By Brandon via concealednation.org
From the YouTube channel of PersonalDefenseWorld.com, they show us the GLOCK 43 in action at the range; the newly-announced single stack 9mm.
Bob Radecki, GLOCK National Sales Manager, shoots the brand new GLOCK 43, which
The post First Video of the GLOCK 43 Single Stack 9mm in Action appeared first on The Truth About Guns.
I’ve never been a fan of the GLOCK aesthetic. Or their trigger. Or the grip. Or the takedown system. Really everything about the gun irks me in some way. Heck, if given the option between running a 3-gun course with a G19 or a large brick, I’d have to put some serious thought into the choice. But there’s no denying that their products are ubiquitous, and reliable to boot. After avoiding carrying a GLOCK for years and generally considering the gun to be the Toyota Corolla of the firearms world, I find myself prepared to plunk down my own hard-earned money for a GLOCK 43 on day one. Which, for someone who usually carries a Wilson Combat 1911 and scoffs at blended scotch, is a pretty big jump . . .
When I moved to Texas, I realized exactly how oppressive the heat can truly be. That Texas summer ain’t no joke, and any clothing beyond a light t-shirt feels like a wool overcoat. So for a big guy like me, carrying even a compact 1911 on my belt becomes a major challenge during those months. I’ve done it, but I print more than the New York Times.
Complicating the matters is the small fact that the company I work for doesn’t like guns, and won’t allow them in the building. I can’t carry at work, so every time I go in to earn a living I need to un-strap my gat. And every time I go out for lunch I need to put it back on. Simply leaving the now empty holster on my hip all night isn’t an option, so I made a change — I decided to start pocket carrying.
The first gun I tried was a Charter Arms .38 Special revolver. It wasn’t the prettiest gun or the most mechanically sound, but it goes bang every time I pull the trigger and only cost me a couple hundred bucks. It wasn’t terrible, but it wasn’t perfect. The wheel gun may be reliable, but the cylinder makes it look like I have a bowling ball in my front pocket. And even with the pocket holster, if you got a direct look at the front of my pants you knew exactly what was going on.
I wanted something slimmer, which meant a pocket 9mm semi auto of some sort. My first instinct was SIG SAUER and their P938.
I like the P938, and I carry one right now (when on lunch breaks and just farting around town). The convenience of having something in your center console that you can slide in your pocket and forget about is very appealing, and the flat surface is perfect for more effective concealment as opposed to the “pay not attention to that bulge” thing you get with a revolver.
But its still a Mustang design, and the single action trigger combined with the teeny tiny manual safety wasn’t doing it for me. I know Michael Bane’s only actual defensive gun use was with a Colt Mustang and it was apparently enough gun for him, but it’s just not my cup of Earl Grey.
I needed something with the flat form factor of the P938, but the dead simple trigger of the Charter Arms snubby. Something I could slide easily in and out of a pocket and never have to worry about whether I hit the safety or not. I needed something striker fired, and the GLOCK 43 scratches that itch.
There are plenty of other “tiny ninies” on the market (as Dan is wont to call them), but none of them have — to borrow a phrase from James May — made me feel all fizzy in my gentleman’s region. The S&W Shield looks nice on paper, but I remember picking up one of the first models and seeing parts rattling around. It feels just like its big brother M&P handguns — like a cheap car. The Beretta Nano has an unfortunate personal association I’d like to avoid. And the Kahr CM9, well, I remember watching the baseplate fall off the magazine during test firing and that’s all I needed to know.
With the G43, I’ve seen what GLOCK has done with the G42 and I’m expecting the exact same thing. It feels like a GLOCK, which in this case is a good thing. Solid, dependable, and minimalist — only what I need, and nothing I don’t.
If SIG SAUER had come out with a striker fired P938 like I recommended a while ago, I wouldn’t be in this position — about to actually pay cash money for a Teutonic Tenifer-coated pistol. It feels downright strange actually coveting a GLOCK product. But in this case, they seem to have hit the nail squarely on the head and have made exactly what I need.
The post I Hate GLOCKs. But I’m Buying a GLOCK 43. appeared first on The Truth About Guns.
There isn’t really much debate when it comes to the quality of Wilson Combat’s 1911 handguns. There are only a couple of true custom 1911 builders in the United States, and Wilson Combat is the benchmark against which the others are judged. While I own an example of their work, I’d never actually seen how their handguns are made. Last week I was invited down to their facility in Arkansas to check out their new digs, and watching the process from start to finish was pretty cool . . .
Wilson Combat is located in the middle of nowhere. They are the third largest employer in the county, right behind the local Wal-Mart and a meat processing plant — which says more about the sparse population of the area than the size of WC.
Until recently WC had been located in a tiny brick building off a dirt road, but with the increase in orders and staffing they’ve been able to move to a new, modern, and spacious multi-building facility up the road built specifically for Wilson Combat.
Walking in the front door, the first thing you see are the sales and support staff, and there certainly are a lot of them. The team answers emails and takes phone calls all day long, helping existing and prospective customers with everything from troubleshooting a feeding issue to figuring out which parts should go into their newest pride and joy. Some of the people may look a little young, but the team is anchored by a number of experts who spent their entire careers with Wilson Combat, usually in the machine shop, and have found a new home providing their decades of expertise to anyone in need.
According to the WC guys, there’s rarely an order that comes in where the buyer wants their handgun spec’ed out exactly like the models on the website. Usually the orders use those models as a starting point, then request a few extra details like a larger slide release or a different thumb safety setup. Once the order is finalized, they head out into the warehouse.
While Wilson Combat’s handguns are what WC is best known for, in their estimation they do about 50% of their sales in complete firearms and the other 50% in parts. Wilson Combat parts are available damn near everywhere, and while some of them are made in-house, others come from trusted suppliers elsewhere in the country. There are some shops, they say, where Wilson Combat is their only customer and has been for decades. Nevertheless, each part that comes in gets tested to ensure that it meets the specifications, and then is either packaged for retail sale or put on the shelves as stock for gun orders.
When an order comes in, this little station is where it starts to come together. A worker selects the required parts from inventory according to the order form, then places it all in a bin for pickup. Every so often a couple workers from the firearms side of the factory come in to collect those tubs and mate them up with the appropriate slides and frames that will constitute the bulk of the order.
Over in the CNC building, brand new CNC machines are whirring away making the slides and frames for each order. In addition to pistol parts, these machines also turn out the receivers for their AR-15 and AR-10 line of rifles, and there’s quite a few of them working on guns in all stages of completion.
According to the ATF, as soon as the 1911 frame has the rails and pin holes milled into it the part officially becomes a firearm. With WC, they’ve configured their CNC machine to serialize each frame in the same program that cuts those last few operations. The machine is programmed to mill serial numbers sequentially, and only mill one serial number one time. If that frame later has a problem (like, gets run over by a truck before completion) then that serial number will be lost forever and never exist as a finished firearm.
The slide and frame are mated at this point in the process and remain together until delivery. The two parts are hand lapped together to provide a smooth feeling when cycling the action, yet will be almost perfectly aligned with each other. It’s one more detail that puts WC’s handguns above the mass produced competition.
Handgun barrels are produced elsewhere. In fact, Wilson Combat doesn’t really “do” barrels. Like many of their parts, they rely on experts in other places to make that magic happen. However, for their AR-15 and AR-10 pattern rifles, they are getting into the barrel business big time. They use barrel blanks from a supplier, but the bores are drilled in-house, rifled on a brand new rifling machine (that only started working the day before I arrived), and each individual groove is lapped to a mirror finish. After all that stress, the barrels are then heat treated and made ready for installation.
A quick aside; Wilson Combat was one of the first custom shops in the AR-15 game. Since the late 1990’s, WC has been cranking out their very own custom rifles. But with the rise of the AR-15 rifle in popularity. Wilson’s monopoly in that space has been challenged and they have become more noted for their precision handguns instead.
One way Wilson is getting back on top in the long gun market is by focusing on the wildcat and oddball calibers. According to WC’s guys, the market for NATO calibers is pretty much flat, but as soon as you offer something in .458 SOCOM or .260 Remington people will start spending the big bucks again for top quality guns.
