The AK is one of the most widely encountered rifles in the world and has been used by military and security forces in many different countries for decades. Because of its widespread use, personnel may encounter AK-pattern rifles in a variety of settings, including civilian AK retailers, professional environments, training situations, and while working alongside partner forces that use the AK. Every weapon experiences wear and tear and will eventually fail, even the AK. Regular cleaning and preventive maintenance checks and services (PMCS) are essential for avid sport shooters and any warfighter. Understanding the weapon's condition, maintenance considerations, and common AK deficiencies can provide useful background for anyone who may encounter one. This article briefly covers the importance of preventive maintenance, inspection, and identifying potential faults to maintain equipment reliability and serviceability. This is for both civilians and those using AKs or training partner forces.

Inspection

First, before buying and using the weapon, visually inspect the rifle for damage to better assess its condition. Begin with an overall examination of the rifle. Inspect for obvious damage, corrosion, contamination, missing components, and other visible deficiencies. During this inspection, you also conduct a function check to ensure everything works. If a gunsmith or maintainer can check the headspace, that's beneficial.

Inspect the weapon's major external components. Examine the stock and exterior surfaces for damage or deterioration, and check the sights and other externally mounted components for general condition. Also inspect the receiver and associated components for visible signs of excessive wear, damage, or other abnormalities. These inspections identify problems that may require attention before the equipment is returned to service.

The inspection continues with the weapon's major internal and associated assemblies. Inspect components associated with the bolt carrier group, front trunnion, especially its right locking shoulder, and the ejector for general condition and signs of unusual wear or damage. The top cover and other major components are likewise checked for visible deficiencies. Inspect the magazines separately for overall condition, cleanliness, and signs of damage or deterioration.

After examining the individual components, the maintenance inspection considers the equipment's overall cleanliness and maintenance condition. The final purpose of the PMCS process is to ensure that deficiencies are discovered as early as possible. Regular inspections help prevent minor problems from developing into major equipment failures and support equipment reliability and readiness.

Cleaning

Cleaning has different levels; this applies to any weapon system. Field stripping is designed to be done in the field and at the range, while further breakdown and detailed cleaning is done back in garrison, where you can fully disassemble the weapon for cleaning in a better-controlled environment. This helps soldiers avoid losing smaller parts in the field or at the range.

Cleaning is like any other weapon: start with the barrel and gas block, then clean the chamber. I once had a malfunction where carbon buildup in the gas block seized my piston when I was shooting. It went forward, but not back, so I had to mortar it, so make sure you clean it well. Also, if it's really bad, you can use a half-inch plumbing copper cleaning brush to clean out carbon buildup. Make sure the chamber is clean, as it can cause extraction failure. I always kept a bore snake to clean out the barrel and chamber when I was in the field. For barrel maintenance in the field, when in doubt, clean it out if you think something got in there.

Cleaning the receiver: take apart the major components and clean the bolt, carrier, and front trunnion locking shoulder. Clean the main spring assembly. Clean the fire control group, then reassemble and perform a function check. Finally, apply light lubrication to prevent rust.

For the maintainer level

Hopefully you start with a clean weapon, begin with a visual inspection, and then check headspace. If the headspace is bad, you can tag it as it’s a deadline fault. For the civilian, if you check your headspace (or have a gunsmith check it) and it's bad, you can have a gunsmith adjust it by swapping the bolt or pushing the barrel back and drilling a new barrel pin. For those maintainers operating in forward locations around the globe, if you have some bad rifles, you can see if swapping a bolt can get you a better headspace. Only do this if you have gauges to verify the headspace. If you have erosion gauges and firing pin protrusion gauges, that’s great; use them, but most don’t. AK barrels typically last 10-20k rounds; actual barrel life can vary depending on how the weapon is used, such as whether it runs hot or not, and depending on what performance you are wanting from the rifle.

For civilians and maintainers doing service on AKs, it's recommended to replace all the springs at roughly 5-8k rounds. AK springs generally last a long time, but they do fatigue over time, and performance will vary between manufacturers. Monitoring spring tension, length, and consistency of function will help you catch issues early. Replacing them on this schedule preserves reliability and keeps the weapon performing to the standard that the AK is known for.

As for spare parts, I keep bare essentials in my range bag, including key springs, a spare firing pin, extractors, a compact cleaning kit, lubricant, and armorer tools. It’s nothing excessive, just enough to keep the weapon running if something fails in the field. Keeping these items on hand and maintaining a consistent inspection routine goes a long way toward reducing downtime and preventing avoidable malfunctions.

The Germans and the Dutch weren’t as lucky as the U.S. Marine, and only got rubber guns to play with. Regardless of all the new exciting firearm programs, the M4A1 remains a solid on ranges across NATO member forces for exactly this kind of proficiency training, regardless of which badge someone wears day to day. Today's TFB Photo of the Day proves a good flash photograph doesn't always need a professional lighting rig.

Images by: Senior Airman Jared Lovett, U.S. Air Force

Wilcox has a new, programmable sighting system. The VIPR (Visually Integrated Precision Reticle) optic has a range of digital reticles that can switch on the fly to accommodate different ammunition types or use cases. Those options allow the user to switch to counter UAS ammo and reticles should the need arise.

