Innholdsfortegnelse for October 2017 i Guns & Ammo

HOW DO YOU SAY IT? How is Col. Townsend Whelen’s surname pronounced? Tony Huffman Email I never met him, but I have always understood it to be “Whay-Len.” — C. Boddington MAGLULA & THE PMAG FIX I just read the August issue of Guns & Ammo, and I can’t agree more with Patrick Sweeney’s praise of the Maglula loaders. It was impossible for me to load the magazines of my I.O. Inc. AK47 until I got a Maglula. I use an 18-shot EAA Witness in 9mm, and my thumb took a real beating until I got one for that pistol, too. The loaders that come with the purchase of a Glock and several other brands are useless. The Maglula isn’t cheap, but who cares when they do the job so…

AS SPORTSMEN AND OUTDOOR ENTHUSIASTS, we are often drawn to products that are utilitarian in nature. They are usually great for work but less so for play. The Polaris RZR 4 900 EPS captured our attention, and we quickly discovered that Polaris’ latest four-seat RZR can combine both work and play. And a large credit for this goes to its storage capabilities provided by the cargo area and the generous (and removable) rear seats. These were great places to store packs, rifle cases, coolers and other large, oddly shaped items while leaving enough room to carry a few shooting partners or hunting buddies. With 75 horsepower, the ProStar 900 four-stroke DOHC twin-cylinder engine has plenty of power to haul heavy loads at a slow and steady pace, yet rockets north…

LET’S START WITH A RIDDLE: What commercial firearm can be a handgun, a carbine, a full-up long rifle … or a shotgun? And what commercial firearm can be a muzzleloader, centerfire or rimfire … and easily changed to one of several dozen cartridges? I submit there is just one , the Thompson/ Center (T/C) Contender. During the past half-century, this firearm has progressed from Contender to Encore to G2 Contender. It’s still faithful to Warren Center’s design and is still offered in a myriad of variations with almost innumerable interchangeable barrels. If there’s a more versatile platform, I simply don’t know what it might be. Beginnings In 1945, Kenneth W. Thompson started a machine shop in his garage in Long Island, New York. In time it became the K.W. Thompson…

THE WORLD IS AWASH with striker-fired and polymer pistols, but not everyone wants a soulless sidearm for everyday carry (EDC). Bill Wilson, the namesake of Wilson Combat, is one of those discriminating shooters. So he built a compact, large-capacity, 1911-ish pistol called the EDC X9. It’s chambered in 9mm and is almost the same size as many popular Wonder Nines. The EDC X9 begins life as a billet of pre-hardened 7075-T6 aluminum. Wilson Combat machines a receiver that soon contains its 15-round, double-stack magazine that was developed jointly with Mec-Gar. This receiver is sleek and all business, with any semblance of extra bulk eliminated. The receiver has diagonal nonslip grooves machined into the frontstrap that Wilson calls its “X-TAC” pattern. It stops before the grips, where the panels come flush…

HAND-FORMING HOLSTERS in a basement circa 2005 is how three friends initiated Raven Concealment Systems (RCS). The company has since grown quietly through its reputation and now makes holsters from a combination of compression molding, injection molding and vacuum-forming technology. Their current lineup represents a modular and concealable polymer platform that supports the most popular models and configurations that their pistols demand. And everything about these holsters is made in the U.S. by American citizens. The Phantom is a popular model that’s usually shipped as an outside-the-waistband (OWB) holster. However, optional accessories allow it to be reconfigured for other styles of carry, including inside the waistband (IWB). The Phantom is assembled using a front and back shell that’s formed from extruded sheets of polymer. Other polymer components, such as the…

ALTHOUGH BEST KNOWN for its ACOG lineup that is so popular with the U.S. military, Trijicon has been manufacturing variable-power optics for years. The AccuPoint line of low-power variable scopes relies on both fiber optic and tritium illumination technology to provide users with brightly lit reticles visible under the highest noon sun to virtually no light at all. One of Trijicon’s more recent developments is its Accu-Power line of scopes. These optics are constructed the same as its premium AccuPoint line, but the AccuPower scopes utilize LED illumination technology in place of fiber optics and have more refined reticles. Trijicon’s newest AccuPower example is the 1-8x24mm, a model intended for use on a wide range of rifles. It’s just as at home on a hunting rifle as it is on…

