simpler the better when it comes to their chosen SHTF scenario. However, just because something is common does not mean it’s simple, and firearms are fairly high on the list when it comes to their maintenance, requirements and what it takes to make them in the first place.
The shooting public has always been a little bit slow to embrace change. I think a lot of this has to do with our culture being fairly traditional—certain things are cherished while others are shunned. Regardless of how you feel when the wings of change come swooping down, it’s impossible to at least admit that Vortex’s Relay system is a truly amazing advancement for the shooter.
Somebody Call the IT Department
When it comes to guns, I have a fairly wide range of interests. I enjoy pretty much all firearms and have an appreciation for history as well as new technologies. One of the things that interests me a lot is the fact that, at some point in time, the things we consider old or simple were on the cutting edge for their day.
What’s more interesting is that there have been many technologies that have existed separately for long periods of time before they were eventually integrated into one system—consider the first attempts to combine telescopes with guns. Optical equipment is so common on guns these days that we barely give it a second thought.
Likewise, the idea that these computerized systems are too fragile or complex is due to unfamiliarity. For example, a guy joked with me at the range that he’d “need an IT degree” to use the Relay system … but it’s really not difficult to use at all.
The Relay system comprises three units: the Impact 4000 gun-mounted rangefinder, Talon HD 10K 10x42mm binocular (includes five target modes and four ranging modes, and is tripod adaptable) and Ace ballistic weather meter. These can all be used as stand-alone units or as any combination of the three.
But here’s where things get interesting.
These devices can be tied to the Geoballistics app on your phone and provide real-time data to each other, and profiles can be carried over to each device. Yes, you read that right: Your binoculars can talk to your weather meter, and so on and so forth. The implications here are huge, as you can have real-time firing and spotting solutions updating live as you’re behind the gun.
I’ll get into more details on this in a moment, but I do want to do a bit of explaining here because this is a big concept, and it has far-reaching implications to our craft. In my time using this system, I’ve had some pushback, especially from those a bit set in their ways regarding technology at large. Not everyone wants a computer on their gun, but virtually all modern guns are the product of computerized manufacturing and design.
Don’t let enhanced capability get handicapped by sentiment—there are no simple guns.
The Tentative Marriage of Bullets and Batteries
Of course, guns and computers have a long history, and many early computers were developed to help track ballistics. However, the entire idea of putting computers onto your gun seems like a bridge too far for some.
The Relay system is inherently an electronics-based family (although you can still use the Talon as just a binocular). It has taken the shooting public decades to truly embrace electronic sights, and now they are so trusted and well established that they are on nearly every gun platform. The failure point of other systems is that they have typically been proprietary and did not have a communication feature.
I have six apps on my phone dedicated to a variety of products, and they don’t communicate with each other. This is an annoyance that has pushed people away from this type of electronic, not to mention limited product support and generational changes. If one failed, well, you were out of luck. That’s not so here, as each Relay product can carry the same data.
I can easily recall a time when electronic optic durability and reliability were in doubt. I found this to be interesting: The idea that a battery would fail when you need it most … when at any given time you’re only carrying a finite amount of ammunition. If you think of it this way, battery life is usually in the tens of thousands of hours for most electronic optics. During that run time, it’s the firearm that’s more likely to encounter a malfunction than the optic.
The anti-technology sentiment is, of course, based on a logical fallacy where people are comfortable with technology up to a certain line that is convenient for them. Everybody carries a cell phone these days, and you can be physically tracked using the Wi-Fi signal in your home, yet people are uncomfortable with their scopes having Bluetooth capability. If the government wants to spy on you, well, it’s not like you’ll know. In an era of electronic surveillance and deep saturation, you’re already being monitored, right down to your smartwatch and vehicle.
The Relay system is composed of technology elements that have existed separately for years. However, the way that it integrates them is quite novel and seamless. Obviously, handheld weather stations and rangefinders have been around for quite some time. The technology is well established and has become relatively inexpensive, to the point that they are commonly used for many types of recreation.
While I’m not a big-time golfer, my dad and all of his buddies have rangefinders—I’ve even heard of some using handheld weather stations. I will never be a good enough golfer to have a rangefinder or weather station matter for me, but it does make a difference for some of the people I’ve seen playing while I’m having a beer in the kart.