Wilcox @ TFB:

• Wilcox Unveils MINI-GL40 Modular 40mm Grenade Fire Control System
• Aimpoint PRO X Wilcox Anniversary Package On Sale Now
• Friday Night Lights: Wilcox Grips – Nightstalker PowerGrip & Ultimate Control Grip
• Review: Wilcox RAPTAR Lite ES – Weapon Light/Laser
• Friday Night Lights: Wilcox BOSS Xe – Laser Aiming Device + Red Dot

Unlike other red dot sights, the VIPR can maintain a range of reticles with different zeroes. These are controlled through an app for easy customization. This programmable nature allows for super and subsonic ammo in the same gun. Or standard ammunition and counter-drone rounds through the same gun. This also combines with reticle choices that are optimized for that ammo type. This could also work for switching between less expensive practice ammo and duty or match ammo.

Pricing and availability information are not yet available, but you (or your government agency) can contact Wilcox for a quote.

From the manufacturer:

“The Wilcox VIPR™ is a highly effective and easy to operate direct view optical sight with digital reticles. It combines the familiar feel of a holographic sight with significantly expanded capability. It is simple to operate with a single button nested inside a single scroll wheel, which is designed for reliable use with a gloved hand. The VIPR optical system allows Operators to select reticles for CQB, mid‑range, and CUAS (using the Dragonslayer Systems™ Rapid Integrated Precision Reticle) as needed, which match weapon platforms and ammunition ballistics. This allows VIPR to deliver a unique, but often required, capability that matches the fight as it shifts.”

Bergara has a new rifle model optimized for the PRS production class. The Premier Competition Elite family of rifles is built to be an off-the-shelf match winner. Keep reading for all the details.

Bergara @ TFB:

• Bergara’s New BTi30 Titanium Suppressor
• The New Bergara CIMA PRO Bolt Action Rifle
• Bergara Expands Premier Series With the Platinum Stalker
• The Rimfire Report: On the Range with the Bergara BMR Carbon .17 HMR
• TFB Review: MDT ACC Elite Chassis System with Bergara B14-R 22LR Rifle

The Premier Competition Elite is built around Bergara’s renowned Premier action with a 16-inch heavy contour barrel. The barreled action sits in an MDT ACC Elite chassis system. That chassis has been very popular among precision rifle competitors. It offers an adjustable thumb rest, full-length Arca rail, and fully adjustable stock.

Bergara offers a full range of calibers used in PRS competition. 22 Creedmoor, 25 Creedmoor, 6mm Dasher, 6mm GT, 6mm Creedmoor, 6.5mm Creedmoor, and 308 Winchester (for those of you in tactical division) are all available. All of those calibers come with a 12-round magazine. Retail price for the Premier Competition Elite is $2999.

From the manufacturer:

“Built specifically for the precision shooter, the Bergara Premier Competition Elite brings together a refined, purpose-built platform designed for the demands of PRS-style competition. At its core, the Competition Elite brings together Bergara’s Premier barreled action with components selected around the realities of precision rifle competition. The MDT ACC Elite chassis provides the adjustability, balance and stability needed to move efficiently between positions, while the TriggerTech Special trigger offers a clean, adjustable interface behind the rifle. An MDT 12-round magazine rounds out a configuration designed around reliable feeding and the demands of a match environment. The Competition Elite gives shooters the modern performance and competition-focused features they have come to expect from custom rifles, now in a factory class platform.”

HEVI-Shot is the company that’s always been known for making upland and waterfowl loads that hit harder. This has been understood by hunters for years, and this unspoken agreement amongst their customer base is what the same company is leaning harder into now. HEVI-Shot is officially - HEVI - and the tagline of "Hit Harder" is their new ethos as HEVI’s new brand identity and website reinforce what it has always stood for: delivering uncompromising performance for hunters and shooters who demand the best.

HEVI @ TFB:

• HEVI-Shot Ammo Adds New HEVI-Metal Xtreme 12 Gauge #2 & BB Shot
• HEVI-Shot Ammo Introduces New HEVI-Hammer 12 Gauge Waterfowl
• HEVI-Shot Ammunition Releases .410 Gauge HEVI-XII Waterfowl Loads
• HEVI-Bismuth Upland from HEVI-Shot – "For Modern & Classic Guns"

Hevi-Shot is Re-Branded to HEVI

HEVI-Shot (now called HEVI) has been around since 1999 and their mainstay in technology and performance has always been high-density tungsten pellets. Today, HEVI is more than a pellet manufacturer. Dropping 'Shot' from its everyday nomenclature signifies the company’s growth beyond a single shot type.

For hunters walking into a crowded retail store or sporting goods dealer, HEVI’s new packaging will hopefully stand out from the crowd, make it easier to scan, and find the product they’re looking for.

A Word from HEVI on their Re-Branding

“Ozark, Missouri - September, 2026 - HEVI, an industry leader in performance shotshells, recently launched a new, hard-hitting campaign, including a strong and simplified brand name and logo treatment. This shift marks a bold evolution for the ammunition company and brand. The rebrand includes several marketing elements, such as a new logo, tagline, rolling packaging change, and a new company website.

“We aren’t just making a single component anymore, and a small product line that featured that component,” said Tina Larsen, Marketing Manager for HEVI. From our straight tungsten loads to the devastating power of layered tungsten products like HEVI-Hitter and the everyday reliability of HEVI-Steel, we offer a comprehensive line of high-performance shotshells. Although our new brand name is shorter, our vision is much bigger."

