Innehållsförteckning för March/April 2020 #47 från Recoil

A lot of engineers, entrepreneurs, and inventors all start the same way: exclaiming that something out there must be better. And it was no different for Michael Tiziani. Years earlier while serving in Ranger regiment, Tiziani got his first taste of silencers; he fired suppressed Glocks, SCARs, and an M110 sniper rifle or two. While he noted the benefits, he didn’t like the perceived limitations of his issued equipment. After he left active duty, Tiziani went to college for engineering and eventually became a full-time aerospace engineer. It was the combination of his background and education that ultimately became the impetus for the Enfield Rifle Company and their first mainstream product: the Novus silencer. Before your mind fills with images of the godawful SA-80, this new American company doesn’t have…

Wherever you go in the world, everyone knows what AK47 (or just Kalashnikov) means. From Indian soldier to Columbian drug cartel member, from Saudi prince to U.S. Marine, everybody knows this rifle and often has a very personal story about it to share. Over the last 70 years, different countries and groups all around the globe have used AKs. These rifles symbolized freedom and terror, resistance, and oppression. There’s no other weapon that inspired so many books, songs, art objects, and exhibitions, while creating so much controversy. What many uninformed people don’t know is that most of the Kalashnikovs circulating the world have nothing to do with Russia or Soviet Union — when I worked in Iraq as an armorer, out of several thousand AKs I inspected only about a…

Chances are that if you’re even casually interested in precision shooting, the name Area 419 won’t be new to you. At their Ohio facility, they make all manner of muzzle devices, adapters, reloading tools, and a whole lot of parts and pieces that go in and around precision rifles. And now, silencers. This last November, we were the first to show you some preproduction models of their new Maverick suppressor. As is the nature of many first iterations, there were some changes in the following months. What you see on these pages is their full production model, quieter and more modular than before. DESIGN Originally, the Maverick was a two-piece design, allowing the user to choose between a small suppressor with a large, effective brake attached and a longer more…

Commodore Matthew Perry opened Japan to the world in 1853. Before that time, Japan successfully isolated itself for centuries, resisting external interaction and influence. Following considerable internal strife, Japan committed itself not only to international trade and interaction, but competition. Modernizing Japan’s military was a major part of this effort. By 1905, Japan defeated a major world power in battle, Russia. By World War I, Japan was able to help the Allies secure the Pacific. Snubbed at Versailles in 1919 and in subsequent international negotiations, by the mid 1930s, Japan set its own course of imperial expansion in the Pacific. Considered the United States’ greatest potential enemy in the interwar period, by 1942 it looked as if Japan might overrun the entire Pacific and present an existential threat to the…

I’ve only got two resolutions this year. I figure two is about all I can commit to and have some tiny chance of keeping — but they’re big ones. The first is a vital step we all can take in order to preserve our gun rights. While it may seem simplistic in this election year when our country is sharply divided on every issue you can bring up at the family dinner table, by engaging with our fellow Americans on an individual level, we can counter much of the anti-gun propaganda paid for by sawn-off, Yankee tyrants. Take someone shooting. The forces arrayed against us have no effective counter to this. There is no anti-gun range. So put a .22 in your neighbor or coworker’s hand and let them ring…

If you’re going to build something that’s emblematic of your business, that decision shouldn’t be taken lightly. When conceptualizing our company vehicle, we tried to think of what make and model would best represent our brand. It couldn’t be a supercar — pretentious, impractical, and way too many “fail” videos out there showing douchebags drive them into a wall. We liked the pragmatism of a hybrid or e-car, but let’s face it, no one brags about having one, and Teslas are only nice if you don’t want to go anywhere. A vintage car, à la the Ghostbusters Cadillac ambulance would’ve been cool, but we haven’t convinced management to appropriate funds to mount a minigun to a hearse quite yet. When it came to selecting a four-wheel metaphor for RECOIL, we…

Building a rifle should be fun. Yes, a rifle is a tool, but it can also reflect your personality and be a form of artistic expression. Furthermore, it’s not as hard to assemble a rifle as you might think. In fact, Aero Precision has a monthly offering that does exactly that — builder sets that combine straightforward assembly with artistic designs. These sets include a lower, upper, and handguard that have been Cerakoted in different themes by various artisans. In months past, for instance, Weapon Works, Blown Deadline, Republic Rifle, Nevada Cerakote, MAD Custom Coating, and others have created all sorts of designs, from various cool colors to all types of camouflage patterns to aviation livery to Veterans Day themes. The components themselves have convenient features designed to make assembly…

Every year, in the heart of the rocky desert of the northern Arabian Peninsula, warriors of many cultures gather to put their skills to the test in competitive feats of expertise, to leave the arena the victor and leave their opponents in the dust. This annual assembly of the world’s warriors is more than a gathering — much more akin to a congregation of souls sharing a deep calling not well understood by those who haven’t spent their lives in pursuit of the warrior’s path. Each of the last 11 years, in the rugged historic land of Jordan, precariously nestled between Israel, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Iraq, and Syria, a one-of-a-kind event has been held where warriors from many, often adversarial, lands gather, leaving their differences at home and putting their…

We liked the Sphinx line of handguns. With their European take on an STI-like frame, they brought a certain sense of old-world style to 9mm carry and duty pistols, and we were looking forward to seeing what they could do with a full-house competition gun. Then, the wheels fell off. After selling to Kriss and seeing that brand’s Swiss parent company hit the skids, the U.S. subsidiary continues to make the SDP compact and duty version of the handguns we reviewed all the way back in CONCEALMENT Issue 1 and RECOIL Issue 7. The original owner has now revived the design with a new company based in Switzerland, and if the example we’ve shot is anything to go by, you’ll like the results. Based on CZ75 architecture, the Phoenix Redback…

