Innehållsförteckning för March/April 2024 #71 från Recoil

This issue of RECOIL hits the shelves as we head to Vegas for SHOT Show, where we’ll be joining the rest of the crowds to check out the latest product releases from across the firearms world. While it’s all too easy to become jaded after years of the January routine, the editorial team will take the opportunity to reconnect with old friends, make new contacts, and plan kick-ass content for the rest of 2024. Which, as you may have noticed, is an election year. As pointed out by BJ Campbell in his excellent analysis in this issue, over half of American households admit to owning guns. Given that this probably understates the true number, it’s a measure of how out of touch the current administration is when it comes to…

In a true case of “what’s old is new again” the last several years have seen not only a resurgence of the lever action rifle, but an evolution of it. Although this platform was once reserved for ranchers and cowboy action shooters, well-known companies like Midwest Industries have committed significant resources to developing accessories that modernize this oft-overshadowed platform. Smaller custom houses like Mad Pig Customs go even further, offering complete boutique builds with selectable furniture, accessories, and colorways. With all this effort expended to teach an old gun new tricks, some of you are certainly wondering: why? We’re not sure there’s a definitive answer. If all you care about is practicality and cost-effectiveness, it’s impossible to deny the advantages of a modern semi-auto rifle with a detachable 30-round magazine.…

When the APC9K replaced the MP5K in various arms rooms, it signified a shift that Hemingway aficionados would identify as the painful death of the old world for a newer, more contemporary operating style. Of the many terms used in gun culture, “Manual of Arms” has either not yet seated its place in common vernacular, or it has already passed from one peak, waiting for the next occasion to arrive in regular use. Whether in competition shooting, personal defense, or military application, if a firearm’s layout inhibits the user’s experience, it will typically take second place to an alternative with better controls. In this fashion, Lingle Industries took an already rising platform of the APC/GHM from B&T, improving the weakest points in an already strong design. When the APC challenged…

Sometimes, companies based in completely different countries release products that seem tailor-made for each other. When we got wind that CZ was going to launch a precision version of their excellent 457 rimfire rifle, and Norma had been working on an extended range .22LR round, they seemed destined to be, and so we had to put them together. It was only a few years ago when PRS shooters collectively decided, “Hey, this long-range game is really expensive! We should shoot .22LRs for cheap practice.” Competitions quickly sprang up around the idea. And human nature being what it is, something originally supposed to be a bargain way to get trigger time quickly evolved into $3,000 rigs as everyone sought to wring the ultimate accuracy out of their .22s and bring home…

There’s something very Victorian and steampunk-esque about the GM6 Lynx. It has the proportions of a steam locomotive or a traction engine, and its mechanism ker-chunks back and forth like an ancient machine tool. But there’s also an element of Starship Troopers in its monstrous bullpup design. While none of us would want to spend an entire afternoon plinking tin cans with it, it got us rethinking our abusive relationship with big-bore rifles. For a .50 BMG, this one’s actually pretty fun to shoot. The GM6 is a bit of an anomaly in that unlike most semi-auto centerfire rifles, it eschews any form of gas operation. Instead, it borrows its layout from a shotgun, the venerable Browning A5, first produced in 1902 and designed by the prophet (pbuh) John Moses…

Garmin is known for its GPS navigators, starting in 1989 with innovative navigation products for aviation and expanding into the outdoor, sports, and wearable sectors. However, now they’re shaking up the chronograph world with the new Garmin Xero C1 Pro. Barely larger than a GoPro, Garmin’s new pocket-sized chronograph uses doppler radar to measure the velocity of everything from bullets to arrows — even paintballs and airsoft pellets. Why would you want to know how fast your bullets are traveling downrange? The velocity of a projectile is crucially important to its trajectory as it flies through the air. Combining it with other factors, such as the coefficient of drag of your bullet and environmental considerations like ambient temperature and humidity, you can use ballistic solvers to predict how the point…