Hence the reason for rifles such as this .458 SOCOM custom build.
The rifles are manufactured with the same care and precision as Wilson’s handguns. The lower receivers are milled from a single solid block of aliminum, and instead of broaching the magazine well, the lowers have those EDM machined out. This keeps the part from being stressed, all while making the mag well as precisely as possible for accurate and reliable feeding.
The rifles are assembled in a building just off the CNC machine shop. There’s a vault located in that building where the lower receivers are stored until an order comes in, at which time they are brought out to a workbench and assembled.
Every rifle ships with the same collapsible lightweight stock, and for good reason: they are easy to swap, and allow the customer to choose the stock that’s right for them. Instead of needing to stock a Noah’s Ark of stocks, this approach lets them maintain consistency in the product line while still allowing the customer to customize their specific gun. They do, however, have plans to branch out to include some of the more popular stocks in the future.
The densest building in the production area is the handgun assembly shop. Here, master craftsmen assemble each handgun one-by-one, fitting each individual part and ensuring that it meets the high expectations of the customers. The work is done mainly using hand tools, with very few (if any) electric or pneumatic tools. I don’t think I’ve ever seen more varieties of files in my life.
One of the workers explained that there was just a different “feel” to the work that is done by hand as opposed to a computer. On this frame, he was adding some serrations to the gripping surfaces by hand, and while he had a machine that would do the same job quicker and much more precisely, he explained how sometimes it was better to fit the serrations to the individual handgun rather than be concerned about having each line exactly parallel and consistent.
That frame might seem a little different, and that’s because it is. Wilson Combat makes their own handguns, but like most custom shops they got their start accurizing and “fixing” the work of other companies. In this case, the Springfield on his bench was getting a makeover at the request of a customer. He also works on Colt 1911s, Remington 1911s and others.
Wilson Combat has spread out to include work on Beretta handguns as well recently with their line of 92FS parts, and even has their own custom Beretta 92 handguns now. When asked what might be next on the list for extensions into other brands and models, they reluctantly admitted that something striker fired was probably on the horizon — depending on how Bill Wilson feels.
Before we move on, here are some more pictures of new Wilson Combat guns in progress.
This gun is starting the fitting process at the very beginning stages of manufacturing.
This is a customer’s handgun that was sent in for a tune-up and have some new parts installed.
A gunsmith manually polishes the feed ramp for a 1911 barrel.
When new guns area all tricked out, the parts head off to the paint and surface treatment area. Most shops will have some areas to Cerakote their guns, but not many have on–site blueing and parkerizing facilities. With Wilson Combat, all of the parts (well, the non-stainless ones) are blued or parkerized before being coated with their own armor tough paint.
The final step in the process is test firing. Every single firearm is test fired at Wilson Combat’s private range, located on one end of the manufacturing facility.
What’s truly remarkable is how these guns are test fired. Instead of using a Ransom rest or other mechanical device, the handguns are shot by hand, using nothing but a couple leather sandbags for support. The handguns are all zeroed at 15 yards, which is perfect for most people — our own Robert Farago being the notable exception.
Robert actually sent his brand new Wilson Combat handgun back to the factory to have it re-zeroed… at 7 yards. Why? I have no idea. But that’s what he wanted. When I was at the factory, he hadn’t gotten his baby back yet and asked me to look in on it. So I did.
This is Robert’s gun, and that’s me with the shit-eating grin holding it. It was 100% finished, and just needed to be shipped back. I asked them to put it at the bottom of the pile and forget about it for a couple weeks, and they seemed happy to oblige.
Once the guns are ready to be shipped, they are moved to a vault near the front office. Every single firearm gets a padded soft carrying case, along with a magazine or two and some extra goodies. The guns ship out nearly as soon as they are finished, which is why there aren’t many piled up in this picture.
The one thing that wasn’t really discussed was the line of silencers that Wilson Combat is putting out. According to the WC guys they sell a number of them, but nowhere near the volume of a larger silencer shop. Their market is mainly people who already own a Wilson Combat rifle and want a silencer that matches the asthetics of their existing guns. The development process for these cans is mainly a trial and error system, and the reason for the low volume is that they are — like the guns they go on — custom one-off pieces. There really isn’t an established “line” of Wilson Combat silencers. Yet.
Visiting the Wilson Combat factory was a really cool experience. I own a Bill Wilson Carry of my own, and it goes with me everywhere I do. Seeing how its made from start to finish was amazing, and makes me appreciate the craftsmanship all the more.
The post A Look Inside Wilson Combat’s Manufacturing Shop appeared first on The Truth About Guns.
As David Codrea points out at the pop-up-tastic examiner.com, Bond actor Daniel Craig once declared that “I hate handguns. Handguns are used to shoot people and as long as they are around, people will shoot each other.” Yeah, well, Craig’s not the first anti-gun Bond actor nor is he the only Hollywood “action hero” who rejects Americans’ natural, civil and Constitutionally protected right to keep and bear arms. What’s interesting here: no one in the Bond biz saw anything wrong with this poster. Or if they did, they didn’t care. And yet they dismiss gun owners as irresponsible oafs. Go figure.
The post What’s Wrong With This Picture: James Bond Edition appeared first on The Truth About Guns.
I expect a high-priced tool to work well; that’s certainly true for a firearm. But what I really love to see: an inexpensive gun perform well. That’s probably why I’ve bought a couple dozen Mosin Nagants over the years. Anyway, after our visit to STI, TTAG James69 asked when we were going to see a review of the decidedly lower-priced Rock Island Armory 1911. I’ve been itching to try one myself for a while, so I emailed a request to TTAG command for a base model in .45ACP mos riki-tik . . .
I’ve heard good things about RIA’s 1911s, but I’ve never shot one. Dan was kind enough to send me his personal Rock Island Armory GI Standard FS .45ACP, a three-year-old gun with about 500 rounds through it. At first look, well, I was underwhelmed. In general appearance, the RIA 1911 looks more or less like the original GI 1911s. The finish isn’t blued, but parkerized. The handles are smooth and unadorned, fashioned from inexpensive wood.
Dan’s gun had obvious tool marks throughout, including a pretty deep one on the trigger guard. Most of the edges are sharp and rough. But come on, this is a $470 1911 made in the Philippines. It’s not supposed to be pretty. The Rock Island Armory GI Standard FS isn’t a beauty contest winner by any means, but that doesn’t mean it won’t shoot. Does it?
So, a little RemOil and…to the range Batman!
My plan: shoot about 500 rounds through the pistol, and invite two other shooters to put rounds down range. I had a lot of Winchester White Box, Remington UMC, American Eagle and Blazer Brass 230 grain FMJs along with some Remington Golden Saber hollow points. For magazines we deployed the cheap and cheerful mag supplied by RIA as well as upmarket STI as Wilson Combat mags.
First up: shoot i to get a feel for the gun.
The feel is painful. Three magazines in and I was getting cut up. Like the rest of the gun, the grip’s safety is roughly cut and unpolished. The Rock Island GI Standard’s recoil drove those sharp edges right into the web of my hand. Fortunately, I just picked up a pair of Kryptek Gunslinger gloves on the recommendation of a professional shooter. The gloves afforded a good grip, ideal trigger feel and saved my hands from what would have been ballistic butchery.
Ok. So this particular 1911 literally hurts to shoot. But lets see how it shoots anyway. Well, it doesn’t, not reliably anyway. The GI made it to round 43 before the first failure to feed. The next failure to feed arrived at round 44. It didn’t get much better after that. Failures happened with every magazine. As far as I could tell, no mag was more or less likely to fail than the others.
It wasn’t an ammo issue either. I had consistent first round failure to feed malfunctions with every type of ammunition I fed the Rock Island GI, and several failures to return to battery as well. At about 200 rounds, I regrouped. A heavy round of RemOil and that helped a lot. But I still had to push the slide with my thumb to feed the first round with just about every type of ammo, with the notable exception of the Blazer Brass.