Shooting, on the other hand … well, there’s an area where I rely on these types of devices.
As time has passed, we’ve been migrating closer to what will eventually be something of a “peak” modern rifle, a large part of that modernization happening in the past five or so years. The modularity of both bolt action and AR platform rifles has created massive markets for each, and we are now seeing system integration with other existing technologies, such as the Arca Swiss rail interface, M-lok accessory attachment points, common chassis sizes, quick-detach suppressor capabilities and return-to-zero optic mounts.
On most of my rifles, I have some—if not all—of these elements. There will be a time in the very near future where off-the-shelf factory guns will have all of the features as my custom rifles currently do … for a fraction of retail cost. I believe that the Relay system is the foundation for a new generation of upgrades that will eventually migrate into being commonplace, and you’re hearing it here first.
The Relay System and Theory of Use
I’ve been using the Impact 4000 for a while, and it has caused some confusion as to why I’d want it. Some guys at the range are just comfortable with a handheld rangefinder and a printed out drop chart, and that’s fine. However, those shooters don’t see how far we’ve already come with different reticles alone. Remember: The mil dot was cutting-edge stuff.
The Impact 4000 is a very distinct piece of hardware that’s certainly noticeable on top of a rifle. The main comments I get about it are concerns with weight and ergonomics. I’ve also been asked about its durability and overall utility.
For me, the system has been working flawlessly; however, it should be noted that this technology is still in its infancy. What you are witnessing right now as you read these words on this page is the technology window shifting. What Vortex has achieved here is extremely impressive.
The Geoballistics app is the centerpiece of this system. You can build various gun and bullet profiles quickly and easily using the data you collect at the range or in the field. The app itself is easy to use and very fast. I’ve used some in the past that were good but clunky, and this one is truly understandable to any end user.
Let’s say you’ve got a few Vortex optics in ADM QD mounts, and a few rifles in different calibers. You have a .22 LR bolt gun for NRL, a lightweight 6GT you like for competition and coyote hunting, and a .300 Win. Mag. you take out West. Because Vortex is so consistent and the ADM mounts are well known for their return to zero abilities, you’re comfortable swapping your optics out from gun-to-gun.
I do it, because it’s plenty easy and repeatable.
In your profile, for each gun, you have your chosen loads and notes on the scopes where your zeros are per caliber. One of your scopes has the Impact 4000 mounted on it, the other two don’t.
Let’s say you’re going hunting for elk in the mountains, and there’s close tree cover in some areas. You start low and spot using the Talon HD. This has an impressive maximum ranging distance of 10,000 yards, or more than 5.5 miles. This feature can help in land navigation, as it can provide you with accurate readings on landmarks to help you to plot a route.
Now, let’s say you have your .300 Win. Mag. and have put your new Razor HD 4-24x on it. You reset your turrets to your established zero, and you’re good to go. You spot an elk herd and stalk up; the wind is nasty because it always is, so you pull out the Ace and get in position. As you line up on the elk, you get live drop and windage correction looking at him through the Talon; it even corrects for a number of factors as you look … and it gives you a solution right in the display.
Now, you’re out solo for coyotes. You have the 6GT, and you’re posted up calling. You have your scope with the Impact 4000 mounted on it because you’re traveling light, and your shots are going to be on fast movers inside 500 yards, so you don’t bother with the Ace or Talon; you just need the speed of the Impact 4000 to give you ballistic data. They come in, and you knock them down as fast as you can get your drop readouts.
After all that, you and your buddies decide to see how far you can stretch out the .22 LR cartridge. You take the scope with the Impact 4000 mounted off your 6GT and get your known zero and profiles switched over. It’s windy so you pull out the Ace and start getting to work. Well, your buddy thinks he knows better, and you let him get on the gun. He’s unfamiliar with the Impact, but luckily you can be watching though the Talon and give him real-time updates on wind as he’s shooting.
While you’re there, your other pal wants to see what his iron-sighted M14 can do. He’s got no idea what his muzzle velocity is, but he’s shooting 168-grain Hornady match and he’s got National Match sights, so his adjustments are known. You check out the Hornady site for general velocity, plug that all into your app and build him out a profile. He takes a shot at 100 yards to confirm zero, and now you give him dope for 500. He clicks it in and it’s off, so he adjusts to hit, you adjust the MV number to correspond with his known drop, and then he’s trued out.