01 BASTINELLI KNIVES FURY MSRP: $300 URL: bastinelliknives.com There’s just something irresistible about a karambit. With its curved blade and retention ring, this Indonesian design is innately sexy and quite dangerous in the right hands. The problem, though, is that the claw-like edge makes them less versatile for everyday purposes. Which is why we’re fond of the Fury. Its curvature isn’t as extreme as other karambits, and it comes with a high-quality Kydex sheath and belt attachment, making it a little more practical. Standing at 7.2 inches overall with a 2.6-inch-long blade made out of premium M390 stainless steel, it pierces and slices with ease. Plus, with a right-sized ring, a thumb ramp in reverse grip, and canvas Micarta handle scales, the Fury finds the perfect balance between retention, comfortability,…

The overall concept of a bus has changed very little since it was invented — get lots of people from here to there. But what if here and there ends up being some Tolkien-esque hellhole that barely has running water, much less reliable thoroughfares? Enter Torsus. Think of it as a 4x4 with extra seating and cargo capacity. It was built specifically to get groups of people in and out of austere areas. So whether you’re shuttling workers and supplies in and out of remote mining sites, need to evac survivors from disaster areas, or feel a strange urge to rescue stranded Burning Man motorists, you may want to check out this Czech company’s take on the concept of group transport. Looking closer at the fleet, at current, choices are…

You know that feeling when you pay a ton of money to go to a training course, and you either begin to feel like you know more than the instructor or that he’s just full of sh*t? The experience at the Teufelshund Tactical Advance MP5 Operator’s Course is the furthest thing from that. Hosted by retired U.S. Marine Corps officer James Williamson, this course will feel like a miniature boot camp for you unless you’re a Special Air Service door-kicker. It’ll initially humble the living hell out of you and leave you feeling, in the words of Sgt. Hartman, like “a minister of death, praying for war.” While it starts out very basic with aspects of natural point of aim and proper stance, you’ll soon be running box drills and…

5.45x39mm — the famed “poison bullet” according to the Mujahadeen who first encountered the round back in the ’80s. Only a few short years ago, these rounds could be had by the case for less than $250. Thanks to the ATF and some idiot who allegedly built a pistol in the caliber, it was deemed an armor-piercing pistol round and banned from public sale. This made the round roughly as expensive as 5.56mm for over a decade before new sanctions stemming from the war in Ukraine drove the final nails into the round’s proverbial coffin. But that’s not the end of the story for Russia’s answer to America’s favorite 5.56mm round. More and more ammomakers are tooling up to churn out this round, both foreign and domestic. So, it makes…

Even bigger and better than last year, this past Veterans Day Weekend saw our third CANCON event down in Fleming, Georgia. We started CANCON in 2022 with the intent to create an immersive range experience ripped straight from the pages here at RECOIL magazine, and we proudly report it’s been a smashing success. Held at the premiere 17 South Rod & Gun Club just south of Savannah, dozens of vendors and hundreds of shooters joined us to send tens of thousands of rounds [quietly] downrange. From the very beginning, we vowed that everything at CANCON would be fully suppressed, and for two full days across more than 30 shooting lanes, everything from the most pint-sized pistols all the way up to .50 BMGs and belt-feds were set up with silencers.…

Pistol cans, for the most part, suck, but if you’ve got to have one, you might as well get something that can be used on rifles as well, to balance out some of the suckiness. Dead Air’s Mojave 9 sucks less than most, because not only can you use it on handguns by swapping out the Nielsen device for a fixed mount, but it also can be employed on most small-frame AR calibers as well. Announced at SHOT Show 2023, it took a while to bring to production due to the manufacturing method employed in its construction. Direct metal laser sintering is used to create baffle shapes that would otherwise be impossible to machine using traditional, chip-making technology — think 3D printing for titanium. Once you unscrew the endcaps, you…

Back in 1988, Benchmade Knives introduced their patented Axis lock. This was a lock mechanism designed and made by custom knife makers Bill McHenry and Jason Williams. McHenry and Williams sold the rights of the mechanism to Benchmade who renamed it the Axis lock and used it on the ground-breaking Benchmade 710. In the years since, Benchmade has used it on over 100 different models and variations. With the patent expiring in 2023, most major knife manufacturers began offering it as soon as they possibly could. The Axis lock is simple and intuitive. A small spring-loaded bar moves up and down in a pair of slots cut into the handle and liners set toward the rear of the blade on either side. Each liner holds a spring to allow the…

