The Truth About Guns

Needless to say, we’re all a bit miffed that

Remington would hold a coming out party for their new R51 handgun and not invite us. But despite the setbacks, I’ve now put my hands on their R51 carry gun. And while there are some things I’m really liking, there are some things I’m not.

The gun uses an aluminum frame, which I’m really digging. Ruger et al are using polymer frames for their mouseguns, but I prefer the feel of actual metal. I get the feeling that the operating mechanism of the gun also requires a stronger frame to handle the recoil. The gun also looks great and feels really good in the hand, which gets high marks in my book.

The wheels start to come off the bus when you pull the trigger. The gun has a very long and heavy trigger, but the break is actually pretty crisp. The issue is that there’s no real tactile reset — no click to tell you when the trigger is ready to fire again. S&W had the same issue with thei

It’s a brave new world out there. Things are changing, and new manufacturing process are turning things that we would normally scoff at into reality. One of those new products is polymer cased ammunition, replacing the expensive brass cases with cheap plastic and saving not only a ton of weight but also rare(ish) metals. PCP Ammunition is the first to market with a prototype polymer ammunition, running at the moment in .308 Winchester only. We were handed a box to test out, and so I headed to the range with chronograph in tow to find out if the ammo is any good.

Here’s a quick reminder of what’s going on: we run 20 rounds of each brand through a chronograph and look at the IQR or InterQuartile Range to get an idea of how tight the group is going to be downrange. There are plenty of other factors in accuracy, but velocity is the only one that’s “clean” enough to calculate and compare (as

Chip writes:

I can’t take it anymore. The messages [from Americans for Responsible Solutions] send my blood pressure through the roof! I had to take myself off the mailing list from the anti-gun group American’s for Disarmament, or whatever Space Cadet Kelly call the circus troop he runs. I clicked the unsubscribe button and found myself here, looking at the image above. Which made me laugh so hard I want to sign up again just so I can unsubscribe again! The imagery is perfect. The Giffords group turning their back on you for leaving.  The kids over there to the right because Think of the Kids!(tm). 

I wanted to give you guys a better look into how things are going at SHOT Show this year, so I’m forcing the other writers to sit down every day and talk about what they saw and what they liked, and we’re putting it up as a podcast. The instructions for getting it automatically are right here. Anyway, if you have anything you want us to see or discuss, let me know and I’ll bring it up tonight. This morning’s episode discusses the Media Day at the Range event where we shot a ton of guns using other people’s ammo.

“But, of course, the auction was protested, because it just feels so wrong to be able to buy a privilege to shooting an endangered beast. Perversely, what the protesters are protecting is their own privilege to feel however they intuitively feel, without the bother of studying and understanding the facts of the natural world.” - Ann Althouse on the Dallas Safari Club’s black rhino hunt auction

The Sako Safari is a gorgeous brute of a gun, a traditional dangerous-game rifle that will stop a charging…well, anything on Earth dead in its tracks. This gun would probably be my answer to Monday’s Question Of The Day, if I had my druthers. Nick and I both got to shoot it, but I think I flinched the best so it’s my video and not his that’s headed for YouTube immortality . . .

Even if you ignore the recoil (and that’s a assuming a lot) this gun isn’t for everyone. The rifle itself weighs nearly ten pounds empty, and costs at least

Aside from a ridiculous titanium Webley, the Korth .357 could well be the world’s most expensive production revolver. It costs . . . Price On Request. The salesman said the Combat model cost “something over $3k.” Why? “The frame, crane and even the sideplate are completely milled from drop forgings. All components are subjected to a proprietary process to achieve a surface hardness of up to 60 HRc (Rockwell c scale). Approximately 600 individual operations are required to manufacture one revolver. Of these operations, only about 30% are actual machine work. The rest, all of 70%, are true ‘man-hours’: Hand work, fitting, inspectio

Dan took a picture of Mr. Colion Noir and me today. The image (not shown) proves that there are some people in this world who are genetically destined for public adulation (Colion Noir, Kirsten Joy Weiss) and some who aren’t (Dan Zimmerman and me). Colion’s stock continues to rise, as the garrulous gun guy prepares for the debut of his new panel-based talk show Noir. Before testing a carbon fiber Proof Research rifle barrel, Colion showed me the show’s “sizzle reel.” It reminded me of nothing so much as Top Gear‘s in-studio schmoozing, with plenty o’ pithy guest gun snark. In other words, it’s a hit! The program will run on the NRA’s website starting next mont

Johnny, one of Kevin’s friends and subsequently one of mine, is part owner of a new silencer company called OSS Silencers. Their whole shtick is that the cans don’t increase back pressure, don’t blow any crap into your face, and can be tuned to either increase or even decrease the cyclic rate of the host firearm. Which is pretty nuts. I had the chance to try one of these puppies out for the first time on H&K’s 5.56 AR-15, and from the small test I had it seems to work flawlessly. Oh, and the gun is nice too.