You give him correction for 500 and 600 yards, and a rock at 864—he clicks in and smacks it. Now your other buddy wants to try to hit it with your .22, so you quickly switch profiles, range it with the Talon and he fires.
Terrific Tech
So as far as my speculation goes, this is an incredible system that is highly flexible. When I started using it, I immediately thought about all the apps I have to manage my gear and how easy it could be instead.
This is just three products … and imagine the possibilities that exist: This technology can be integrated into spotting scopes and even thermal optics. Imagine being able to communicate in real-time with guides, spotters and other hunters without any guessing. It’s already possible to remotely watch the view through the scope on many thermal optics with wireless capabilities. You could be in the field as a spotter not only watching through your own optic that’s communicating data as you watch, but you could also be watching through your partner’s scope as well.
Instead of hours of setup and testing at the range, you get a new device and connect it, and all of your data is available instantly.
The possibilities here are somewhat endless. As a night hunter, it’s especially exciting. We are within the timeframe where we could have a single thermal optic that integrates a rangefinder and weather station into it that could instantly correct the digital reticle to the bullet drop and drift as you point it at a given object in real-time. This is huge, and the most impressive part of it all is that all you’d have to do is zero it for your rifle and port your data to it instantly, meaning your time getting into the field would be minimal and your efficiency would be maximized like never before. Thanks to Vortex and the Relay system, the average shooter can take a serious step into the future.
Editor's Note: This article originally appeared in the February 2026 issue of Gun Digest the Magazine.
A closer look at some of the latest developments in ammunition technology.
I know folks snort and complain every time a new bullet or cartridge is invented and offered for sale. Thank goodness this was not the trend in 1926 with the .270 Winchester, in 1948 when John Nosler created the Nosler Partition … or in the mid-1980s when Walt Berger pioneered the VLD bullet. All the new cartridges and bullets we’ve seen over the years get us one step closer to better cartridges and better bullets, but we must acknowledge that all along we have been taking baby steps in the search for perfection.
Here you can see how conventional cup and core and bonded bullets compare to the Nosler Partition, which has a partitioned core. (Left to right: Nosler Partition, Nosler Ballistic Tip, Nosler AccuBond.)
The modern rifle bullet started with a simple cup-and-core design that used a thin copper jacket over a pure lead core. This worked until velocities climbed to the point these bullets would not withstand impact with an animal. This led to bullets with tapered jackets, jackets that attempted to lock together with the core, partitioned jackets and jackets bonded to the bullet’s core.
What has always made the Nosler Partition special was its ability to damage large amounts of tissue and penetrate deeply. It’s the jacketed bullet forerunner of the mono-metal Controlled Chaos bullet.
Eventually, all this progress gave us the mono-metal X Bullet and the various iterations of that design and other lead-free projectiles. All these bullets were attempts to create an accurate bullet that would also deliver great terminal performance up close at high velocity and far away at much slower velocities.
We got pretty good at making those bullets until about 2010. The new 6.5 Creedmoor and the similar fast-twisted, long-range cartridges that followed are capable of flatter, more wind-defying trajectories at distances most shooters only dreamed of shooting at. Why? Because all these new cartridges utilized a fast rifling twist rate that could stabilize a more aerodynamic bullet. This really pleased target shooters because, like with the Berger VLD, manufacturers were good at making target bullets with a high ballistic coefficient (BC).
However, hunters wanted a bullet that would shoot the same, but that would also provide good terminal performance up close and at extreme distance. Hunters had the cartridges they wanted, but once again lacked the bullets they needed.
The Nosler Partition And The Berger VLD
You could argue that, when it comes to terminal performance and precision, the Nosler Partition and the Berger VLD are the gold standards. The Nosler Partition is designed to shed its front core to enhance wound cavity size and tissue damage through the dispersion of lead particles, and for the rear core—with the deformed frontal jacket increasing frontal diameter—to retain enough weight for deep penetration. Though not known for delivering extreme precision, the Nosler Partition performs well—terminally—over a wide velocity range.
The Berger VLD bullet will deliver good terminal performance at slow impact velocity and can also deliver one-hole accuracy. When impacting at extreme speeds, it can be explosive with limited penetration.
