Innholdsfortegnelse for January 2018 i Guns & Ammo

MY INTRODUCTION TO THE HI POWER came at The Gun Room, a store that used to be in Dearborn Heights, Michigan. We had a shop party at the boss’ country home one weekend. We were, of course, shooting everything imaginable because we were all into not-the-usual firearms. I was eventually handed a Hi Power. To give you the full impact of that moment, it was a commercial-blued, tangent-sighted Browning and slotted for a stock. It wore Nazi proofs and was pristine. I loaded it up and hammered away. Hmm, I thought to myself. The recoil seems a bit sharper than I’d expect from a 9mm. When I was done, the owner looked over in horror, and asked, “What are you doing?” I looked down and remarked, “Bleeding, I think.” Hammer…

THE RIFLE-SHOOTING COMMUNITY experiences trends just like any other market segment. We had the big belted magnum phase a few decades back, the short magnum craze about 10 years ago, and the recent black rifle bonanza under the watchful eyes of the Community Organizer (in Chief). Right now we’re smack in the middle of a race to the bottom. The sprint is on between all the major rifle manufacturers to see who can sell the lowest-priced rifle that offers the most performance. This is a very good thing for us gun buyers because competition drives innovation and right now the big boys are a innovatin’. I credit Ruger for setting the performance bar high with the American. It sells in gun shops for less than $400 and I’ve yet to…

THE SWEET SMELL of race fuel produces many of my favorite memories. Dad was a Chrysler-sponsored drag racer out of Marietta, Georgia, during the early- to mid-1960s, and his love for watching races continued through the weekend before his passing. As a kid growing up in Ridge-crest, California, our family loved going to a dirt track or sprint car race, and occassionally attended a drag race where he’d ask another driver to run one of his Mopars down Inyokern’s drag strip. Just as some people remember where they were when they heard President Reagan was shot, I remember watching Bill Elliott set the NASCAR speed record of 210 mph and the day I first met “The King,” Richard Petty. In 1989, we moved to a farm outside of Abingdon, Virginia,…

LONG-KNOWN for its engineering prowess in laser targeting, illumination and noise suppression products, Surefire is now blending those technologies by serving its customers with a clever holster that accommodates those devices. It’s called the MasterFire Rapid Deploy Holster (RDH). The RDH has been tested and refined in shooting events put on by organizations such as 3-Gun and USPSA. The holster is a cross between a Level 3 retention holster used by law enforcement and a full-blown, open-top competition rig. (Or you could think of the RDH as a competition rig that’s been made battle ready.) Competition holsters tend to provide limited or no retention to allow shooters fast action in the shortest amount of time with the least amount of movement necessary to engage. Typically, the angle of draw is…

MOST RIFLES SHOULD BE sighted-in at 100 yards simply because most shooters expect it. Once a rifle is zeroed, that means the bullet travels the vertical distance (being aimed slightly upward) from the muzzle to the scope’s line of sight before beginning gravity’s inevitable pull causes descent. Knowing the rate of that descent is what troubles just about all of us at some point. Rifles and scopes are more capable now than they’ve ever been in the past. Modern manufacturing techniques offer a level of precision that makes even cheap rifles shoot well and offers good visibility from even inexpensive scopes. However, most of the less expensive scopes have capped elevation turrets designed to be zeroed and then left alone. This can spell trouble if the shot of a lifetime…

The EOTech Advanced Target Pointer/Illuminator/Aiming Laser-Commercial (ATPIAL-C) is the civilian version of Insight Technology’s military-issued AN/PEQ-15, a restricted Class IIIb, noneyesafe laser-aiming device. The “C” model shares the same housing and is designed to the same arduous standards as its military counterpart, but emits a lower-powered, Class I, eye-safe, infrared (IR) laser. It’s essentially a low-power PEQ-15. The ATPIAL-C features a high-power, Class IIIa, visible aiming laser that is tied to a Class 1, eye-safe IR laser for use with night vision devices (NVDs). Because the lasers are co-aligned, the zeroing process can be done without NVDs. Once the visible laser is zeroed, the IR laser will also be zeroed. The IR laser has incredible range given its Class 1 status. I was able to strike steel positioned more than…

MYSTERY PINFIRE Q: I have attached some photos of an old revolver that a friend of mine purchased at an estate sale. It appears to be a “Scholberg & Gadet,” as this is what is marked on the barrel. There is a third word or marking that we can’t make out. It has rust on it and has seen better days. I don’t know much about pistols and from what little info we could find online, it seems to be a pinfire revolver. It is double action. Beyond that, we are at a dead end. Any information you can provide about the history and value would be greatly appreciated. If you require more information or better pictures, please let me know. Thank you for your help. K.M. Texas A:…

BOOM! There’s no distraction like the sound of a grenade going off. The downside for law enforcement using them is the risk of unintended damage that most traditional designs can present. Now we have this, the Amtec Less-Lethal Systems (ALS) TRMR-LE. It’s a reloadable diversionary device that’s clever and more affordable to use. To begin, the TRMR-LE does not require special approval from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF). In part, that’s because the TRMR-LE operates using a removable cartridge, the ALS1208 Bore Thunder. It’s something like a mini 12-gauge shotgun shell that lacks any sort of solid projectile. (However, it can be loaded with a .68-caliber powder ball to disperse an airborne irritant or marker.) What the ALS1208 shell does offer is an average output…

GROWING UP IN THE MIDWEST, I didn’t have a lot of choices in “compact” anything. And there were few choices in handguns and ammunition for everyday carry (EDC). Now, we are spoiled by the bounty in the compact gun market, and there has never been a better time for effective, defensive-oriented ammunition to choose from. So, what is an enterprising firearms maker to do in order to stand out in today’s EDC market? Why, this is America. They are going to offer more choices. That’s what Taurus has done by creating a new and ultra-compact .380. It’s a pistol that’s not only EDC ready, but you can have one in almost any color combination. Meet the Spectrum. Partners in Development Taurus’ Spectrum will appear like a diversion from ordinary compact…

JUST AS JEFF COOPER was conducting his third Leatherslap match and years before fathering the Modern Technique of pistol shooting, he wrote “Gunslinging,” his first article for Guns & Ammo in the magazines first issue: Summer Edition, 1958. In the article, Cooper considered the motivations for interest in competition and how it was driving the development of firearms, holsters and techniques. He also suggested ways to make competition fair and highlighted the need for technology that did not exist to accurately record the time of contestants. Cooper wrote, “The ‘Fastest Gun Alive!’ Who is he, and who was he? Men have always tried to establish champions in personal combat, and today’s version of a fair fight between two men is a matter of pistols ‘from the leather.’ ... Essentially, a…