It’s rare to see a company successfully reinvent itself. Rebranding, renaming, new logos, and different slogans are all little more than window dressing that companies in and outside of the firearms realm often use to get past gaffes, mistakes, and poor quality. But to see a manufacturer, especially one already known for high-quality products, make fundamental shifts in how they do business is much less common. STI has made a name for itself over the years, producing guns based on the double-stack 2011 grip frame. The 2011 itself isn’t a new concept, with the original design patented and produced in the early 1990s. Since then, the platform has gone on to become a staple in the practical pistol competition circuit — dozens of championship wins over a period of decades…

There are few things more purely American than bourbon. (For more on this, read our feature on the topic in Issue 42.) But even among brown liquor brands, some raise their head above the crowd for raw patriotism and love of all things free. Daniel Alarik is no stranger to such utterly red, white, and blue things. While you may not recognize his name, we bet you’ll recognize his brand: Grunt Style. The brains behind one of the best-known vet-culture T-shirt companies has brought the same unapologetic style to the spirits world, with the aptly named Merica Bourbon. The idea wasn’t Daniel’s per se, as he was approached by a fellow veteran and former Marine who was interested in starting a bourbon brand. Daniel says, “I loved the name, but…

1 While the butterfly knife — or balisong as it’s called in its birthplace of the Philippines — is far slower to deploy in a self-defense situation than a traditional pocketknife, it’s still a popular genre because of the fun and skill involved with twirling it open. No doubt it’s one of Bear & Son Cutlery’s most popular product categories, which is why the Alabama-based company invested premium materials into its recently released Bear Song VII. Its 3.375-inch blade features a hollow grind and is made from 154CM stainless steel, which provides an excellent balance of toughness, edge retention, and corrosion resistance. Meanwhile, the handles are made of stonewashed titanium, making them lightweight, strong, and easy to use (thanks to an assist from the ball-bearing washers). MAKE: Bear & Son Cutlery…

Many moons ago, SHOT Show felt like a second Christmas. A whole week set aside just to celebrate everything shiny and new in the firearms industry. For those of us able to attend, we remember our first SHOT like our first school dance. But when you make the circuit every year that sense of pilgrimage often fades to a reluctant sort of here we go again … Novelty fades. New releases all sort of run together. Disillusionment creeps in. But every once in a while a product or company comes along that makes even the most jaded of industry professionals raise their eyebrows and lean a little closer. In this case, it was both a new company and their truly, genuinely new product. Enter Asgard Defense and their reconstruction of…

We first got handy with a B&T rifle way back in RECOIL Issue 17. However, lately it’s been their subguns, such as the APC9k and GHM-9, that have gotten most of the attention. Undoubtedly some were hoping we’d be covering the APC223 at length — and perhaps we will — but an über-modern 5.56mm rifle doesn’t necessarily blow our skirts up, as there are endless variations on the market. But a 7.62? If it runs as well as other B&T guns then that’s another story entirely. Join us as we roll through the rifle that first looked to us like a Swiss-made SCAR. LAYOUT & CONTROLS The APC308 is currently available in four different configurations in the United States: a DMR with a 18.9-inch barrel, a carbine with a 14-inch…

Whether you’re thinking of upgrading your favorite bolt gun or building one from components, a chassis system offers a compelling combination of performance and versatility that’s difficult, if not impossible, to get from a traditional stock. The basic characteristics that differentiate a chassis from a stock are a monolithic bedding area and an integral magwell. CHASSIS VS. STOCK For those wondering how a chassis and a stock differ, basically, it’s in two ways. First, in a traditional stock, the trigger guard and magwell (or internal magazine) are a single, separate component called bottom metal that’s bolted to the action with the stock sandwiched between them. A chassis is an all-in-one assembly that combines a stock, magazine well, and trigger guard into a single component. Second, chassis and stocks differ in…

When the FN SCAR MK20 was released last year in 7.62N, many were excited solely because they could finally own one. Admittedly, we were skeptical; while we weren’t able to purchase one before, adding to the novelty, there was also a current crop of AR-type rifles shooting the same cartridge. And yet, it performed admirably and could easily out-hang much of the competition while looking pretty good to boot. Of course, we had our own spin and updated some of the now-demoded layout. But there was that lingering question: Why the hell isn’t this chambered in 6.5 Creedmoor? There have been some conversion barrels over the years (we first shot a .260 Remington MK17 five years ago), but a factory option would’ve been nice. And yes, that’s finally what FN…

Straining the limits of if-it-ain’t-broke, don’t-fix-it-ness, SIG Sauer’s last bolt action rifle came to market when jeans were loose, Wayne’s World was in theaters, the Army was buying M9s from Beretta, and computers were running Windows 95. That was the unassailable SIG SSG 3000, born in 1992, and of smaller renown, the SIG Arms SHR 970 imported to the U.S. later in the ’90s. Since then, SIG focused its R&D efforts in the semi-automatic realm, with great success. And after more than 20 years, the company is finally putting its rollmark on a new bolt action rifle. The SIG Cross is a departure from traditional rifle design, featuring a short action built on a one-piece receiver with a barrel nut securing an extension-equipped barrel. At the heart of the Cross…