For some reason, the GI like Blazer. After the second lube, the budget-priced 1911 failed to return to battery once, but just once. The Winchester ammo still had occasional problems. Feeding Remington ammo resulted a first round failure to feed every time.
So appearance, shootability, and reliability are all no-goes. What about accuracy?
The Action Target dueling tree was driving me crazy. I couldn’t reliably hit the 6″ target standing at 10 yards. Neither could the other two shooters, both competent with a pistol. Shooting off a front bag the Rock Island GI shot 5″ inch groups with Winchester ammo. From my snubby J frame 38SPL+P back-up gun, that’s a good group. From a full-frame 1911, it’s unacceptable.
Bottom line: this gun is no fun to shoot at all and I certainly wouldn’t bet my life on it. The same rough treatment found on the gun’s exterior carries through to the internals. From the bolt face to breach, this gun seems unfinished. It’s pretty clear that Rock Island stopped working on the gun when they were done, not when it was ready.
There is inexpensive, and then there is just cheap. This is gun is the latter. Oh, and before anyone asks, RIA is free to pull a Cabot: fly me to the Philippines to fix this gun, take me on a factory tour and have me shoot it again. Just sayin’ . . .
Specifications:
Length: 8.56″
Height: 5/5″
Weight: 2.47 lbs. (unloaded)
Sights: fixed
Capacity: 8+1
Price: about $475 retail
Ratings (out of five stars):
Appearance * *
So this gets 2 stars because it’s a 1911. But the tool marks, the rough edges, and the cheap handles make the gun look ugly. No parkerized finish looks great, but this one looks like some of the first finishes I did in my garage. And that’s not good.
Accuracy *
At contact range this gun is a tack driver. Beyond that, things get iffy.
Reliability 0
It’s not.
Overall 0
I’m not mad, I’m just disappointed. A 1911 can be beautiful, reliable, and accurate. That’s why I carry one. But all that comes at a price. Apparently that price is higher than $470. And if you want a GI 1911, buy one. It says Colt on the side of it.
The post Gun Review: Rock Island Armory GI Standard FS 1911 appeared first on The Truth About Guns.
By Eric Nestor via wideopenspaces.com
We love pistols and we love huge calibers. Why not mate the two for some true Frankenstein-like guns? These guns are ginormous. Just how we like them. Out of Thailand (above), a 1911 single shot 12 gauge pistol loaded with buckshot? How about . . .
a .50 BMG single shot pistol with a monster muzzle break?
This giant shooting Remington model 1859 replica will leave you speechless.
This homemade 11-pound 12 gauge chambered revolver was captured from a Brazilian drug dealer. It holds an incredible five shots of standard 2.75-inch shot shells. It is shown next to a standard-sized Taurus pistol for scale.
Then there is another massive 12 gauge homemade revolver. A picatinny rail on top and a forward grip adds to this awesome tacti-cool beast. This was confiscated reportedly from a Taiwanese man. We love how it says “Made in USA” on it.
There you have it, five giant hand cannons that just defy explanation. They are very interesting in a strange way and have an odd appeal. Those are some big ass guns but man…we kind of want one.
The post 5 Insanely Large Caliber Handguns appeared first on The Truth About Guns.
The SIG SAUER MPX might be the most anticipated new “rifle” among TTAG’s readers. Sight unseen in the civilian market, they awarded it the highest honor last year naming it 2014’s Best New Rifle, and now after months of delays the first guns are assembled, boxed, and shipping out. Wanting to avoid the same kind of kerfuffle that surrounded the Remington R51 launch, we chose not to review the gun based on pre-production models and instead waited until the production version was available. Thanks to our friends at SIG SAUER we here at TTAG were given exclusive access to the first ever production MPX, as well as full access to their team’s collective knowledge and expertise. So, does the finished product live up to the hype? . . .
Let’s start with a little overview of the history behind the MPX.
There’s no doubt in anyone’s mind that the MP5 is the best-selling pistol caliber SMG in history. The gun is iconic, used by military and law enforcement agencies worldwide. Heck, back in the 1980s you couldn’t swing a dead cat without running into a movie or TV show where the gun was being used in some manner. It’s just the epitome of cool.
While the appearance of the MP5 is a timeless classic, fifty years on the actual mechanics of the gun are starting to show their age. Stamped and welded receivers are no longer the state of the art design feature they once were. And roller delayed blowback is cool, but there are some major issues when switching between projectile weights that impact the longevity and reliability of the system. With the aging MP5 stockpiles of the world becoming more and more expensive to service, SIG SAUER wanted to develop a replacement weapon system that filled the same role but was easier to use and maintain. Their solution: the MPX.
The overall appearance of the MPX might seem familiar. That’s because it was designed to mimic the most popular firearms platform in the world. Just about every law enforcement or military organization in the modern world uses some derivative of the AR-15 / M-16 design, and even if the design is different, the manual of arms is mostly the same.
The side-mounted bolt catch, AR style safety, and push-button magazine release are staples of every modern infantry weapon design, and in an effort to keep the training as simple as possible they incorporated these same controls into the MPX. In short, if you can run an AR-15 or M-16, you can run an MPX.
That design concept goes more than skin deep. Not only is the AR-based training compatible with the MPX, but some of the parts are as well. Instead of re-designing a new trigger, the MPX takes a standard AR-15 trigger pack — that’s good, because the trigger it ships with is a terrible standard MILSPEC-style trigger. Whatever your favorite rifle trigger may be, it will comfortably fit in the MPX and let you have that same trigger pull on your rifle and your PDW.
Along the top of the rifle is a full-length Picatinny rail, which is great for mounting optics and other accessories. As it comes from the factory, there will be a set of flip-up iron sights but you’re probably going to want to replace those with something better like a red dot.
The forend for the first run of MPX firearms will use this SIG-specific attachment system, which is unique to the SIG SAUER line of guns. Starting in Q2, they will also be available with standard Keymod forends as well (~$100 as a replacement part), and carbon fiber versions, too (~$300). All guns will ship with a handstop and two rail sections that fit the wonky attachment system, by the way.
As for handguard lengths, there will be a 4″ option for the “MPX-K” version, a 8″ handguard for the 8″ pistol, and a 10″ handguard for the 16″ rifle. I might actually recommend getting a replacement 10″ handguard for the 8″ pistol for those who own pistol silencers, as the handguards are big enough for a typical silencer to fit underneath. Or, heck, get a 4″ barrel and a 10″ handguard for maximum rail space and minimum overall length. That would be pretty awesome.
The grip is also interchangeable with the AR-15, but that’s where the similarities stop.
The bolt and bolt carrier are similar to the AR-15 system in that it uses a cam-based locking mechanism and a series of lugs around the bolt face to lock the breech, but how it moves about is very different. Where an AR-15 has the recoil system located in the stock, the MPX uses a recoil system that’s housed completely within the upper receiver.
The bolt carrier group is attached to a set of springs, which recoil against the rear of the receiver and push the bolt back into battery. This system allows the gun to operate normally, even when the stock (and/or brace) is folded, and eliminates some of the weight of the gun by chopping down the overall length of the bolt carrier. In addition, the lowest lug on the bolt face has been extended to ensure that the bolt reliably picks up the next round from the magazine.
Oh, and there’s a rubber dealie on the rear of the lower receiver to keep the metal gubbins from beating themselves to death. Which is nice.
The upper receiver has been changed as well. Not only has it been re-designed to take the new recoil system, but the upper has been reinforced to take the repeated stress of full auto fire. The all-aluminum upper has a steel insert where the bolt locks up, adding extra strength and durability to the upper to resist wear as the cam pin rotates during the locking and unlocking phases.
Instead of a direct impingement system like the AR-15 or a blowback system like the MP5 and CZ Scorpion Evo 3 S1, the MPX uses a short stroke piston system that’s fixed to the barrel. Kinda like the M1 Carbine, actually. That piston system keeps the extremely dirty pistol caliber gasses contained mostly within the barrel, which keeps the receiver much cleaner than with the other methods.
It also makes the gun more reliable, as the gun is no longer depending on friction or tuned springs to cycle properly. Also, since the gas required to cycle the action will change with different barrel lengths, fixing the gas system to the barrel allows for a properly tuned gas plug to be issued straight from the factory instead of needing to mess around with your gun at the user level.