“Many loyal customers were already using the shorthand name for the brand, casually saying phrases like ‘I shoot HEVI,’ so we saw an opportunity to build a brand that reflects the confidence and passion of the people who shoot it,” said Jason Nash, Vice President of Marketing at HEVI. “The new look is cleaner, stronger, and more recognizable, but the promise remains. HEVI is committed to delivering products that perform.””

Carrying a pistol with a weapon light attached is one of those things that sounds simple until you go shopping for a holster. Add a light to your carry gun, and your holster options collapse from hundreds down to a handful, or none in some cases, and half of those that do fit your gun only support one or two light types. Run something outside the mainstream, and you're often stuck waiting on a custom build or settling for a holster that fits the light but not the way you actually want to carry. FALCO's TalonGuard line is built specifically around that problem. I've been carrying two of them, the A911 L inside the waistband and the C915 L outside, both set up for light-bearing guns, to see whether the leather-and-Kydex hybrid approach actually holds up when there's a light hanging off the dust cover.

More from FALCO Holsters @ TFB:

• FALCO Holsters Branches Out into NEW Minimalist Wallets & an EDC Tray 
• FALCO Expands Multi-Fit Line With AM03, DM04 Holsters 
• Off-Body Carry: Falco Holsters Concealed Gun Bags 

The A911 L is a half-leather IWB build. Kydex TalonGuard insert up front covering the trigger guard and light, leather backer against the body, FALCO's matte black stainless steel spring clip rated for 1.5- and 2.0-inch belts. It ships with two adjustable retention screws and an optional concealment claw for appendix work, an open bottom for threaded barrels, and support for over 80 weapon lights. Current site price is $125.95, up from the $119.95 MSRP FALCO announced at the late-2024 launch, so the number has crept a bit.

The C915 L is the OWB pancake. It drops the clip for widely spaced polymer belt loops that spread the gun's weight and keep it planted, sized for the same 1.5 to 2.0 inch belts, and carries the same light-enclosing Kydex insert. One thing I'd flag: FALCO's product page for the C915 L doesn't list adjustable retention screws, even though the standard non-light C915 gets that callout in the company's own press materials. It's either a gap in the listing or a real design difference where the pancake leans on the insert's passive retention alone. Confirm that with FALCO before you order if adjustable retention is a dealbreaker for you. The C915 L runs $139.95.

Out of the Box Impressions

I am pretty familiar with FALCO’s product lineup at this point, and the TalonGuard is their take on the hybrid holster, and the light-bearing versions are where the design makes the most sense (even though I’ve been using their A911 for the Bodyguard 2.0, which doesn’t have a light). The core is a molded Kydex insert that fully wraps the trigger guard and the light on both sides, and that insert sits inside a pre-tanned Italian leather shell. On a light-bearing gun, that matters more than it does on a bare pistol, because a weapon light adds extra bulk and hard edges that a floppy all-leather holster struggles to control when paired with the relatively slim handgun slide. The Kydex cage locks the light in place while the leather handles everything touching your body for a more comfortable carry experience, with what I think is a bit of extra range of motion too.

I requested the A911 L up for my P365 X-Macro with a SureFire XC3, and the C915 L for a Strike Arms SAP-C pistol with a Streamlight TLR-7sub. Both arrived obviously handmade, with FALCO's signature thick stitching and hand-finished edges. The fit around each light is snug and correct and comes with an accompanying “click” when fully seated. Each holster FALCO makes is molded to the exact profile of whatever light/gun combo you have, in this case the XC3 and the TLR-7 sub, rather than a blue gun or an approximated shape from just measurements. The A911 L, while new to me, is probably my favorite holster line from FALCO at the moment. As I mentioned earlier, it's the holster I'm currently using for my non-light Bodyguard 2.0 as well, so I already had a sense of how the platform carries, feels, and wears in before the light-bearing versions showed up.

Carry Experience

If you've owned a FALCO before, you already know the first thing I'm going to say about these: they come stiff. That’s just the nature of leather. Unless it's been pre-treated, leather almost always shows up a little undersized and stiff as a board, and in the worst cases it won't seat the gun at all until it's worked in. I've handled enough FALCO holsters to say they've never once failed to fit a gun they were built for, but out of the box they can be genuinely tight. FALCO knows this, which is why they sell break-in kits, and it's worth grabbing one if you're not the patient type. Otherwise, expect a break-in period on both, thankfully shorter than a full-leather light holster thanks to the Kydex insert doing the retention work.

Once broken in, the A911 L draws exactly the way I want it to, same as the Bodyguard 2.0 I already run in this platform. I can get a full firing grip from both appendix and 4 o'clock without fighting the holster, and the claw earns its keep at appendix by cinching the X-Macro's fairly long grip in tight against my body to cut printing. Reholstering is just as clean, and the reinforced mouth keeps the edges from folding in even when my aim into the holster isn't perfect on the first try.

The C915 L has even better retention and stands off the body just enough to feel stable without pushing the grip out into a print. The catch is the draw. The way the gun sits in this holster, I can't get a full firing grip at the start. I end up pulling with my pinky and ring finger plus a pinch of thumb and palm pressure to clear the gun, then building my full firing grip after it's out. It's not intolerable, but I'd much rather have a complete firing grip from the first move of the draw, and that's my one real functional gripe with either holster.

