Innehållsförteckning för May/June Recoil #72 från Recoil

In military conflicts, the concept of fire superiority is to deliver a greater volume of fire upon your enemy than they’re inflicting upon you. It’s a critical element of military strategy. Once you’ve established fire superiority, then by definition your enemy will bleed resources. Thus, fire superiority begets even more fire superiority, until your enemy has been defeated and you achieve your objective. For ground forces, machine guns are a key component of gaining fire superiority, providing the ability to deliver high rates of fire for extended periods of time. This is achieved by firearms designed specifically for this purpose, feeding from belts of ammunition that can seem to be endless if you’re on the business end of one. In the 1960s, American forces employed the M2 heavy machine gun…

In an age where the market places a premium on lightweight, conveniently sized pistols, we still appreciate a well-built piece of Big Iron riding on our hip. A few years ago, Walther launched their “SF” series of steel-framed striker-fired pistols: the Q4 SF and Q5 SF. The larger Q5 was clearly aimed squarely toward the competition circuit, offering a fantastic package pistol — magwell and three magazines included as standard — at a reasonable price for shooters looking to level up their gun gaming. The Q4 SF came to the table with a 4-inch barrel and shorter 15-round grip frame, which, at least by dimensional measures, put it right in the sweet spot for carry, very closely mirroring the vaunted Glock 19 “standard” for what we’ll call a concealable duty…

TIMNEY AK TRIGGER From the very beginning, triggers in American AKs have kind of been a problem. The briefly imported Chinese guns could be OK, but many of the Romanian models copied the original full-auto trigger groups too closely and had trigger slap so bad you’d end up with a numb finger after half a mag. There were some early attempts at better triggers, but they were only good when compared to terrible surplus, and who was using a good trigger for a cheap rifle, anyway? Times have changed. The best, highest quality AK-47s and variants in the world are now made in America — and it’s not even close. Which is why Timney is throwing their hat into the ring, with a trigger, of course. Most other aftermarket AK…

The Vickers MkI machine gun entered British service in 1912 and was retired in 1968, having served in two world wars and a list of conflicts as long as your arm. To reduce its legacy to just a couple of dates in a history book would be an extreme disservice, as it was one of the most important pieces of small arms history of the 20th century, with an impact far beyond what could be originally envisioned by its maker. The Vickers company was the General Dynamics of the British empire’s twilight years. Capable of producing everything from battleships to locomotives to cars and small arms, it was one of the first truly vertically integrated conglomerates, owning not only the factories to produce war materiel, but the foundries that supplied…

01 REGIMENT BLADES AUTO LOCK FOLDER MSRP: $110 URL: regimentblades.com When it comes to knife fighting, it’s hard to beat Filipino and Indonesian martial arts. The problem? It takes years to become proficient in those systems. Most military and law enforcement members don’t have that kind of time. That’s why Regiment Blades crafted the Auto Lock Folder. With a roughly 110-degree design and a retention ring that looks like a trigger guard, this blade can be drawn like a pistol and used like you’re throwing a punch. This allows a cop, soldier, or concealed-carry owner to use it instantly without years of training. Of course, this design limits certain angles and slicing techniques. But if simple self defense is your priority and training time is limited, the Auto Lock Folder…

While the AR-15 has been subject to just about every modification imaginable, the quest for a belt-fed version took longer to come to fruition than anyone imagined. Way back in 1998, rumors started circulating of an AR upper that could be fed from either box magazines or M27 links, like the FN Minimi or its apple pie offspring, the M249 SAW. For anyone with an M16 lower, this would be an easy way to add a belt fed to the collection, and for those of us who had to content ourselves with semi-autos, well, a belt-fed semi was (and is) still pretty damn cool. The concept generated a lot of buzz, but actually getting from prototype to production proved to be a long and frustrating process, taking longer than anyone…