Did I say barrel change? Yeah, barrel change.
The barrels on the MPX are designed to be easily removed and changed out. Remove the handguard (take out the front takedown pin and they pull straight off) and then un-screw two small screws and the barrel comes straight out. SIG SAUER says that there will be three barrel lengths available: 4.5 inches, 8 inches, and 16 inches. The ability to swap from one barrel length to another depending on what you want to do is major, and will be even more of a benefit when the .40 S&W and .357 SIG conversion kits come in.
Let’s bring it down for a second off the hype train and have some real talk about this specific production civilian MPX. The gun has been delayed for months due to an engineering issue that has been resolved for 9mm but not quite yet finished for everything else. The decision on SIG SAUER’s part is that rather than keeping the gun on hold indefinitely, they have decided to release the “Version 1″ of the MPX — available only in 9mm with no guarantee that 40 S&W and .357 SIG will ever work in it — and have a “Version 2″ available sometime next year with all the bells and whistles. They hope to be able to provide a conversion kit to get the “Version 1″ MPXes up to the “Version 2″ caliber change spec, but again there’s no guarantee.
But really, for anyone thinking of buying one, did you actually want to shoot anything other than 9mm? Neither did I. And in the meantime, quick barrel length changes are cool for those planning on filing a Form 1 for their MPX.
One last thing about the barrel is the threading. Instead of using a normal thread pitch, SIG SAUER in their typical SIG SAUER way decided to use a 13.5×1 metric left hand thread pitch for their barrels. This means that normal flash hiders and muzzle devices will not fit, which is both good and bad. It’s good because you won’t be tempted to put a 5.56 muzzle brake on the 9mm (~.38 caliber) barrel, but it’s bad because your silencers and associated awesomeness will need a custom thread pitch adapter to properly mount. For those like myself and Jeremy S. who own a Mystic X this is as simple as calling up Liberty Suppressors and asking them to cut us a custom mount, but if your can is a fixed thread version then this could be an issue.
Back to the external controls on the gun, everything is fully ambidextrous. There’s a bolt release and magazine release located both on the left and right side of the gun, and the safety selector is ambi as well.
The receiver is cut to allow their nifty collapsible stock to be used on the gun, but you don’t have to use it. The rear of the MPX has a Picatinny rail cut into it, allowing you to mount basically whatever you want. The pistol version will come from the SIG SAUER with either a pistol arm brace on a side-swinging knuckle, or just a plain Picatinny rail on the rear. There’s also a NFA version for those who don’t want to engrave their MPXes, FYI.
The magazines have been custom designed by Lancer to actually work. Most engineers I talk to say that the key to firearms design is to find a magazine that works and then design a gun around it, and SIG SAUER seems to have done just that. SIG SAUER isn’t a magazine company, so they asked the best in the business to make it happen and the result is not only functional but beautiful. The guns will ship with two magazines, and more will be available shortly in varying lengths and capacities.
Price on new replacement magazines? $55 each. Expensive, but this is the only gun that takes them (for now), and as more people buy the gun the price should come down as well. Hopefully.
Disassembly of the gun is easy and painless. Pull a few pins and the whole thing comes apart, even the handguards. The whole thing is very easy to clean and maintain, and replacing parts is a snap.
The gun looks awesome, has some killer features, and seems to be well built, but the real test is whether the gun runs out in the real world. To find out we took the MPX out into a wet and cold Georgia morning to do some accuracy and reliability testing.
The R&D guys say that Aguila ammunition won’t run in the gun, but we fed it a steady diet of nothing but Aguila for a little bit and the gun didn’t even hiccup. In fact, just like the pre-production MPX that we’ve been playing with for months, the gun ran without a single issue. The only problem I found with the MPX was that unmistakably terrible stock trigger. To be fair, the gun is designed as a close range PDW, but still a better trigger would be appreciated.
Even with that trigger, though, accuracy is pretty nice.
This target was fired from 15 yards, and for an 8 inch pistol caliber carbine that’s pretty darn good. More accurate than the CZ Scorpion Evo 3 S1 pistol to be sure. Since the majority of the variability is in the vertical component rather than the horizontal, I get the feeling that the ammunition (Federal 115 grain standard ammo) is to blame, and the gun is capable of much better accuracy with better ammo. Even as-is, though, it put all five rounds practically through the same hole.
Kevin Brittingham tried as well, but his group wasn’t as impressive. And yes, I’m posting this just to poke fun at his marksmanship and for no other purpose.
The gun looks great, shoots great, and feels great. It meets all of the expectations that I had for it. So let’s talk about the use case, price, and how it stacks up against the competition.
The biggest question people are going to ask is what good a pistol caliber carbine really is. To me, this is pretty much the perfect home defense gun. I’m a strong believer that a full-length rifle is pretty much the worst choice for a home defense firearm. The reason is that the weight of the gun and the length of the barrel make it awkward and heavy to maneuver in the confines of a home or apartment. Try holding your rifle in one hand aimed at your bedroom door and a cell phone in the other while trying to dial 911 and you’ll see how difficult that can be. The compact form factor of the MPX eliminates nearly all of those concerns, since the shorter arm makes the weight much easier to handle.
While home defense use might be the main reason for some to buy the gun, the biggest reason is going to be the cool factor. Everyone and their brother own an AR-15 these days, and while having the coolest AR-15 on the range is nice, what’s even cooler is to have something legitimately different. The MPX is an absolute blast to shoot. There’s no doubt that if you show up with an MPX rather than “just another AR-15″ you’re going to be a popular guy.
Finally, for those who just like to shoot, the 9mm cartridge is a pretty darn good choice. The prices on 5.56 NATO have been fluctuating wildly over the last few years, but no one has seriously presented any proposals to ban standard handgun ammunition. Generally, 9mm prices stay pretty steady and fairly low, which means that even when the next Evil Black Rifle (TM) ban is inevitably proposed, you’ll still be able to find something to shoot.
The pistol versions of the gun will run $1,648 with the brace and attachment and $1,378 without the brace. That’s MSRP, not street price, which will be considerably lower. There are two competitors for the same market, and I’d like to tackle each individually.
The obvious competition is the POF-5. The Pakistani-made semi-auto H&K MP5 pistol is a 100% officially licensed copy of the original, and works identically to the real deal. It has all the same features, takes all the same parts, and looks factory fresh. Compared to the MPX, the gun is decidedly out of date — stamped and welded sheet metal receiver, old style action, no attachment points for accessories, and old magazines. The gun clocks in at $1,400+ retail (NOT MSRP) without the brace and $275 more with a brace, so already the retail price of the gun is higher than the MSRP of the MPX. In short, there really isn’t anything to recommend the POF-5 over the MPX from usability to price. The only place where it has the MPX beat is that MP5 magazines are easier to find, but not necessarily less expensive.
The newest entry into the market is the new CZ Scorpion. It does all the same things that the MPX does, but with a little less swagger. Instead of aluminum and steel, the Scorpion is mostly plastic. Instead of a proper gas system, the Scorpion uses a heavy blowback action. And while the MPX is svelte and ergonomic, the Scorpion isn’t exactly the most comfortable thing to hold. But it works, and for $849 MSRP it works for a lot less money. Just like choosing between a Ford and a BMW, you can often get similar specs at a lower price, but the fit and finish definitely won’t be in the same solar system.
I like the MPX. I’ve liked it since the first day I saw it. And now, if you’ll excuse me for a moment, I’m going to go buy one.
Specifications: SIG SAUER MPX Pistol
Caliber: 9mm
Action: Semi-auto
Barrel: 8″
Weight: 6.1 lbs
Length: 26.37 Inches
Magazine: Two 30-round magazines included
MSRP: $1,648 with brace, $1,378 without
Ratings (out of five stars):
Accuracy: * * * * *
For an 8″ barrel pistol caliber carbine, this is pretty awesome.
Ergonomics: * * * * *
Everything about this gun feels perfect in your hands.