Durability

I haven't had these two long, but I've handled enough of FALCO's other hybrids to have zero doubt these will hold up. Across every FALCO I've run, I've yet to have one fall apart on me or even start to. They're pretty much bulletproof. There's no question in my mind that FALCO's holsters are some of the most durable leather rigs out there, and part of the reason they come so stiff is the same reason they last: there's more Kydex caging in the holster, and FALCO's designs can feel almost overbuilt for the sheer amount of real leather reinforcement packed into them. Both carry FALCO's lifetime limited warranty and a 30-day buyback. Their reputation on leather and stitching is well earned, but their own product pages do carry a scattering of stitching complaints and at least one retention issue that dragged through the claims process before it got resolved. On a handmade, made-to-order product, piece-to-piece consistency is the thing to watch, so give your stitching a once-over and confirm the light locks in properly the day it shows up.

Final Thoughts

The light-bearing TalonGuards solve a real problem for daily concealed and open carriers alike: finding a comfortable, well-retained holster for a gun with a light on it without defaulting to full Kydex. The A911 L is the pick for concealed appendix or strong-side IWB carry, especially if you're running a less common light. The C915 L covers the OWB crowd who need stability over deep concealment for range days and duty-adjacent use, though the fact that I can't get a clean full firing grip without reorienting my hands after the initial draw is a real annoyance.

Not every recruit arrives at basic training already squared away, and that is exactly what RAMP (Recruit Adjustment and Motivation Program) exists to fix. Some of us have “been there, done that”, or been in similar places. Here we see a U.S. Coast Guard company commander walk a recruit through the correct way to hold his rifle during the Recruit Adjustment and Motivation Program, a weekly session built for newcomers who need extra reps before they can keep pace with the rest of basic training.

The first rifle I ever really shot was a plain old Ruger 10/22, and the ammo feeding it came out of a brown box that looked like it belonged in my grandfather's tackle shed. Peters. Forty grains of lead, high velocity, round nose, and in my memory it never once let me or my 10/22 down at the range. Every round went bang, every can went flying, my groups were as good as they could be for a new shooter, and I never thought twice about it as a child, just happy to be at the range with his dad. Years and a lot of ammunition later, a friend randomly handed me a near-full brick of the stuff. Same brown box, same old-timey lettering, stored so carefully it could have rolled off the line last week or thirty years ago. Between the sands of time and my slowly deteriorating memory, there's no honest way to tell just by looking at this stuff to tell if it's any good anymore, so today we’ll group and chronograph a box of it to see if its performance lines up with my memories of it.

A Baptist minister named Gershom Moore Peters founded the Peters Cartridge Company in Kings Mills, Ohio, in 1887, and within two years the plant was turning out four thousand rounds an hour along the Little Miami River. Peters earned a reputation for quality, and that reputation is a big part of why the name still moves product today, even though no one alive today was around for when the company was in its founding era, much less its Remington era.

Remington bought Peters in 1934. This merger is why Remington centerfire brass features an "R-P" headstamp. Purists will tell you the only true Peters ammunition is the pre-1934 stuff, made while the company still ran itself. Everything after was Remington, though the Peters name refused to die and is still alive today via some special Remington-produced lines of paper cartridge shotgun ammo. Peters as a brand hung on for decades as a heritage label, most famously on the brown box with the flying duck that plenty of us pulled out of a Christmas stocking sometime in the 1970s, or (like me) at the local sporting goods store on the way to the range.

Which brings me to the brick I now have on my bench. Sometime in the 2000s, Remington dusted off the Peters name again as a promo run, brown box and old-timey lettering included, sold cheap at big-box sporting counters. The worst-kept secret in rimfire is that it's almost certainly Thunderbolt in a classic Peters ammunition skinsuit, the same 40-grain lead round nose Remington has loaded forever. Not as memory-invoking as the box would indicate.

Rimfire Remnants

There's no official Peters Cartridge .22 LR page, and Remington's current catalog on remington.com lists Thunderbolt, Standard V,  Golden Bullet, Yellow Jacket, Viper, Target, Golden Hunter, Performance Wheelgun, and Ranch Hand, and Peters is not among them in 22LR. Long before the late 2000s promo revival, Peters is the same 40gr high-velocity load as Thunderbolt and carries no spec sheet of its own and even comes in similar packaging, just with a different art style and name; the numbers below are both Remington's published both Remington’s Thunderbolt figures and the ones that come on the side of the Peters box.

Velocity and Reliability

The ammo thankfully runs beautifully in virtually any gun you stuff it in. Last time we talked about Remington rimfire ammo, I noticed that their now-discontinued standard velocity ammunition had a somewhat polished, unlubed lead bullet. It seems that the Remington-produced Peters 40gr ammunition shares this same bullet, and as a result, it has an easy time feeding through all of my semi-auto .22 LR guns, and the bolt guns as well. When it comes to velocity, the ammo also has enough power behind it to run my Beretta 21A Bobcat, which can have a difficult time reliably cycling even with 40-grain Mini-Mags. I’ve also been toying around with FarrowTech’s F17 chassis for the Kel-Tec P17, and it's been one of the few ammunitions that doesn’t get gummed up in the pint-sized chassis gun.