The U.S. suppressor market is screwed up due to our insane laws. Because of the $200 transfer tax and monthslong wait time for approval, we gravitate toward cans that have the widest range of capabilities, no matter what host they’re destined for. So, we demand something that’s full-auto rated (despite not having a machine gun), able to be used on several different calibers, and is as quiet as possible. All of which leads to suppressors that are over-built for the tasks we typically ask of them, with an associated weight and cost penalty. In this Build Sheet column, we looked for the minimum we could get away with in terms of a dedicated suppressed AR, which could be relied on for defense of hearth and home. To this end, we…

Many prospective students ask what equipment to bring. Here are six key recommendations to get the most out of your experience and to use your MP5 to its fullest potential. Some of these accessories are platform-specific, so we cover both the full-sized MP5 and the MP5k PDW. 1. WEAPON-MOUNTED LIGHT The most obvious addition to this list is surprisingly complex. Shooters typically want a purpose-built weaponlight, producing around 350 to 500 lumens. Take caution: more isn’t more. A pocket-sized lighthouse beam whose emitter blasts 2,000 lumens isn’t helpful when there’s anything around that can reflect that light back at you. This is especially true for use indoors. If the light leaves you just as blind and disoriented as your would-be attacker, it isn’t of much use. Additionally, you ideally want…

Along time ago in a galaxy (and war zone) far, far away, a contact smiled and pressed a handful of rounds into my hand. “Here, take these. The guy I took them from doesn’t need them anymore,” he explained. Looking them over, it was a typical 9mm copper-washed steel case, but instead of a plain-vanilla 115-grain jacketed FMJ bullet, these were loaded with something altogether different. For years, the Russians have been upgrading the performance of their 9mm handguns and subguns by feeding them armor-piercing ammunition. In 9x19 Luger, these have the designation of 7N21 and 7N31, the main distinction between the two being the weight of their projectiles. According to published reference material, the former has a bullet weight of 5.4 grams, or 82 grains, while 7N31 is a…

On May 18, 2022, William English of Georgetown University published the most comprehensive gun owner survey ever undertaken. The numbers within have been highly publicized, including by such admirably wonderful outlets like The Reload, but there hasn’t been a full and appropriate graphic representation of the stark, eye-popping results of that survey. Let’s do that. ABSTRACT English wrote that the report “summarizes the findings of a national survey of firearms ownership and use conducted between February 17 and March 23, 2021, by the professional survey firm Centiment. This survey, which is part of a larger book project, aims to provide the most comprehensive assessment of firearms ownership and use patterns in America to date. This online survey was administered to a representative sample of approximately 54,000 U.S. residents aged 18…

Staccato/STI pretty much defined the genre of full-sized, double-stack 1911s, and we’re surprised that it took so long for others to enter this market niche, given that their patent on the two-part frame expired way back in 2012. Staccato’s happy to occupy the upper-tier price point of the 2011 market, now that they’ve successfully convinced everyone that sticking one of their products in your holster will instantly make you Insta famous and that cops need race guns in order to hand out speeding tickets. Springfield’s Prodigy offers an alternative at a lower price point, and while there have been some teething problems with production guns, they’re a good way to get your feet wet in the double-stack 1911 game without having to sell a kidney. Today, we check out a…

We love to see the diversity of backgrounds and military/first responder pedigrees of the various brands we cover in the column. But this particular installment of Veteran Vices represents all four branches of the military, as well as the U.S. Intelligence Community — the latter being a first for this column. The founders of Four Branches Bourbon embody a rich history of service to this country at the highest levels possible. Represented among them are veterans of Navy SEAL Teams, Army Special Forces, Air Force Pararescue, and the Central Intelligence Agency. When cofounder and former Marine Rick Franco was driving home one day, the idea came to him about making a barrel of bourbon in memory of his classmate from the Virginia Military Institute, fellow Marine officer and Agency colleague…