Reliability: * * * * *
No issues. We fired hundreds of rounds through the production guns and thousands of rounds through the pre-production versions without a single issue.
Customization: * * * * *
The bolt and charging handle can’t be easily swapped, but everything else is up for grabs. New stock? New barrel? New trigger? Why not?
Overall: * * * * 1/2
I’m knocking a half a star off for the God-awful trigger, the proprietary accessory mounting system on the handguards, and the whole “Version 1″ issue. But even so, on its own merits, this is a fantastic firearm.
The post TTAG Exclusive! Gun Review: SIG SAUER MPX Pistol appeared first on The Truth About Guns.
Sure, .22 LR has been a bit hard to come by over the last couple of years. That’s a change from the norm, of course, where .22 LR was the choice for inexpensive practice. While owning dedicated .22 firearms is great — great for collecting, for fun, for plinking, hunting, and target shooting — .22 conversion kits are often the best option for legitimate practice. That is, for the purpose of gaining familiarity with a primary, centerfire firearm but doing so with inexpensive ammo. At the very pinnacle of the conversion kit game is CZ’s Kadet Adapter for CZ 75-based pistols. . .
Actually, not only isn’t that hyperbole, but it’s likely a bit of an understatement. The Kadet Adapter isn’t just a great conversion kit, it’s so dang good that, compared even against complete firearms, it makes for one of the best .22 LR pistols available. Why? I’m glad you asked.
Right off the bat, we all want a reliable last round hold open feature. Many rimfire pistols don’t actually lock back on empty at all, but the Kadet Adapter checks it off the list. It comes with its own slide stop, which provides for this functionality in nearly every CZ 75 frame variant in both 9mm and .40 S&W, full-size and compact. The standard, centerfire slide stops can still be used — and have to be used on a couple of models — but typically don’t lock the slide back on empty.
As you can see above, only a portion of the “slide” reciprocates. I am of the opinion that this is the proper way to design a semi-automatic, .22 LR pistol. The real classics — the best, most reliable rimfire pistols that have proven the test of time — like the S&W Model 41, Colt Woodsman, Browning Buckmark, Ruger Mark series, and basically all Olympic style rimfire pistols, operate with some variation of this concept. It allows for something that you will not find in a .22 where the whole slide reciprocates. Steel.
It’s all machined from solid steel. Solid, forged steel, that is. Just like slide of the real-deal CZ 75. Same quality steel, same durable polycoat finish, same full-length slide rails. Were the entire slide to reciprocate, steel would simply be too heavy. .22 LR doesn’t have the oomph to cycle a steel slide and cock a hammer or striker that has enough spring power to reliably ignite rimfire ammo while also overcoming a recoil spring strong enough to return the slide with enough force to reliably strip the next round from the magazine and chamber it.
The fanciest of conversion kits or complete pistols with entire slides that cycle will employ an aluminum slide. Most use cast zinc alloy. Although neither is as durable or reliable long-term as steel, the real issue is reliability. Well, some of that is due to the durability, as the manufacturer must ensure that the slide doesn’t get battered at its full rearwards travel or upon slamming back into battery. Typically the compromise is a pistol that runs on high-powered .22 LR ammo but isn’t reliable at all with standard, target, or weak ammo. Often a soft recoil spring is used to prevent a violent return to battery, which can mean feeding problems, and an excessively stiff hammer spring is used to slow the slide’s rearward motion down, which can have negative consequences to the trigger pull. It also may be harder to optimize the mass of the slide itself, ending up with something a bit too heavy or possibly even too light but without an easy solution for that.
Using steel and a tiny slide or even an internal bolt, the mass can be tuned to perfection…
Top of reciprocating slide. Cuts serve no apparent function but to tune total mass.
…and there is little concern for the impact at either end of the slide’s travel. As I’ve owned my Kadet Adapter since early 2011 and have at least a couple thousand rounds through it, I can confidently say that it holds up over time and that it reliably cycles pretty much every .22 LR load out there from the lightest target loads to the hottest hyper velocity rounds.
But wait, there’re more! The all-steel CZ Kadet Adapter upper weighs about the same amount as an all-steel CZ 75 upper. In fact, the Kadet comes in at 16.95 oz and my SP-01 9mm slide weighs 16.16 oz. For valid practice and training, this makes a huge difference.
The kit comes with what you see below, in addition to a bronze bore brush and a slotted plastic rod for cleaning patches, all in a plastic CZ gun case. The magazines are actual CZ 75, 10-round, steel magazines, modified to feed .22 LR.
An insert is spot welded inside of the magazine body, which single stacks the .22 rounds and provides a pretty sweet, key hole-shaped channel for the anti-tilt follower.
Again on the practice and training front, the magazines look and feel like the real thing. They fit in the same magazine holsters as the real thing. They insert and eject just like the real thing. No surprise, of course, as they actually are the real thing.
Out of the box, the Kadet Adapter comes with quality target sights installed. The rear is a blade style sight, easily adjustable for both windage and elevation.
Both front and rear sights are steel, in a standard 3-dot configuration. The dots are small in diameter, painted in a bright, slightly green color that stands out nicely.
Sights are dovetailed and mounted in the standard CZ 75 fashion, so should these sights not suit one’s fancy there is no shortage of other CZ and aftermarket options.
As is the case with nearly every .22 LR on the market, the barrel is fixed. It is cold hammer forged like the rest of CZ’s barrels, and it’s exceedingly accurate. I used a LaserMax UNI-MAX laser mounted on my SP-01 frame’s accessory rail and a sandbag rest to help me shoot the following groups at 25 yards in an indoor range.
You know, the absolutely amazing trigger on this gun was also a big help when it came to turning in decent 5-shot groups, and that brings us to…
The Best Part
Valid practice/training meets value. When I take the 45 seconds to install the Kadet Adapter atop my SP-01, I’m still shooting my SP-01. The hours of tuning and hundreds of dollars that I’ve put into trigger and sear, hammer, grip panels, safeties, and other parts? None of that changes. Weight, balance, grip — keeping these three variables the same means drawing from a holster and transitioning between targets feels the same — trigger, battery of arms (controls & operation), competition holster, and magazine holsters are all identical. Sights would be the same if I chose to make it so.
Obviously, yes, shooting .22 LR is different from shooting 9mm or .40 S&W. Sure, it’s hard to find .22 for 4 cents a round these days, but it’s still significantly cheaper than centerfire ammo. If you’re in the camp that thinks the reduced recoil invalidates the practice, I’m going to disagree entirely. Just as dry firing is critical to learning and ingraining proper trigger pull fundamentals and muscle memory, shooting .22 offers much of the same benefit. By eliminating or greatly reducing the flinch and recoil compensation that plagues many shooters, one can achieve quality practice that drives home good shooting habits. With less fatigue (and more rounds per dollar), range sessions can be longer before fundamentals start to degrade.
There’s also a convenience factor, as the Kadet Adapter isn’t a firearm. Order it online and it ships right to your door.
The Worst Part
It’s expensive. On the CZ-USA web store, as I write this, the Kadet Adapter runs $431.10. Although they used to distribute these to various retailers, that is no longer the case. They are only available direct from CZ-USA. This makes finding a deal more difficult, although CZ-USA does have a few web store sales each year (I’m on the e-mail list, and get one maybe as often as quarterly, usually announcing a sale event).
On the bright side, availability is better than ever before. Finding these things in stock anywhere used to be a heck of an ordeal, but that has changed. Finding a used one for sale was and still is practically impossible, though.
The thin slide — the part that actually cycles — doesn’t leave a lot of real estate to grab. This would be a massive point of contention on a self defense gun, but on a .22 it doesn’t matter much. With no locking mechanism and a fairly gentle recoil spring, it’s still very easy to rack that slide (especially with the hammer cocked). It’s just a matter of pinching the correct part of the upper. This is the only place where equal practice and training breaks down, although in competition I drop the slide with the slide stop lever instead of slingshotting it, so for that purpose the function is the same. Clearing a malfunction, though, may require a different grip on the slide from one’s norm.
