Innehållsförteckning för March/April 2025 #77 från Recoil

1A/2A:OR ABRIDGING Hiraeth (pronounced “hereeyeth”): a homesickness for a home to which you cannot return, a home which maybe never was; the nostalgia, the yearning, the grief for the lost places of your past. By the early 1970s, people in America were burned out with what was going on in the world and wanted to reminisce about times that were simpler and still made sense. When American Graffiti came out, it started a retro renaissance. Then came a slew of entries that emulated that mid-century atmosphere. Grease, Peggy Sue Got Married, Happy Days, Sha Na Na, Back to the Future, and many others were like warm blankets for those looking to relive their lost innocence. Having grown up on a steady diet of oldies music as well as TV and…

1A/2A: MILITIA, BEING 1A/2A: NECESSARY TO The numbers don’t lie. 2,760 feet per second. About what you could expect from a 6.5 Creedmoor, lobbing a 140-grain bullet, with a .310 G7 ballistic coefficient. The MRAD ELR’s projectiles exit its barrel right about the same speed, but the other numbers are different. Those digits are why the gun was designed. While the Barrett’s muzzle velocity is nothing remarkable, the mass, length, and aerodynamics of its 500-grain A-tip bullet means it can, and has, hit targets out to two miles. In terms of sheer weight, the rifle is probably the biggest we’ve ever featured in RECOIL, and its presence is imposing — there’s no mistaking it for anything other than a means to deliver enormous energy at will on distant targets, but…

1A/2A: THERE OF; If you’re gun people like us, no doubt you’ve spent some time scribbling in notebooks thinking what the “ideal” rifle or pistol would look like. Usually it goes no further than that, but if it does one may end up in the back toolshed in an attempt to make a one-off or two that will never quite match what you came up with on paper. But what if you could do more? What if you could take that scribble, refine it over time, and then create a full production gun? This is the case with Hudson Manufacturing. Sitting across the living room from me is Cy Hudson, a young Army veteran. He’s talking animatedly and gesturing with his hands. He’s about to show me the very first…

1A/2A: AND TO PETITION 1A/2A: THE GOVERNMENT When the Marine Corps began changing out their old M16A2 rifles for the newer M16A4s after the beginning of the Iraqi War, there was an internal contingent pushing for the compact M4. the Marine Corps The M4 carbine not only has a shorter 14.7-inch barrel than those 20-inch Marine Corps muskets, but importantly, it features a collapsible stock. In fact, the major complaint about the M16A4 from those actually fighting on the ground wasn’t the barrel length but that lack of an adjustable stock. The longer fixed A2 stock combined with body armor and paired with an optic with an extremely short eye relief made everything harder. Not impossible, but needlessly difficult in the way the Marine Corps perpetually likes. When the rest…

The Ortgies was a standout design from an era when Europe seemingly produced dozens of new pocket pistols every year. It was designed toward the end of World War I and entered production shortly thereafter. The larger model was chambered in either .32 or .380, with a more diminutive model (almost identical except for scale) appearing in .25. The same frame, slide, and even magazine was used for both the .32 and .380 model, with only the barrel being changed. The Ortgies had smooth lines and few “horns” to get caught on clothing, etc., although it was generally meant to be carried in a holster of some form. The barrel protrudes slightly, but noticeably from the slide, and the design is overall very clean with what some would probably think…

 1A/2A: CONGRESS SHALL 01 CROSSBREED HOLSTERS  TRACKER MSRP: $50 URL: crossbreedholsters.com CrossBreed Holsters is known for making quality concealed carry holster systems, and now it’s branching out into the rifle sling genre. The Tracker is a two-piece design made for hunters who need a sling that can offer both comfort and durability for all-day rifle carry. To accomplish this, CrossBreed sandwiched a robust foam padding between a 5-ounce cowhide leather base and a soft suede backer. Also, the sling is 2.75 inches wide, providing optimal weight distribution across your torso. Available in black or brown, the Tracker is stitched with industrial-grade nylon thread for both a classic look and increased durability. It comes with front and rear removable sling swivels and uses Chicago-style screws to make sling length adjustments. 02…

PRESENTED BY 1A/2A:OR THE RIGHT The ice pick is not exactly a new development. They date from a time before most of us had ice makers in our freezers — or even freezers themselves. Yet, in the early days of refrigeration, they were a pretty vital piece of barware. They inherited a bad name due to spy novels and mob movies, but really, what hasn’t? Most people are just collectors of unusual or exotic weapons. So, keep that in mind as you look these over. These simple tools have no cutting edge, no spring-assisted opening, and no fancy locking mechanisms. Instead, they have just one purpose: put a deep hole into something or someone quickly. As an added bonus, most are extremely inexpensive, but so are most screwdrivers you might…

1A/2A: TO KEEP 1A/2A:AND BEAR ARMS Big-game hunting guide Dan Harrison tells all his clients one universal rule when checking zero: “Three shots. No more.” The reason is that the hunters he guides to trophy bulls and bucks will consistently take that crucial shot with a cold barrel. Shot placement is pivotal. Their zero should reflect such a cold-barrel scenario. Still, come hunting season, I’ve sat at the range beside deer hunters popping off rounds, spitting brass across the bench like bullets, powder, and primers grow on trees — all the while chasing that shifting zero. Generally speaking, hunting rifle barrels are light and thin. They’re meant to be carried long distances, in the backcountry chasing bugles or over Alaskan ridgelines, glassing for Bullwinkle. In the Midwest — whitetail territory…