Sealed reflex sights offer advantages over their open-top brethren. They’re more durable, far less likely to fog up from temperature changes, and the LED emitter itself is better protected from the elements. Until relatively recently they’ve remained in the realm of rifles instead of handguns. But there’s been an explosion of options — some of this is due to R&D, but a larger chunk is due to companies simply paying to laser their logo on a Chinesium dot. If you look at two ent companies but their sealed sights appear the same, there’s probably a reason. Most of the sealed optics shown here use the Aimpoint ACRO footprint with some notable exceptions. However, if you don’t have a pistol with a plate system, conversions are available for some common…

I attended Sniper School in October of 1986. I entered the course as a PFC, which was pretty rare. In fact, I was the lowest ranking member of the class. My partner from 1st Battalion, 2nd Marines was a Corporal from Charlie Company. Entering Sniper School was less intimidating than you might imagine. I would suspect my time at ARS helped prepare me for the course. You can see why they don’t want junior Marines attending and how the failure rate was so high. For your basic infantry Marine skills, it was sprint to the finish line. Immediately upon arrival to Sniper School you are tested with a short land navigation course. They expected you to understand and be proficient in these skills. It makes perfect sense, “We don’t have…

Pistol-caliber carbines (PCC) are either loved or hated. Outside of fun at the range, most of the time if there’s going to be a carbine or a rifle used, it’s going to be in an actual rifle caliber. As it’s not 1876 anymore, it’s not always necessary to carry a handgun and rifle with a shared caliber. If you’re hundreds of miles from civilization, with no internet, mail, or form of supply train, then maybe having ammo commonality between the two makes sense. In the practical, real world, it’s really more about cost savings for gaming. But still, there’s that whisper. The one that says you can and should justify it. It can come up with rationales for you to repeat like, “Maybe I need something straight wall for hunting,”…

It was 1981 when Ohio Ordnance Works was first established by Robert Landries II. Not in a backyard workshop, like so many small American businesses, but inside a basement. President of OOW Robert Landries III, son of the founder, literally grew up with the deep bass of machineguns blasting from the basement while he ate his Cheerios. “My mother was a very patient woman,” Landries explains. In addition to the gunfire, those early years largely consisted of buying, selling, and swapping military items on the commercial market, but quickly bloomed into wholesale manufacturing in the 1990s. The following years saw large expansion and ISO certification, but OOW is still a nimble affair with the ability to turn on a dime, especially relative to some larger manufacturers in the defensive sectors.…

Last year, the BATFE pulled another random, arbitrary, and capricious ruling out of their collective asses and decreed that non-lethal training ammunition (NLTA) was verboten for civilian use. With the main players — Simunitions and UTM — out of contention, what options do we lowly civilians have for realistic force-on-force training? Airsoft has been used in this role for years, but brings with it some limitations in terms of range, recoil impulse, trigger sensation, and the lack of effective marker rounds, but it’s better than nothing. NLTA conversions also have drawbacks when it comes to reliability; hands up anyone who hasn’t had to stuff a cleaning rod down a barrel during a force on-force course. Thought so. The guys at Unit Solutions may have come up with a viable alternative…

Bourbon and cigars. Steak and lobster. Peanut butter and jelly. What do they all have in common? Each is an artful marriage of two good things that, when combined just right, produce an experience more refined — and more impactful — than their individual components. Such is the case with this unique pistol, nicknamed “The Staccatoberry.” Mike Quesenberry started making knives in 2005 and earned his Mastersmith stamp from the American Bladesmith Society in 2014. He is a true artisan, crafting knives from conceptual design through final polish. Quesenberry prides himself on doing everything in-house and has a particular passion for steel work — doing his own heat treating, cryogenic treating, and Damascus. For those unfamiliar, what we now call Damascus steel is created by “pressure welding” two different steel…

The firearms community has always been home to a broad cast of characters, but they broke the mold after they made Mike Pappas. It’s not the way he looks, either; Pappas could be used as the archetype for an American dad. He’s not a business magnate, but he’s been a founder of two separate successful silencer companies. Pappas isn’t a professionally trained engineer, but he’s designed and patented some of the best suppressors in the world. His sense of humor is so dry that it can make the unaccustomed uncomfortable, and occasionally something equally true and bombastic bursts from his mouth. If you’re familiar with Dead Air or SilencerCo at all, then you’re at least familiar with his work. And if for some reason you’re here from the heavy military…