The chronograph gave us an average velocity of 1,124 fps, a standard deviation of 21.3 fps, and an extreme spread of 96.5 fps. All in all, this isn’t half bad for a 50-round box of ammo. The graph tells the story a little bit better, as I did hear quite a few rounds both well above and well below the supersonic threshold, which is a telltale sign that the ammo will be rather inconsistent downrange at greater ranges. However, again, similar to the Remington Standard Velocity, the Peters-branded .22 LR, though discontinued, doesn’t live by its raw chronograph numbers alone. Out of some pistol-length barrels, this ammo is just slightly subsonic and very reliable, which makes it pair well with modern .22 LR pistol suppressor hosts.

Accuracy Data

Turns out my memory was better than I gave it credit for. This ammo is about as accurate as I remember it being when I was a kid. Out of five 10-shot groups at 50 yards, the best ran close to the size of a dime, maybe a hair oblong side to side. I went in expecting a wider spread, especially since I could hear a real difference in report between some rounds. I got a little of that, but the odd-sounding shots didn't reliably move the point of impact the way I figured they would.

We're not really missing much, though. Its spiritual successor is still on shelves as Remington Thunderbolt 40gr, the same load in a plainer wrapper. The new-formula Thunderbolt claims "tighter tolerances, revamped primer mixes and industry-leading technology" for better consistency and lower chamber pressures at the same velocity, which is something we'll have to put on the chronograph down the road.

As hunting seasons get underway, if you joined one of the new cartridge bandwagons like 7mm PRC or 300 PRC, you might be finding it difficult to locate ammo at your local gun shop. There is good news though that Federal is producing more offerings of PRC (Precision Rifle Cartridge) rounds everyday. This includes their latest Berger Elite Hunter 7mm PRC as well as ELD-X 300 PRC.

Federal @ TFB:

• 18 Ammo Rebates from Federal, HEVI, Remington, Fiocchi for Hunting
• TFB Review: Federal 6.5 Creedmoor +Peak Ammunition - Is It Hot or Not?
• Remington, Speer, and Federal Drop Summertime Defensive Ammo Rebates
• It’s on the Truck! Remington, Federal Rifle & Shotgun Ammo is Shipping

Federal Berger Elite Hunter 7mm PRC & ELD-X 300 PRC

The Berger Elite Hunter bullet offers some of the industry’s highest ballistic coefficients in a hunting bullet. Its thin jacket design produces extreme hydrostatic shock and a massive wound cavity on impact. These Berger hunting loads should produce lethal accuracy at extended distances.

• 7mm PRC 195 Grain Berger Elite Hunter | 2,760 FPS | P7PRCEH1 | MSRP $84.99

The ELD-X bullet is a match-accurate, hard-hitting hunting bullet touting a high ballistic coefficient and a design that provides dynamic expansion at a wide range of velocities. It features a unique polymer tip that resists deformation to achieve consistent ballistics and initiate extreme-range expansion, as well as a concentric copper jacket and robust shank.

• 300 PRC 212 Grain ELD-X | 2,860 FPS | P300PRCELDX1 | MSRP $81.99

Both new loads are manufactured with Federal Premium casings and primer components and are sold in standard 20-count boxes.

A Word from Federal on their Berger Elite Hunter & ELD-X

“Anoka, Minnesota - September, 2026 - Federal Ammunition has added two new loads to its Federal Premium® product lines. Federal’s Premium branding is reserved for the highest-tier factory-loaded products using cutting-edge components and specialized bullet technologies. The new loads are Berger Elite Hunter in 195-grain 7mm PRC and ELD-X in 212-grain 300 PRC. These two new loads are now available at dealers nationwide. 

“Shooters looking for options in 7mm PRC and 300 PRC will now find even more choices from Federal,” said Josh Vickers, Federal’s Centerfire Product Manager. “The 7mm PRC is a modern, beltless centerfire rifle cartridge, engineered for long-range precision shooting and big-game hunting. The 300 PRC is a high-powered, 30-caliber magnum rifle cartridge designed for exceptional accuracy and performance at extremely long ranges.””

Final Thoughts

As always, let us know all of your thoughts about Federal Premium ammunition, their 7mm PRC 195 Grain Berger Elite Hunter, and the 300 PRC 212 Grain ELD-X load in the Comments below! We always appreciate your feedback and engagement.

Wingshooting weaponry @ TFB:

• Fudd Friday: The Winchester Model 42 Is Sub-Gauge Sweetness 
• NEW Akkar USA Ranch Hand & Meat Stick Shotguns 
• Escort WS Youth: A New Kid-Friendly 20 Gauge 
• EAA Corp's New Left-Handed Churchill 212 Field Shotgun 

A familiar formula

Derya is a Turkish manufacturer, founded in 1998, and selling guns all over the world. They sell mostly tacticoolish shotguns and .22LR rifles, and lots of handguns. But sometimes they mix stuff up with Fudd-friendly material like the EX1300. Here’s what they tell us about it:

“The EX1300 is built on a monolithic steel receiver finished in nickel, paired with deep black chrome barrels and a hand-selected Turkish walnut stock and forend. Steel automatic ejectors throw fired hulls the moment the action opens. A single selective trigger and a tang-mounted safety with an integrated barrel selector let the shooter choose which barrel fires first. Centered top-lever and tang controls and a stock with no cast-on or cast-off make the gun equally at home in either hand.”