Earlier today, the post-Newtown Newtown Action Alliance protested the gun industry’s unwillingness to throw the Second Amendment under the bus. They did so by demonstrating in front of the National Shooting Sports Foundation’s HQ – at the same time that all the NSSF big wigs (and 60k of their friends) are attending the 2014 SHOT Show in Las Vegas. The tightly-gathered-for-the-photo-op group singularly failed to make a fuss in Sin City, choosing instead to make their empty rhetoric in front of an empty building to empty-headed mainstream media minions. “We’re asking for them not to aggressively market guns to children and we’re asking for them to stop marketing assault weapons in an aggressive way,” said Dave Stowe. “They also say they want NSSF to join them in aggressively seeking a federal background check for all private gun sales,” wtnh.com added. What’s wit

This rifle is the runaway winner of the “What? You Mean It’s Not For Sale?” heartbreaker prize at this year’s Media Day At The Range. The Sako TRG is a multi-caliber precision rifle system, and it absolutely blew our minds. Even though (boo!) we didn’t get to shoot it . . .

With appropriate conversion parts, the user can switch the TRG chassis between .308, .300 Win. Mag. and .338 Lapua. Without tools. Actually that’s not quite true. It does require a few hex keys and a spanner wrench, but said tools are all part of the gun itself.

The crucial hex key is actually recessed into the bolt handle shown here. This hex key lets you remove the fore-end panel, which itself contains all the other hex keys you need to completely service t

It’s the dream of (almost) every AR-15 owner: having a selector switch that goes “all the way” to full auto. And while it’s possible to own, it’s extremely expensive and a massive bureaucratic nightmare. Enter the 3MR trigger from TAC-CON, which goes “all the way to 11″ and enables a nifty assisted reset feature that gets you to within a hair’s breadth of the trigger reset. It’s great if you want to fire really really fast, but it takes some practice to get used to the trigger. But man, when you do, it’s almost indistinguishable from full auto. Except it takes a lot more work and a lot less paperwork.

“Where’s the -” “It’s not here,” the Remington rep interrupted. For reasons left unexplained, the “this is what GLOCK should have built” Remington R51 single-stack 9mm was not in attendance at the SHOT Show Media Day. The no-show was quite odd given the buzz surrounding the new pistol, and the fact that Remington junketed journos into the hinterlands to run the gun ahead of SHOT (not including TTAGers, for some reason). “It’ll be here tomorrow,” the Remington guy promised. “At the booth.” Meanwhile, I got a chance to fire ye olde (in internet terms)

While we were only able to put seven rounds through it today – and they were .38s at that – Smith’s skilled custom smithies have turned out one seksi shootin’ iron. In their original press release, Smith referred to their Performance Center-made beauty as “a high-end personal protection revolver.” That’s kinda like saying a Bugati Veyron is a nice way to bop on down to the market for a gallon of milk. If there’s a more elegant way to tote seven rounds of .357 wheel gun-delivered dissuasion with a slicker-than-snake-snot action, we can’t think of it. And all for a comparatively reasonable

It looks like everything is still all smiles and rainbows at Armalite after being rolled in with McMillan and Surgeon to form one massive rifle manufacturing company. This year’s new offering is the AR-31, a scaled down version of their AR-50 rifle that uses the same detachable magazines that work in their semi-auto AR-10 rifles. It feels great and works great, except for the trigger. It still feels square and slightly sharp, just like on the AR-30 rifle introduced last year, and the AR-50 before that. I’ve made my displeasure known, because but for that issue it looks like a good rifle . . .

Remington unveiled their new 20/20 rifle a few weeks back, and for the first time we’ve been able to put our hands on the gun and see how it functions. And while it might just be that TrackingPoint’s real deal has spoiled me for life, I’m not a big fan . . .

The rifle I shot was a long action Remington 700 in .30-06 Springfield, and the only difference between this rifle and the bog standard Remington 700 is the scope. Just like the Burris Eliminator that came out years ago, it gives you a range to the target and adjusts your point of aim accordingly.

The only real difference between this scope and the Eliminator is that (A) the ammo is matched to the gun, so you have a more

First and foremost I apologize — we could not, in fact, shoot it. The guys running the booth had no ammo for it, or so they claimed. However, we did get a chance to heft it about and fondle the rifle, and it feels pretty damned good. For a semi-auto .338 Lapua rifle, that is . . .

There’s no doubt that the rifle is lightweight. In fact, I’m pretty sure that the scope is the heaviest component on the gun. Ever

“The Corps promulgated a regulation generally forbidding possession of a firearm and other arms (with exceptions for hunting and use at authorized ranges) on land it controls, including 700 dams and associated recreation areas,” armsandthelaw.com writes re: Morris v. US Army Corps of Engineers, D. Idaho, Jan. 10, 2014. “The court strikes down the regulation on 2A grounds. The court reasons that the regulation affects the core Heller right of self-defense, and that possession in a tent is as protect

We ran into Team GLOCK member Michelle Viscusi (left) and the colorful Tori Nonaka (right). The ladies told TTAG they loved the GLOCK 42. No surprise there: it’s an incredibly soft-shooting, pocketable pistol. Sure it’s a .380 but if anyone has a chance of proper shot placement during a DGU it’s these competitors. At least in theory. . .

Think that the AR-15 rifle isn’t customizable enough? Well good news! The guys at MGI have come up with a rifle that allows you to swap barrels, calibers, and even magazine wells with only the aide of a small tool such as a golf tee. It’s not technically new — they were at SHOT last year — but it’s still cool and we haven’t tested one yet. But we’re working on that.