1A/2A: THE FREEDOM When the 7.62 rifle in question was adopted by over 80 nations and served in a host of different roles, creating notable versions from epochs in history is a logical next step, once you’ve covered the basics. Clone building, but for men. DSA’s newest version of their FAL riffs on some of the arms found in the South African Police Service’s Special Task Force armory and is one of their coolest yet. Founded in 1868, the SAPS Special Task Force was initially an off-the-books response of apartheid-era police to shortcomings of the establishment’s official force. Its founders put together a team of volunteers who trained under experts hired in from the Defence Force and various SF units, gaining skills in marksmanship, parachuting, tracking, and rope work, as…

1A/2A: A WELL REGULATED 1A/2A: MILITIA, BEING Glock versus SIG — it’s a rivalry that leads to never-ending debates between the most obsessive (and obnoxious) fans of each brand. Watching from the sidelines, it’s easy to see that both platforms have their advantages. Glock offers time-tested reliability and outstanding aftermarket parts selection, while SIG has the modularity of the P320’s Fire Control Unit, which allows the serialized portion of the pistol to be swapped into a wide variety of grip and chassis configurations. Have you ever found yourself wondering what would happen if the best parts of both these designs were mashed together? We certainly have. And by the looks of it, so did the engineers at Ruger and Magpul. These two companies have joined forces to develop a new…

1A/2A: AND BEAR ARMS Firearms that discharge multiple projectiles at once have been around since the blunderbuss and fowling pieces of the 1600s and beyond, used for hunting birds as well as war. The basic concept of the modern shotgun isn’t so modern; witness the iconic Winchester Model 1897 pump-action shotgun from the late 1800s. They’re simple, reliable smoothbores that shoot shotshells, packed with everything from a clump of shot to a big honking slug. These days, rifles tend to drive social media clout, but shotguns remain a hugely versatile and powerful tool for delivering payloads on target — for hunting, recreation, self-defense, and tactical use. Arguably, the shotgun market has been experiencing a bit of a renaissance, with many companies releasing interesting new shotguns. For its part, Mossberg has…

1A/2A: TO ASSEMBLE On the surface, the answer to what’s the best suppressor is obvious: the quietest one. But not only is that answer untrue, it’s incomplete. Absolutely, some silencers are better than others, just like how some cars and guns are better than others, but individual considerations always come into play. If you’re looking for lazy, just buy what your friends buy and make up the reasons later. But if you want to know what goes into real testing, this one is for you. In the lead up to our first phenomenal CANCON Carolinas, a group of us got together to give serious consideration to this question. On the panel we have RECOIL Editor-in-Chief Iain Harrison, CONCEALMENT Editor (and silencer nerd) Dave Merrill, and Gun Digest Editor Luke Hartle,…

1A/2A: MAKE NO LAW EDITOR’S NOTE  We’re delving deep into our back catalog in this column, revisiting designs that first surfaced a decade or more ago, to see what became of them, once we broke the news. In this instance, the Hudson H9 seemed to offer a lot of potential, but was plagued by production issues, common when the creators of a great design venture into the commercial realm, without ever having run a manufacturing company before. After a brief period when the gun was everyone’s darling, it suffered from avoidable quality and supply chain issues after entering serial production, ending in an ignominious lawsuit, all of which we covered in these pages. After a few years, Daniel Defense bought the design and resurrected it with a number of changes…

1A/2A: PEACEABLY Global Ordnance is an arms importer mostly known for bringing Eastern European shooters to American shores, but that isn’t all that they do. For the last couple years, they’ve been working with some American manufacturers to bring out their own unique models, and here’s the first: a 5.56 rifle named the Monolith. FEATURES & DETAILS Even though it looks a lot like an AR-15 with a 16-inch 1:7 twist barrel and a continuous top-rail handguard, the Monolith is not an AR-15. It hits some of the same beats and shares some of the same parts, but it certainly isn’t from Stoner. Lightweight at a touch over 5.5 pounds naked and easy to stow at 24.5 inches long when folded, the bufferless Monolith is quite a handy rifle. Usually…

1A/2A: A FREE STATE Magpul Industries Corporation is now synonymous with their ubiquitous polymer magazines. But that’s not how they got their start back in 1999. Back in the day, when founder Richard Fitzpatrick served in the Marines, operators would attach loops of paracord or duct tape to their magazines to make it easier to grab them and yank them out of mag pouches. Magpul’s initial innovation was the original “Magpul” magazine accessory, a synthetic rubber loop that you attached to the bottom of your magazines, which worked way better than paracord and tape. Today, Magpul’s an anchor in the gun industry, with a wide range of firearms accessories and a hard-earned expertise with polymer and composite materials. If you’re new to firearms, you might not realize that between then…

In 2022, InfiRay Outdoor quietly offered up a neat little thermal optic, the RH25 from their RICO MICRO series. Turns out, it was just what the market was looking for: a do-it-all thermal that could be used as a clip-on sight, a stand-alone rifle optic, helmet-mounted, or a compact handheld scanner. All at a pretty good price to boot. In the years that followed, it became apparent that this teeny optic was the one to beat. Or at least mimic. Competitors sprung up offering models in that form-factor, some taking legitimate swings at the little RH25. But its high-quality display and reputation for outperforming in challenging humid settings — along with shrinking prices — kept it high on the list. This year, there’s some pretty impressive newcomers headed to retail…