The EX1300 is coming to North America in 12-gauge, 20-gauge and .410. The 12-gauge has a 28-inch barrel and will chamber 2.75-inch or 3-inch shells; the 20-gauge has 26-inch barrels and can also handle standard or magnum shells. Derya says the shorter barrel means it’s only 43 inches long, and that means it’s perfect for creeping around thickets, looking to flush sharptails or other upland game. And the .410 version has 28-inch barrels, giving a young shooter a chance to handle a smaller-framed but overall full-sized shotgun. All versions of the shotgun weigh 6.64 pounds, Derya says, with a 14.3-inch length of pull. All these shotguns come with three flush-fit Mobilchokes (in full, modified and improved cylinder).

Pricing appears to be $699; see more deets here.

The air is getting crisp and your shooting buddies are calling you to the firing line. If you’re looking to do some sporting clays this fall, Remington has some new flavors of their Premier Nitro Sporting Clays line to keep you firing on all cylinders (and hopefully crushing clay pigeons).

Remington @ TFB:

• It’s on the Truck! Remington, Federal Rifle & Shotgun Ammo is Shipping
• Federal & Remington Awarded FBI Rifle Ammo Contract for 4 Bullet Types
• The Rimfire Report: Is Remington’s Budget Cyclone 22LR Any Good?
• The Rimfire Report: Remington’s Discontinued Standard Target 40gr RN

Remington Premier Nitro Sporting Clays

Remington produces 10 unique selections of their Premier Nitro Sporting Clays across .410, 28, 20, and 12 Gauge shell sizes, all of which deploy their unique golden hull that has a legendary reputation as one of the most reloader-friendly designs in the clay target-shooting world. Their newest additions are a #7 ½ and #8 Shot offering boasting a 1 ounce payload moving at 1,250 feet per second. Those two new offerings are predictably sold in 25-count boxes and are listed below:

• 12 Gauge 2 ¾” #7 ½ Shot 1 Oz | 1,250 FPS | SKU: 20256 | MSRP $20.99
• 12 Gauge 2 ¾” #8 Shot 1 Oz | 1,250 FPS | SKU: 20258 | MSRP $20.99

A Word from Remington

“Lonoke, Arkansas - September, 2026 - Remington Ammunition announces the addition of two new loads to its Premier Nitro Sporting Clays product line. Remington Premier shotshell ammunition is a fixture on the nation's trap, skeet, and sporting clays ranges and has earned its popularity because of consistent velocities and uniform patterns. The new loads include two 12-gauge, 2-3/4-inch, 1-ounce loads in shot size No. 7.5 and 8, with a muzzle velocity of 1,250 fps. These new products are being delivered to dealers nationwide.

“Our Premier target loads were developed with the most avid sporting clays shooters in mind," said Ronnie Evans, Remington's Shotshell Product Manager. "We pride ourselves on listening to the feedback of our customers, so these two new loads are powered down to a 1,250-fps muzzle velocity, which is what shooters have been asking for in this product line. Premier Nitro Sporting Clays provides the sporting enthusiast with a shotgun shell that is packed with tournament-winning components.””

Final Thoughts

As always, let us know all of your thoughts about Remington Ammunition as well as their new additions to the Premier Nitro Sporting Clays lineup in the Comments below! We always appreciate your feedback and engagement.

Welcome to TFB Weekly Web Deals 206! We’re back with more deals on guns, gear, ammunition, and accessories from some of our most frequented online retailers like Strike Industries, 5.11 Tactical, Primary Arms, Natchez Shooters Supply, Palmetto State Armory, Brownells, and more. Whether you’re looking for deals on new or used guns, ammo to add to your reserves, or specific accessories like flashlights, range bags, optics, bipods, and magazines, each week we’ll have new sets of deals that might fulfill one of those needs and save you a few dollars.

EDT Multitool

Sale Price: $7.12

Because carrying a bottle opener, pry tool, wire stripper, hex wrench, screw driver and rulers – even in our roomiest cargo pants – isn’t ideal, 5.11 presents the EDT Multitool. Constructed with super-strong stainless steel, it’s 10 tools built into one, compact piece. And it travels safely and securely in the kydex sheath with a carabiner to clip to your belt loop or pack. Go nowhere without it.

MOLLE Packable Backpack 12L

Sale Price: $18.73

When adaptability is a standing order and you never know what the day will bring, the MOLLE Packable Backpack is the remedy. Constructed from 70D recycled ripstop nylon, this backpack weighs only .3 kg. Packed in an integrated self-pocket, it stows discretely and out of the way. When deployed, the backpack expands to a generous 12-liter capacity. A clamshell opening on the main compartment offers fast access. Comfortable mesh shoulder straps are held in place thanks to the removable sternum strap. Attach extra gear using the built-in with MINIMOLL™ MOLLE strap system and laser-cut MOLLE on the shoulder straps. Hydration compatible, this pack also includes stretchable woven side pockets for water bottles. With additional external pockets, gear loops and a rear haul handle, the MOLLE Packable Backpack provides versatility in a pinch.

Flex Vertical GP Pouch

Sale Price: $22.12

Never leave the station without the Flex Vertical GP Pouch. This padded pouch with an expandable drop bottom has a top zipper closure with tension lock webbing pulls to securely carry your critical gear or even a 32-oz. water bottle. The Flex Vertical GP Pouch is designed for total adaptability, with the Flex-HT™ mounting system featuring ½ stacked webbing on the back for mounting versatility, plus flexible ¾ waterproof TPU-coated straps for easy weaving to all platforms. Be ready to roll with anything that comes your way with the Flex Vertical GP Pouch. Imported.

