Innholdsfortegnelse for Volume 76, Issue 15 i Firearms News

Freelance writer and editor Mark Chesnut is the owner/editorial director at Red Setter Communications LLC. An avid hunter, shooter and political observer, he has been covering Second Amendment issues and politics on a near-daily basis for the past 20 years. While the U.S. Senate still hasn’t revealed the proposed gun control legislation that allegedly has 10 Republicans supporting it, a look at the so-called “framework” provided when the “compromise” was announced is enlightening and puts all 10 Republicans on the wrong side of the Second Amendment debate. The framework, released by a bipartisan group of senators headed by Sen. Chris Murphy, D- Connecticut, and John Cornyn, R-Texas, would push states to pass so-called “red-flag” laws, expand background checks for 18- to 20-year-old Americans for some gun purchases, and fund school…

Springfield Armory is no stranger to the 1911. They’ve been one of the leading manufacturers of 1911s since Ronald Reagan was in office. However, they’ve recently reorganized their product lines, and introduced a number of new 1911s — the Ronin, Emissary, and Garrison 1911s. I secured a sample of the new Garrison 1911, as well as one of Springfield’s flagship 1911s, their Operator, to compare and contrast. How to describe the difference between the Garrison and the Operator? Hmm …. Well, the Garrison is like a factory 1911 from the 1980s that’s been upgraded by a gunsmith to give you everything you need and nothing you don’t, if you were on a budget. In the 1980s, factory 1911s were little different in features from the guns our GIs took around…

“What can we learn and what can we change in the wake of another mass shooting?” ostensibly “conservative” Fox News asks. “Trey Gowdy says there are at least four areas worth examining, the weapon, the shooter, the place of the shooting and our culture.” The article is a synopsis of the ostensibly “conservative” former prosecutor and congressman-turned-“news”-host’s reflections on his popular Sunday Night in America cable TV program. Note I use “ostensibly ‘conservative’” to reflect how the rest of the media portrays both Fox and Gowdy, at least when they’re not being condemned as “extremists” or worse. With that as backdrop, and with Gowdy’s previous endorsements from NRA and inclusion in its 2016 “Leadership Forum,” it would be understandable to believe the Second Amendment is in good hands. Is it?…

Since last week’s U.S. Supreme Court decision in the widely publicized Bruen case striking down New York’s restrictive concealed carry permitting system, we’ve already seen things changing in other states — not the least of which is the anti-gun mecca of California. Just a day after the high court’s decision, California officials removed the “good cause” language from their permit applications. Unfortunately, California Attorney General quickly set in motion an equally unconstitutional provision by recommending local law enforcement in the state determine whether those seeking permits are “responsible citizens.” More recently, a three-judge panel of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals sent a critical case dealing with the Golden State’s ban on so-called “assault weapons” back to the District Court for reconsideration based on the new guidelines from the Bruen…

I first got a chance to shoot an AKSU in Brussels around 1990 and was impressed from the beginning. It wasn’t the first compact “assault weapon” I’d fired as I had done quite a bit of shooting with the HK53 during the 1970s and 1980s. Even though I liked the AKSU from the first time I fired it, I loved and continue to love the HK53. Both weapons, the former in 5.45x39MM and the latter in 5.56x45mm, offer the compactness of an SMG with the range and striking power of a compact assault rifle. Both have proven themselves with close protection teams and CT units; and the AKSU has seen combat in various Russian incursions. I’ll admit that I have considered the value of an AKSU/HK53-sized weapon chambered for a…

PROLOGUE: It was early fall in the Chugach Mountains of America’s “Last Frontier” and nearly go-time for a lower-Yukon Alaskan moose hunt. The mighty Yukon River presents an imposing and impressive sight at its point of ingress into Alaska along her eastern border with Canada…but as it rolls towards its terminus in the Bering Sea, it transforms into an absolute monster. Hunting the river’s massive, turbulent corridor can rapidly evolve into a quest fraught with absolutely ghoulish weather and perilous, sometimes deadly river conditions. While a successful harvest is always a cause for celebration, it too comes with a price tag: The prospect of lugging 500-plus pounds of game bags chock full of indescribably tasty swamp-donkey (Alaskan for moose), through woods, mixed terrain, and across silty, waste deep marshes in…

A5.9-pound AR-15 rifle chambered in .308 Winchester? It doesn’t seem to make much sense, as AR-15s are too small to be chambered in .308 Win. and such a rifle would have to weigh much more than 5.9 pounds, right? Wrong! POF-USA knocked down the AR-10/AR-15 wall a few years back when they introduced their Revolution line. The Revolution intrigued me as it is an AR-15-size platform, but chambered in .308 Win. This is NOT an AR-10. The first time you pick up a 6.8 pound Revolution rifle it surprises you with how compact and handy it is. Now, POF-USA is back and they have reduced the weight to an ultralight 5.9 pounds with their new .308 Win Rogue. Better still, their new Rogue is less expensive too! The result appears…

I shot an M14 before I shot an M1A, though the M14 was a semi-auto. Under the BATF rule that a weapon that had been a select-fire weapon remained a select-fire weapon even if converted to semi-auto, it was still an NFA weapon. The selector lever had been removed and the selector welded in place. However, it came under an exception given to members of state rifle teams. A friend of mine was on the Missouri state team, so I fired his rifle a couple of times. Along the Mississippi there was a junkyard full of abandoned vehicles that we used as a shooting range so I’m not sure I ever fired it at a measured 100 or 200 yards. I did get a chance to check the penetration of…

The Solo Evolution project took place in the arctic conditions of Alaska and the arid, temperate surrounds of Texas, but several items of gear worked perfectly in both: • Sitka Gear Kelvin Lite Down Jacket • Sitka Gear Mountain Pant • Eberlestock X-1 Euro From our cold and snowy Yukon River moose hunt in late fall to the Texas deer hunt just weeks later, the Kelvin Lite Down Jacket hit it out of the park. Used as an inner layer while blasting down the Yukon in a river boat or as an outer layer sitting in a Texas deer blind, it served its dual role perfectly. The Mountain Pant was equally comfortable, during both the Texas hunt (and with a thermal layer added) in the Chugach Range of Alaska completing…

Steve McQueen’s mother was an alcoholic and his father a transient stunt pilot for a barnstorming flying circus. After being shuttled around among sundry family members McQueen became heavily involved in gang activities and petty theft. By age fourteen he was remanded to a California institution for incorrigible boys. McQueen matured somewhat while there and returned many times after he found success to encourage the students and bring them gifts. He eventually signed on with the Merchant Marine but jumped ship in the Dominican Republic where he supported himself as a bouncer in a brothel. He subsequently drifted from job to job, working as both a carnival salesman and lumberjack in Canada. He was once arrested for vagrancy and spent thirty days on a chain gang. McQueen enlisted in the…