As for the Berger VLD, it combines an insanely streamlined profile with a thin copper J4 jacket surrounding a pure lead core. Using manufacturing techniques created by master benchrest shooter Walt Berger, this allowed the bullets to be made incredibly precise, which is what’s needed for extreme precision. Berger VLDs can deliver fine precision at extreme distance, and at distance they tend to deliver good terminal performance, though at a moderate depth. But when they impact at close range at high velocity, their terminal performance—though violent—is shallow.
Modern Attempts at Bullet Perfection
With the fast twist rates of modern rifle cartridges, you can shoot a longer more aerodynamic bullet with a higher BC. This is what target shooters and hunters want so they can get hits at distance easier.
But the struggle has been building long and slender high BC bullets that will deliver great precision and good terminal performance over a wide impact velocity range. Essentially, what’s needed is a bullet that flies like a Berger VLD but that performs—terminally—like a Nosler Partition.
Hornady’s new CX bullet is a fantastic mono-metal bullet that shoots accurately and provides good terminal performance. But the faster-twisted the barrel is, the better terminal performance it will provide.
One of the most successful attempts has been the Hornady ELD-X. By utilizing the combination of a tapered and high concentric AMP jacket, a lead core, streamlined design, and a heat shield tip that helps maintain ballistic coefficient, the ELD-X bullet shoots with great precision and delivers good terminal performance at slow impact velocities.
The Hornady ELD-X bullet with its original translucent tip. This is a great long-range hunting bullet, but with high velocity impacts, it can be overstressed.
However, at extreme high velocity impact—up-close shots with magnums—the ELD-X can shed its core and deliver limited penetration.
Hornady loads the ELD-X bullet in their Precision Hunter line of ammo. This ammo generally provides great precision and good terminal performance, especially at distance.
Barnes Bullets attempted the any-range bullet by increasing the hollow-point cavity size in their Triple Shock bullet and then adding a polymer tip to help instigate bullet upset at slow velocities. Their LRX bullet will flower open at slightly slower velocities than their TSX or TTSX bullets and retain—in most cases—100 percent of its weight for deep penetration.
The Barnes LRX bullet is a fine long-range hunting bullet, but at impact velocities below 2,000 fps it delivers less than optimal performance.
However, because this bullet does not shed material like the Nosler Partition, wound cavities tend to be narrow. As with a lot of recent modern bullet options, it seemed like we tend to have too much of one thing and not enough of the other.
The Lehigh Defense Controlled Chaos bullet is a different take on the mono-metal bullet, and it’s a bullet that Hammer Bullets has tried to emulate. Instead of retaining its petals, it sheds them, almost immediately after impact. However, unlike the petals from most mono-metal bullets that, if they break off, tend to trail behind the main bullet path, the petals from the Controlled Chaos bullet push forward, radiating out from the path of the base of the bullet, creating their own paths of destruction.
A 102-grain Controlled Chaos bullet at 3,400 fps and twisted to one turn in 7.5 inches can be dime-splitting accurate and seriously deadly up close and at distance. With a higher BC, it would be near perfect for what modern hunters now want.
Also, most mono-metal bullets need to impact at around 2,000 fps to deliver meaningful bullet upset, but the Controlled Chaos bullet—especially when twisted fast—will work at impact speeds as slow as 1,600 fps. Essentially, it’s a mono-metal bullet that works similar to a Nosler Partition, and it’s available in several variations. Though Controlled Chaos bullets generally deliver excellent precision, even the polymer-tipped Controlled Chaos bullets have lower ballistic coefficients than most jacketed or other mono-metal bullets of the same caliber and weight.
The Controlled Chaos bullet might best be described as a more accurate mono-metal version of the time-proven Nosler Partition.
Enter, The Spin Doctor
In the past, we flattened trajectories with high velocity, which is why cartridges like the .300 Remington Ultra Magnum and all the Weatherby cartridges exist. However, with the modern cartridges and their fast twist rates, bullet engineers have more to work with.
The linear velocity of a bullet degrades swiftly after it exits the barrel because of gravity. At 400 yards, a bullet from a 6.5 Creedmoor will have lost nearly 25 percent of its velocity. However, the rotational velocity of a bullet hardly degrades at all over distance. This is, of course, what helps keep bullets stable in flight.