It should also be mentioned that, due to how much harder it is to sufficiently dent the rim of a .22 LR round than to dent a centerfire primer, the Kadet Adapter may suffer light strikes if used on a modified CZ in which the owner has replaced the factory mainspring (hammer spring) with a lighter one. This is a popular modification to reduce the weight of the double action trigger pull and, while you can reduce the power of that spring quite a bit and still reliably ignite standard, centerfire primers, rimfire primers need a harder hit. A heavier hammer can help accommodate (I ran a lighter mainspring with a Shadow hammer for a while, and the Kadet Adapter worked fine). As the mainspring weight makes no difference to a tuned single action pull, when I converted my SP-01 to single-action-only quite some time ago I went back to the factory mainspring and it dents .22 LR rims with authority.
Initial Install
There’s a short rail nub on either side near the front of the part of the Kadet Adapter that doesn’t reciprocate. They’re intentionally oversized — both in vertical height and in width (perpendicular to bore) — and should not fit in the rails of a CZ 75 frame without some filing. This is to ensure a snug fit so the adapter doesn’t wiggle on the frame. As I recall, I spent about 20 minutes going very slowly with a fine hand file until it fit smoothly but snugly onto the SP-01 frame.
This may lead to obvious concerns about a Kadet Adapter being “married” to a specific frame, but in my experience CZ frames don’t vary a whole lot anyway. I’ve used my Adapter on three different frames and the fit was completely acceptable, although slightly snugger than on my SP-01, and I’ve swapped slides around on a half dozen frames — even between steel and aluminum frames — and the rails meshed fine.
The rear of the Adapter, by the way, is fixed into the frame by the slide stop. The barrel precisely fits into the frame’s recoil lug, and the slide stop goes through it with close tolerances.
Conclusions
The CZ Kadet Adapter is not only the best .22 LR conversion kit on the market, it makes for one of the very best .22 LR pistols on the market. It feeds, fires, and ejects a wider range of ammo than any other semi-auto .22 — rifle or pistol — I have ever shot, and does it more reliably than any other semi-auto .22 I have shot. It does this accurately, and it’s built to last. CZ may expect you to plunk down a good chunk of change for it, but if you already own a CZ 75, especially one you’ve put money and work into or otherwise use for self defense, competition, etc, it’s likely worth it. There are few other .22 LR pistols that can hold a candle to it for the price, and the Kadet Adapter ships right to your door.
For the record, the Kadet Adapter is not available with a threaded barrel. Tornado Technologies extended and threaded the Kadet Adapter as well as my 9mm SP-01 barrel. Both were done flawlessly.
Specifications: CZ Kadet Adapter
Caliber: .22 LR
Fits On: Basically any metal frame CZ 75 or 85 pistol (plus the polymer-framed SP-01 Phantom). No 97, no 83, no Tactical Sports or IPSC
Capacity: 10+1
Barrel Length: 4.72″
Overall Length: 8.1″
Weight: 16.95 oz
MSRP: $431.10
Ratings (Out of Five Stars):
Accuracy: * * * * *
Mechanical accuracy exceeds my ability to take full advantage of it.
Build Quality: * * * * *
The modern .22 pistol market is full of pot metal toys. The Kadet Adapter is machined from forged steel, with a cold hammer forged barrel, tool steel firing pin, and steel sights. It’s built to last. In fact, I had a little flooding issue in the basement recently, and it turned out my Kadet Adapter was completely wet for about 5 weeks. The thread protector suffered surface rust (not a CZ part), and the screw head for the rear sight’s windage adjustment has a touch of surface rust. She’s otherwise spotless. CZ’s polycoat isn’t the most modern or sexy coating out there, but it’s durable and it kept my Kadet rust-free.
Reliability: * * * * *
The single most reliable semi-auto .22 LR I have encountered.
Value: * * * *
It’s expensive. But it’s top quality. If you have a CZ 75/85 series pistol, especially a modified one or one that’s used for self defense or competition, the ability to shoot .22 through it is great for inexpensive practice.
Overall: * * * * *
It more than holds its own not only as a rimfire conversion kit, but as a .22 in general.
Video review from two years ago:
The post Gear/Gun Review: CZ 75 Kadet Adapter appeared first on The Truth About Guns.
You’d think that the design, engineering and manufacturing challenges of producing the new sub-sub compact GLOCK 43 would be fairly routine for Gaston’s mob. The 43 is, after all, a GLOCK. All GLOCKs do the same thing the same way. Apparently that’s not the case. In an interview above, one of the engineers responsible for the long-awaited foetal GLOCK (as opposed to the “baby GLOCK” G26) explains the difficulties his team encountered during the pistol’s genesis. The main revelation: marketing played a key role in the 43’s development and long-delayed release. Who knew?
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Lights, lasers. Who needs ‘em? My take: a hand-held flashlight is a wonderful thing that prevents muzzle discipline issues and reduces the possibility of, I dunno, shooting the wrong person. Lasers are excellent for firearms training and . . . that’s it. But what do I know? The demand for the devices is undeniable and plenty of gun gurus will tell you that I’m FOS. Generally speaking. Anyway, if you’re gonna have a laser on your gun, a built-in laser is the way to go – especially if you don’t want holster hassle. Beretta’s new 92FS with on-board laser on board is a tidy package with a proven partner. Lasermax’s patented guide rod laser “has been proven through over a quarter century of combat and defensive use by tier one special operation forces, conventional military units, federal agents, SWAT and police professionals, and responsible firearm owners worldwide.” Like I said, what do I know? Press release as follows . . .
Rochester, NY -(Ammoland.com)- One of the most trusted and field tested professional sidearms ever developed – the 92FS – is now available from the Beretta factory with a precision engineered internal Guide Rod Laser preinstalled.
The new laser-equipped Beretta 92FS pistol represents LaserMax‘s latest collaborative effort with the world’s oldest firearms manufacturer. Aimed at delivering the very best in high-tech products to Beretta’s loyal customer base, the new pistols will be offered in both red and green laser variants.
Having adopted the M9 as the standard service sidearm in 1985, the U.S. government has purchased many hundreds of thousands of Beretta pistols for military use and over one million Beretta 92FS pistol variants have been sold to the military and police agencies of 25 other nations. These contracts and their continued renewals serve as testament to the Beretta 92 series’ ruggedness, reliability and ease of use. Thanks to the addition of the LaserMax Guide Rod Laser, the choice of professionals worldwide is now equally suited for concealed carry, home protection or duty use.
LaserMax is the only manufacturer of an internal guide rod laser sight. This patented design has been proven through over a quarter century of combat and defensive use by tier one special operation forces, conventional military units, federal agents, SWAT and police professionals, and responsible firearm owners worldwide. The Guide Rod Laser installs as close to the pistol bore line as possible, ensuring the most consistent relationship between point of aim and point of impact (POA/POI) over all shooting distances. Emitting a highly visible pulsed laser for rapid target acquisition, the LaserMax sight comes factory aligned for guaranteed center-of-mass accuracy at 20 yards. To secure your LaserMax-equipped Beretta 92FS contact a Beretta USA dealer today and reference the following product identifiers:
Established in 1526, Beretta is the oldest firearms manufacturer in the world, tracing its lineage through 16 generations of continuous family ownership. Visit www.beretta.com to view Beretta’s complete line of firearms, accessories, and apparel.
Complete information on LaserMax products is available at lasermax.com or by phone at (800) 527-3703. For the latest LaserMax news, follow LaserMax on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, Gun District, and YouTube.
About LaserMax
Now in its 26th year, LaserMax is a leading innovator of premium laser systems with a growing portfolio of significant patents. Specializing in the design and manufacture of rugged and innovative firearm sighting solutions for military, law enforcement and commercial markets worldwide, the company also delivers premium laser products and optical systems for the semiconductor, aerospace, biomedical and telecommunications industries. LaserMax is an ISO 9001:2008 certified and WOSB 8(m) certified Women-Owned Small Business and was recently recognized as one of the fastest growing companies in the U.S. by Inc. 500 | 5000.
For more information, please visit www.LaserMax.com.