HEARING THE NAME “HK” generally conjures an image of an MP5. To be more specific, many of us think back to the MP5K. The “K” stands for the German-word kurz , meaning “short.” When it was introduced in 1976, it didn’t have a shoulder stock, and due to its light and shortened bolt, it cycled faster than a standard MP5, too. In 1986, three sales guys working for HK in Chantilly, Virginia, were busy selling the HK94, a semiautomatic 9mm carbine variant of the MP5 that featured a 16.14-inch barrel and fixed stock. In the commercial market, there were not many options beyond the Uzi for a semiauto pistol, so a short HK94 appeared to be a good idea. Recently, I interviewed one of these three salesmen — who asked…

Of the 700-plus employees at Leupold & Stevens, 106 work in the engineering department. That’s a lot of brainpower to have sitting under one roof, but Leupold put it all to good use in designing its new VX-3i LRP scope line. The design priorities of the Long-Range Precision (LRP) were to offer the most relevant features and the highest optical performance for as low a price as possible. Leupold took notice of the rapid growth in long-range hunting and competition markets and decided to offer an optic line that had everything a shooter needed primarily for these disciplines, while keeping the finished product as simple and attractively priced as possible. I think it succeeded in meeting these goals. Allow me to explain. Big Muscle Movements While the scope bears the…

BEFORE THE INTERNET and outdoor TV, John Henry Wootters was neither flamboyant nor flashy. He often kept to himself and enjoyed a good life with his wife of 55 years, Jeanne. Yet, in an often understated but always straightforward manner, he was one of the most respected gunwriters of the 20th century. Born in 1928, Wootters was a writers’ writer. He hunted his first deer, an eight-point whitetail, at age 12. Unlike most in the profession, he held a triple-science degree in biology, chemistry and physics from Baylor University, which also included a journalism major. His first writing job in 1950 was for a cancer bulletin for a hospital in Houston, Texas. During the Korean War, the U.S. Army wisely made him a combat correspondent, covering the endless negotiations at…

Not interested in submitting an ATF Form 1 or paying a tax to possess a short-barreled rifle (SBR)? Then get to know SB Tactical ( sbtactical.com ). They offer a fixed and folding stabilizing brace for the HK SP5K (and clones), as well as several braces and adapters for AK- and AR-style pistols; the B&T APC; CZ Scorpion; IWI Tavor and Uzi Pro; Kriss Vector SDP; and SIG Sauer MCX and MPX. The brace shown with the SP5K here is SB Tactical’s SBT5K model ( $250 ). To install, push out the upper and lower push-pins that secure the factory backplate and remove. The SBT5K brace simply attaches without further disassembly. It features a sling swivel that will accept a single-point sling, as well as an arm band…

MORE AMERICANS than ever are relying on AR-15s for home defense. Not only is an AR easier to shoot more accurately than a handgun — thanks to its additional points of contact with the body (cheek weld, shoulder mount and two hands) — an AR-type rifle chambered in .223 Rem./5.56 NATO produces superior terminal performance and penetrates less when compared to the typical handgun. And felt recoil is virtually nil . Unless you live in a state where AR-15 ownership is heavily regulated, you’ll have access to more rounds (compared to most handguns) with which to protect yourself and your family in the event of a home invasion. Ten rounds seems sufficient until you consider the likelihood of multiple intruders and that it may take several rounds to stop each…

RUGER UNVEILED its first Ruger Precision Rifle (RPR) approximately two years ago and have sold thousands of them. The RPR rose in popularity because Ruger incorporated the many features desired in a precision rifle at a fraction of the traditional cost. The precision rifle demographic is growing rapidly as shooters become more proficient and comfortable with these types of rifles, and as interest in competition rises. In March, Ruger announced that it would make the RPR available in .223 Remington. While many expected the .223-chambered RPR to accept AR-15-pattern magazines, it actually feeds from Accuracy International Chassis System (AICS)-pattern magazines. Though AR mags are prolific, this was a wise decision because AICS mags allow the RPR to reliably feed rounds loaded with longer, very low drag (VLD) bullets. An underlying…