5.11 Norris Sneaker

Sale Price: $29.97

The 5.11® Norris Sneaker is a high-top casual sneaker that combines style, comfort, and tactical intelligence, making it an exceptional choice for those who value both fashion and functionality. This unique footwear is designed to provide optimal traction and durability, particularly on wet surfaces, thanks to its Vibram® Marbrani outsole with XS Trek. The 5.11® Norris also features Ortholite® technology, ensuring your feet are cushioned in total support and comfort throughout the day. The sneaker is ASTM certified for puncture resistance, and its super-strong Welmax board protects your feet against up to 1,200 newtons of force. This shoe is more than just a stylish addition to your wardrobe; it's a reliable and functional choice for any situation. The climbing grade rubber toe protection and Ortholite® upper cuff offer additional comfort, heel hold, and protection, making the 5.11® Norris Sneaker a top choice for anyone in need of versatile, durable footwear. Imported and built to last, the Norris Sneaker is the perfect blend of style, comfort, and tactical intelligence.

Vehicle Ready Hexgrid® Seat

Sale Price: $25.87

Commuting, off-roading, or pulling security for an NGO convoy across the Djado Plateau in a gun truck, the HEXGRID® Seat Platform will improve the journey. The HEXGRID Seat is a vehicle ready seat panel multi-angle load bearing platform for accessory arrangement and modular pouch management. The panel features a full loop face and provides placement for an assortment of hook and loop and Gear Set™ attachments.

RUSH® MOAB™ 8 Sling Pack 13L

Sale Price: $69.49

Ambidextrous sling shoulder strap system with MOLLE

Tactec™ CCW compartment with breakaway hook-and-loop access

External MOLLE on front, sides, and strap for modular attachments

Rear hydration pocket with pass-through port

Large front pocket with internal admin organization

Main compartment with internal storage pockets

Fleece-lined eyewear pocket for scratch-free protection

The MOAB™ is built for the calls that keep you mobile. The sling flips sides and adjusts on the move. Breakaway CCW access gets you in fast. MOLLE on the strap, front, and sides lets you dial in your loadout. Interior layout keeps tools and essentials tight. It's as close to being adaptable as you are.

Flex Double Multi-Caliber Mag Pouch

Sale Price: $39.49

Choose your weapon without worrying how to carry your mags. The Patent Pending Flex Double Multi-Caliber Mag Cover Pouch has adjustable side panels and a bungee cord with a cord lock system for various mag sizes. The front panel comes with laser-cut MOLLE ready for extra attachments. Flex-HT™ technology provides mounting versatility and easy weaving to all platforms with waterproof TPU coated straps. The front and bottom panels are double layered with 500D for extra durability. An alternate top bungee retention system is included. The drain hole built into the bottom panel adds extra convenience while a reliable Duraflex® G.C. snap gives extra security. No matter your mag size, 5.11® has you covered.

Allhaula™ Backpack 30L

Sale Price: $99.49

From weekday grind to off-grid chaos, the Allhaula 30L stays in the fight. Day pack. Go-bag. Ride-or-die hauler. Toss it. Drag it. Beat it down. Doesn't matter how hard you run it. When you push past the limits, it hauls through 'em.

30L capacity is big enough for a day’s worth of gear, compact enough to stay agile

Zippered main compartment fits a laptop or hydration setup

Fleece-lined valuables pocket protects your phone, shades, or essentials

Interior organization pockets keep cables, tools, and gear squared away

Water-resistant, easy-to-clean fabric is tough against spills, dirt, and grime

Ballistic nylon bottom panel is reinforced to take a beating where it counts

Laser-cut MOLLE panels for modular loadouts across shoulder straps, front, and side

Skyweight hip belt compatible makes it add-on ready for heavy hauls (belt not included)

42" Double Rifle Case

Sale Price: 129.49

 Protect your favorite firearms with our 42" Double Rifle Case. This professional-grade case provides fully padded protection for two full-size rifles up to 42-inches in length. It comes with an adjustable padded divider that can be quickly removed. Four internal rifle-retention straps prevent unwanted shifting during transport. Removable backpack straps and a carry handle combined with the 5.11® signature CenterLine™ design make transporting rifles a breeze. Internal and external MOLLE panels, and an external pocket with interior elastic bands to secure gear, maximize your carrying capacity. Lockable YKK® zippers and an ID loop add a layer of protection at the range. The 5.11® Double Rifle Case is the carrying system your firearms deserve.

Elements Fleece Hoodie

Sale Price: $40.87

Everyday Comfort. Built to Endure.

5.11 graphic hoodies are designed for everyday performance and all-season comfort. This premium midweight fleece delivers dependable warmth, lasting softness, and a structured feel that holds up to daily wear.

Midweight Fleece Comfort: Delivers warmth without unnecessary bulk.

Soft with Structure: Comfortable feel that maintains its shape.

Everyday Versatility: Designed for wear from start to finish.

Built for Longevity: Holds up through regular use.

MATERIALS: 80% GOTS-certified organic cotton / 20% recycled polyester

COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: Made in the USA

5.11® Men's Straight Fit Defender-Flex Light Pant

Sale Price: $40.87

The Defender-Flex Light Pant delivers a clean straight fit with lightweight durability built for everyday wear. Constructed from breathable stretch plain weave, it balances mobility, comfort, and dependable performance through long days on the move. With thoughtful pocketing and stretch where it matters most, it’s a versatile pant designed to adapt to work, travel, and everything in between.