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Our man Ralph loved him some Desert Eagle. Not the baby Eagle. The fully-fledged Magnum Research IWI Desert Eagle Mark XIX .50AE. A giant amongst handguns, in terms of size, caliber and action (gas operated with AR-15-like rotating bolt and a fixed barrel sporting six-rib polygonal rifling). The Baby Desert Eagle may look like a badly circumcised “Deagle” – more so in its slimmed down third iteration – but it’s still a bog-standard hammer-fired handgun, complete with lands and grooves (which would be an excellent name for singing duo). The BDE III’s initial double-action trigger pull is a staggering 12 pounds, followed by four pounds in single action. Set aside some six bills and you can buy an eaglet later this year with a polymer or steel frame, full size or semi-compact, in 9mm, .40 S&W or .45 ACP calibers. Press release after the jump . . .
Pomona, NY – -(Ammoland.com)- This year, marks the 30th anniversary of Magnum Research, so now was the perfect time to introduce a new and improved look to the Baby Desert Eagle III.
The new series is sleeker and features an upgraded refreshing new design.
The Baby Desert Eagle is known by the industry as having one of the most reliable mechanisms in the world, and this is evident in the new Baby DE III Series as well. It features a precision land and groove match barrel, ambidextrous teardrop-shaped decocking mechanism on the slide, smoother trigger pull, fully interchangeable magazines with all Baby Desert Eagle II models, and a reversible magazine catch for either left- or right-handed shooters. The integral tactical accessory rail makes it ideal for a variety of laser and light accessories.
Magnum Research has also trimmed down the slide and frame making its shape even more like its big brother, the Desert Eagle, and the trimmer design gives it a lighter weight than previous Baby Desert Eagle II models.
The Baby DE III can be purchased in polymer or steel frame, full size or semi-compact, and in 9mm, .40 S&W and .45 ACP calibers. The full-size 9mm pistol with the steel frame weighs just 38.0 oz., measures 8” in overall length, with a 4.43” barrel length, and slide width of 1.31”. It measures 5.375” in height. The steel frame and slide are produced from high quality carbon steel with an attractive matte black oxide finish. The Baby DE III can also be purchased in a polymer frame with a black finish.
Other features include a double/single action (DA/SA) trigger with a 12 lb. trigger pull (DA), or 4 lb. for single action. The rifling is right-hand twist 6 lands and grooves, and combat-type, white three dot fixed sights. The Baby DE III ships with two magazines. MSRP for the Baby Desert Eagle III will range from $646 to $691 depending on which model it is.
Magnum Research will formally introduce the Baby Desert Eagle III at the NRA Annual Meeting in Nashville on April 10-12, 2015. Stop by the Kahr Firearms Group booth #2049 and check them out. Magnum Research will start shipping the Baby DE III polymer frame in June and the steel frame will begin shipping in September. For more information about Magnum Research products, visit www.magnumresearch.com.
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From taurususa.com:
We recently discovered that a batch of the new Curve™ pistols left our facility without the caliber (.380 Auto) prominently displayed. We are requesting that these firearms are returned to us for proper marking. There are no quality or safety issues with these firearms and the marking error has been corrected. We are currently producing and shipping Curves to meet the significant demand . . .
We will send your specific firearm with the proper marking back to you quickly upon receipt. We would also like to offer you aspecial edition baseball hat or T-shirt for our mistake. Our Customer Care team is standing by and ready to quickly facilitate the return of your firearm and the receipt of your T-Shirt or hat. Please call Taurus Customer Care at 1.800.327.3776, select Option 1 for Customer Care, then press 8 for priority service. We thank you for being one of the first people to purchase the Curve and apologize for the inconvenience.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
Has the problem/issue been identified and fixed?
Yes, all Curves currently in production are properly marked. We are regularly shipping new products to meet the significant demand.
Are there any safety or functional issues with my recently purchased Curve firearm?
No. We need to mark the caliber on the barrel and will return your gun to you as soon as possible.
Where will the caliber be visible moving forward?
Please reference the image below. It can be seen on the barrel.
How many firearms were affected?
This was limited to some of the first shipments that left our facility.
Are you offering anything for the inconvenience of having to immediately return my new firearm?
We appreciate the people who were the first ones to purchase this new, different and exciting firearm. We recognize the inconvenience this issue causes. Our Customer Care team is ready to help make this process as smooth as possible and will be able to offer you a special edition hat or T-shirt in return for your understanding and patience. If you are taking advantage of the Service Request Process (details below) please DOWNLOAD THE FORM to expedite the receipt of your T-shirt or hat.
Do I have to call Customer Care to return my Curve?
Calling Customer Care is a no-cost option for you. As always, our customers are welcome to utilize our SELF-SERVICE OPTIONS by creating the work order and sending the firearm in for engraving. Please specify in the note section of the work order “For Engraving Only” to ensure that your firearm is expedited and returned to you in a timely manner. Please note you will have to pay for shipping if you use our online Service Request process.
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Five years ago, gun guru Gabe Suarez predicted “there will be many naysayers, but watch, in ten years – every EDC gun will have red dot sights.” Well he would say that, wouldn’t he? Suarez International sells red dot sights for handguns. Maybe that’s because he believes they’re better than iron sights and such. One thing’s for sure: we’re not there yet. My local gun store Sportsman’s Finest has hundreds of handguns in their display cases. Not one has a red dot sight sitting atop the slide. Do you have a red dot on any of your pistols (target, home defense or everyday carry)? Why or why not? [h/t SS]
The post Question of the Day: Red Dot Sight for Your Handgun? appeared first on The Truth About Guns.
Alabama currently bans possession of handguns by minors under the age of 18. No exceptions. That’s right, no exception for parental permission, training, or engaging in hunting or other shooting sports. Banned, plain and simple. Many states have similar laws, but they tend to make exceptions for parental supervision and the like. It’s funny that in the popular imagination, the states of the old Confederacy are seen as gun-owning paradises where there are few legal obstacles to owning and carrying a heater. The reality, while improving in recent years, is far different . . .
Members of the Alabama legislature appear to have woken up and decided that it’s time to rectify this nonsense. HB 328 and SB 262 would allow minors to receive or possess a pistol if the minor has the consent of a parent, guardian, or spouse over the age of 18. In addition, the following additional conditions would need to be satisfied:
(1) The minor is in the presence of his or her parent, guardian, or spouse who is 18 years of age or older, or in the presence of another person who is 18 years of age or older.
(2) The minor is on the premises owned or leased by the minor’s parent or other immediate family member, guardian, or on the premises with the consent of the lawful owner or possessor of the premises.
(3) The minor is in the presence of a licensed or accredited gun safety instructor.
(4) The pistol is being used for hunting, trapping, target shooting, competing in a firearm competition, or firearm or hunting training or instruction.
The bill also eliminates a provision of the code that requires “All persons dealing in pistols, revolvers, and maxim silencers” to “keep a permanent record of the sale” to be open for inspection of the police. Supporters of the bill have characterized these requirements as duplicative, as WAFF News reports:
Currently, the law requires that sellers make triplicates of the records, keeping one for six years, sending another to the chief of police or county sheriff and sending a third to the secretary of state.
[Russ] Durling [of Last Resort Guns], a veteran of the Royal Air Force, does not believe the bills currently making their way through the legislature are controversial.
“It brings regulatory requirements in line with common practice,” he said.
Of course, the usual people who oppose all common-sense gun laws can be found wringing their hands over what appears to be a fairly innocuous change. Cullman, Alabama police chief Kenny Culpepper expressed concerns over the law:
“I’m concerned with the bill and have questions,” Cullman police chief Kenny Culpepper said. “Specifically, the section that allows anyone over 18 years of age as a supervisor, without specifying that person’s qualifications or disqualification’s to be the adult overseeing this. I absolutely support the right of a parent or guardian to take a child hunting, or to teach them gun safety, but this just has some questions I’d really like to see answered first.”
Echoing Culpepper with more snark and less thought was Michael Luciano at The Daily Banter
It could be argued that children, in a legal sense, are of unsound mind, which is the reason the justice system distinguishes them as a group (i.e., “minors”) from the general population. Furthermore, it’s not clear if parental or custodial consent that is given would be legally valid if that parent or custodian has themselves “been convicted of a crime of violence or is a drug addict, an habitual drunkard, or of unsound mind.”