However, bullets that are spinning faster upset better on impact. The centrifugal force generated by the spin helps peel back the bullet’s jacket or petals. The faster a bullet is spinning the more rotational energy it has.
To get an idea of the difference in rotational velocities from a slow-twist rifle compared to a fast-twist rifle, we can compare a .308 Winchester with a 6.5 Creedmoor.
This Hornady ELD-X bullet was recovered from an elk that was shot at 318 yards with a .308 Winchester. Impact velocity was about 2,000 fps.
Most .308 Winchester rifles have a 1-in-10 twist, but the 6.5 Creedmoor has a 1-in-8 twist. If both rifles fire a bullet at 2,800 fps, the .308 Winchester bullet will have a rotational velocity of 201,600 rpm and the 6.5 Creedmoor bullet’s rotational velocity will be 25 percent faster at 252,000 rpm. The faster twist rate of the 6.5 Creedmoor allows it to shoot bullets with a higher ballistic coefficient and retain linear velocity better, but it also has more rotational velocity to help the bullet upset on impact.
This high rotational velocity is what allows the 8.6 Blackout cartridge, which has a crazy fast 1-in-3 twist, to deliver such violent wound cavities at supersonic velocities of around 2,000 fps and even at subsonic velocities. At subsonic velocity, the 8.6 Blackout has the same rotational velocity the 6.5 Creedmoor has at 2,800 fps. And at 2,000 fps, the 8.6 Blackout has an incredible rotational velocity of 480,000.
Because of its fast 1-in 3-twist rate, even at velocities between 1,000 and 2,000 fps, the 8.6 Blackout cartridge allows bullets like the Controlled Chaos to work exceptionally well.
High rotational velocities are also why bullets fired from a 9mm Luger, with a twist rate of 1-in-10 and a rotational velocity of around 82,000 rpm, will upset over a wider impact velocity range than bullets fired from a .40 S&W or .45 Auto, which will only have a rotational velocity of about 51,750 rpm.
The point of all this is that, going forward, we can expect the fast twists we’ve seen with modern cartridges—the Creedmoors, PRCs, ARCs, the 7mm Backcountry and the brand-new 25 RPW Weatherby—to be the new standard. These fast twist rates help us shoot bullets that fly flatter and resist the wind, but they also help bullets upset and damage more tissue.
In the Field and in the Future
To sort of summarize all this, let’s look at two deer shot with the new, 1-in-7.5-inch twisted, .25 RPM Weatherby last deer season.
This whitetail had been shot by another hunter and was put out of its misery with a 102-grain Controlled Chaos bullet from a .25 RPM Weatherby at 419 yards. Impacting at less than 2,400 fps, the bullet still had a rotational velocity of more than 300,000 rpm, and it created a nasty and lethal wound.
The bullet was a 102-grain Lehigh Defense Controlled Chaos bullet that left the muzzle at 3,400 fps. One deer was shot at 300 yards and the other at 420 yards. Now, this bullet does not have a high BC, at 300 yards it impacted at about 2,650 fps, and at about 2,400 fps at 420 yards. However, the high spin rate helped the bullet shed its petals, allowing them to track through the deer, creating their own paths of destruction all the way to the rib cage on the other side. The bullet’s base exited and when the petals reached the offside of the rib cage, each had radiated out from the main bullet path by about 4 inches.
With a muzzle velocity of 3,400 fps, like is possible from the new .25 RPM Weatherby cartridge, tough mono-metal bullets make sense, especially ones that will still work at long range.
When those bullets impacted the deer, they had a rotational velocity of about 326,400 rpm. That’s 30 percent faster than a common 6.5 Creedmoor bullet.
Bullet engineers have just about exhausted all their options with both jacketed and mono-metal bullet designs. But an area they still have room to explore is how they can leverage faster twist rates with various bullet designs to not only make them fly flatter with less wind drift, but to also be more lethal.
I believe in the future we will be able to take bullets similar in design to the mono-metal Controlled Chaos and twist them fast enough to give us everything we need with regard to precision and external and terminal ballistics, up close and at distance.
You might say that, in more ways than just one, it’s a twisted new world we’re living in.
Editor's Note: This article originally appeared in the February 2026 issue of Gun Digest the Magazine.
Looking to go armed, but are stuck in the weeds as to what to arm yourself with? Here are 20 excellent concealed carry gun options that will keep you on the defensive.