This is actually not an idle question. Based purely on the text of the bill (and not taking into account anything else), it appears to me that a parent who (for instance) was disqualified from possessing a firearm would be able to consent to the possession of a handgun by a minor child who was not otherwise disqualified.
To which I add, what’s wrong with that? As I’ve written about earlier, given the myriad ways in which a person can be barred from owning a firearm for life, this is potentially a huge number of people, who were disqualified for reasons having nothing to do with violent crime. There is a large population of illegal aliens in the country, some of whom have children who are American citizens. Should these minor citizens lose the protection of the law when learning about firearms simply because their father is in the country illegally?
DISCLAIMER: The above is an opinion piece, and is not legal advice, nor does it create an attorney-client relationship in any sense. If you need legal advice on this subject, you are strongly urged to hire and consult your own counsel.
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I attended a special GLOCK event last night where I got the opportunity to put some rounds through the brand new GLOCK 43. Like I’ve said, on spec, the handgun looks like it fills a much-needed hole in my personal arsenal — a handgun that can be either a pocket pistol or a holstered sidearm depending on the weather. Something I can slide in my pocket and forget about…until I need it. Now that I’ve actually had some trigger time with the gun, I think I can make a more informed decision. And that decision is . . .
I really, really need to buy one.
The GLOCK 43 addresses all of my complaints about the GLOCK 19 when it comes to concealed carry. Instead of being a massive and chunky boat anchor, the gun is sleek and svelte. I could slide it in my pocket and it disappears without an issue…unless there’s an RSO behind me watching to make sure I don’t go home with any extra door prizes. The slim profile also means that I can wear tighter shirts without worrying about printing, which has become a more important factor now that I’m about 50 pounds slimmer than I was at SHOT Show.
The grip is where things really take off for me. The G19 has a set of ridges molded into the grip that my hands never seem to fit properly, and that make it uncomfortable to hold for me. With the G43, the ridges are gone and the gun is actually fairly plain. There’s some stippling, but that’s it — and I like it. It feels great in my hands.
The baseplate on the magazine really does make the difference here, though. With the extended baseplate — giving the shooter a full three-finger grip — the gun is perfect. It rides in my hand exactly where it feels comfortable, and shooting the gun is a joy.
But when you insert a mag without the extended baseplate, things start to go off the rails especially in the accuracy department. I can keep the gun dead on target while mag-dumping at 10 yards with the extended mag, but with the flush-fit one I start throwing rounds off the silhouette. Moral of the story for me and my big hands: always use the bigger mags.
The GLOCK guy came right out and said it during the briefing: “We fully acknowledge that we missed the mark” in terms of the release schedule. Then again, I’m betting they wouldn’t have sold nearly as many G42s as they did had this puppy been available first. I like it — I like it a whole lot. It’s the perfect firearm for my personal needs, and I couldn’t be more excited to actually buy one (a phrase I never thought I’d say about a GLOCK product). Which is why Dan is going to review it.
Stay tuned.
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We happened to run into some of the Remington boys at dinner last night, including one of the guys responsible for their new RM380 pocket pistol. And a nicer group of guys they could not have been. Even to us! So when the doors opened to the NRA exhibit hall this morning, I made my way to their booth to check out the new pocket pistol. Yes, it’s a little late to the .380 party. More than a year later than the G42, which was almost universally dinged for being late when it intro’d last year. But maybe that’s because they took the time to get this one right . . .
The RM380 feels good in the hand (especially with the pinky-extension mag). The slide works smoothly and surely. Best of all, the trigger feels pretty great for a mouse gun. It’s a long, very smooth pull to a nice break. Think Kahr’s revolver-mimicing striker-fired trigger, although the RM380 is a DAO design.
And that’s about all I could tell from playing with it at the booth. Rest assured we’ll get our hands on one — one way or another — and give it a full and fair review. But given that you never get a second chance to make a first impression, the RM380 managed to get off on the right foot.
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“In the gun world, there are obvious women’s guns,” wkrn.com pronounces, without revealing which firearms qualify for the double-X chromosome set. It’s a good question: what IS a woman’s gun? We asked our readers that very thing last month in Question of the Day: Is There Such a Thing As A “Woman’s Gun”?. Some 98 members of TTAG’s Armed Intelligentsia weighed-in without obvious consensus, and a lot of obvious snark. Our friends at Remington hit the NRA convention in Nashville in search of answers . . .
“There needs to be a distinction in firearms for men and women,” explained Ashley Kerr who works for Remington. “That’s one of the big things we’re doing here at Ladies Zone, we’re encouraging ladies to stop by and give us their feedback.”
The Ladies Zone is a new launch by Remington that’s tapping into a market that’s largely been ignored.
“We’ve been conforming to male designed firearms for a while, and we want to get the feedback. What is it about this rifle that we could change that would really help you?” Kerr said.
Adjustable stock? Low recoil? Ergonomic grip? I’m thinking . . . an AR-15! ANY AR-15! But what do I know? And when it comes to handguns, props to Remington for developing the R51.
No seriously. Although the R51 was a production disaster, it’s easy-racking slide, diminutive (but not dinky) size, low recoil and sleek, stylish design made it the perfect handgun for women’s armed self-defense.
We had high hopes for that handgun. And still do. Let it be known that we will give the new, improved R51 a fair review when we get our hands on one. AND we’ll give it to a female writer.
Props to Big Green for doing market research for female-friendly firearms…assuming the Ladies Zone was not a PR exercise in pusillanimous pandering. Remington is, it must be said, making all the right noises.
With the feedback it gets this week, Remington will begin designing new rifles and handguns for women and others who are looking for guns that aren’t necessarily marketed toward male gun owners.
“We really want to make something that’s well-rounded but in order to do that we need to get a ladies feedback and what they’re needing,” said Kerr. “We seem to know what the gentlemen are wanting but we need to know what the ladies are wanting as well.”
I wonder how the Remington RM380 suits women shooters. Dan liked what he saw of it in the booth this weekend. I guess we’ll have to buy one and find out.
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Rapper Nelly was in Tennessee this weekend. A state trooper pulled his tour bus over for failure to display the appropriate U.S. Department of Transportation and International Fuel Tax Association stickers (a.k.a., a busted taillight). Guess what happened next? Correct! “The trooper was about to conduct an inspection of the bus, a Prevost motor coach, when he ‘noticed an odor of marijuana emitting from the vehicle,'” cnn.com reports. “Two troopers then searched the bus, finding ‘five colored crystal-type rocks that tested positive for methamphetamine, as well as a small amount of marijuana and other drug paraphernalia,’ the statement said. The search also turned up . . .
several handguns and 100 small Ziploc bags, which the statement said are commonly used for selling drugs. The guns included a gold-plated .50-caliber Desert Eagle pistol, a .45-caliber Taurus pistol and a .500 Smith & Wesson magnum.
Nelly, whose real name is Cornell Haynes, was taken to the Putnam County Jail along with another passenger. He later posted bond and left the jail, the Putnam County Sheriff’s Office said.
No word on whether the charges against the rapper include firearms-related violations. If you were the handgun taste police, would you ding him for his choices? Enquiring minds want to know. [h/t AG]
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“More than 70 percent of Cincinnati’s 52 neighborhoods experienced gun-related crimes last month,” WCPO reports. “Westwood, East Price Hill, Walnut Hills, Bond Hill and Over-the-Rhine (in that order) topped the list of 37 neighborhoods impacted by 170 gun-related incidents reported in March, according to an analysis of data provided by the Cincinnati Police Department. Shots were not fired in every case.” Other than the headline’s use of the term “gun violence” . . .
and a picture of a $1331 Kimber Ultra CDP II – as unlikely a gang banger gat as you’ll find – the point is … guns! Anyway, how’s the firearms-related crime in your ‘hood? How far do you live from a bad part of town (or country)? How does proximity to firearms-related crime influence your carry or armed home defense choices?
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