Lightweight Stretch Fabric – Durable polyester-elastane plain weave provides flexibility and breathable comfort throughout the day.

Enhanced Stretch Construction – Stretch waistband and pocket bags move naturally with your body for improved comfort and durability.

Expanded Utility Storage – Eight-pocket layout with utility drop and back yoke pockets keeps essentials organized and accessible.

MATERIALS: Body: 87% polyester / 13% elastane plain weave with moisture-wicking and odor-control properties

COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: Imported

36" Single Rifle Case 28L

Sale Price: $59.49

Your new go-to rifle case comes with all the right stuff for a trip to the range or out on exercises. Fully padded with external MOLLE webbing and Gear Set™ compatibility so you can Always Be Ready with extra mags or attachments. On the inside, you have removeable rifle retention straps as well as padded butt stock and muzzle sleeves to protect your firearm. Provides excellent carry-ability with a comfortable padded handle and removable shoulder strap. Whether you're planning a day of sport shooting or an overseas mission, this case has your six. Imported.

Engage Full Zip Sweatshirt 2.0

Sale Price: $29.97

Tackle the day ahead in our Engage Fleece Full Zip 2.0. This hoodie-style jacket will serve you for years thanks to a tough, yet soft, 60-percent cotton and 40-percent polyester fleece blend. The ribbed cotton-elastane sleeve cuffs and waist help retain body heat and keep the jacket in place while you move throughout the day. A two-way zipper in the front provides easy on and off while the hood cinches down for blustery conditions. Pockets are kangaroo style with double entry and zippered outer layer.

Deals at Primary Arms

SureFire M340C Mini Scout Light Pro Weapon Light - 500 Lumens - Black

Sale Price: $249.99

The SureFire Mini Scout Light Pro offers the same ultra-compact design, 500 Lumen output, and shrouded tailcap as the standard model, but features a brand-new body design with a versatile mounting system. The new light body mount can be switch from either picatinny or M-LOK and allows you to orient your light at any angle to optimize ergonomics when use in conjunction with laser aiming modules or other accessories. The M340C Mini Scout Light Pro Weapon Light uses a single CR123A battery to power the 500 Lumen light head. The Mini Scout Light Head utilizes a proprietary TIR lens that produces a highly focused beam at a high intensity with soft surrounding light. The rear tailcap switch offers momentary or constant on function and can be replaced with other SureFire Scout tailcaps for use with remote switches. The entire weapon mounted light is constructed from aluminum, hardcoat anodized black, and O-ring sealed to protect it from the elements. The Mini-Scout Light Pro 500 Lumen Weapon Light brings more versatility to your weapon system without the added cost of a mount.

Geissele Automatics 2-Stage AK-X Trigger

Sale Price: $239.89

The Geissele Automatics 2 Stage AK Trigger was designed to provide shooters with a consistent, clean trigger pull for excellent and repeatable accuracy. Easy to install, this trigger is compatible with AK-47 and AK-74 pattern rifles and pistols and features an orange housing and tool steel trigger face with a corrosion-resistant black finish. This premium AK trigger features a smooth and consistent pull with a crisp wall and clean break, allowing shooters to stay on target more effectively.

North American Rescue Combat Application Tourniquet - Orange

Sale Price: $24.99

The North American Rescue Combat Application Tourniquet (C-A-T) is the official tourniquet of the U.S. Army! Laboratory tested and combat proven, this true, one-handed tourniquet has been proven to be 100% effective by the U.S. Army's Institute of Surgical Research. The Gen 7 features a durable windlass system with patented free-moving internal band provides true, circumferential pressure to the extremity. A unique, dual securing system avoids the use of screws and clips that can be difficult to operate under survival stress or where fine motor skills are compromised.

Rugged Alaskan360™ Multi-Caliber Suppressor

Sale Price: $679.74

The Alaskan360 Suppressor from Rugged Suppressors is a multi-caliber suppressor that's built tough enough to handle your next expedition. The Alaskan360 was made with the Alaskan climate in mind, so it uses 17-4 stainless steel and U.S. grade 5 titanium to excel in even the toughest conditions. Weighing in at only 11.8 ounces and only 7.5" long with the included mount, you can add this suppressor to a wide range of firearms thanks to the .36 cal bore. Whether you need an effective suppressor for 5.56, 9mm or .308 caliber weapons, the Alaskan360 is designed to tame even the highest pressure rounds and is full auto rated.

Trijicon SRO Sight Adjustable LED 1.0 MOA Red Dot

Sale Price: $549.99

The Trijicon RMR is well-known for being the most rugged mini reflex sight on the market and has found its way onto many pistol shooters handguns over the last few years. However, it was designed with duty use in mind and left out an important crowd—the competition shooters. Now competition shooters no longer need to make sacrifices with the release of the Trijicon Specialized Reflex Sight (SRO). Built from the same base as the RMR for mount compatibility, the Trijicon SRO is designed specifically for pistols to give competitive shooters the edge with their handgun. The most significant difference with the SRO is the increased window size allowing for a much larger field of view that rivals the competition. This allows you to more easily track the dot and switch to your next target much faster improving your split times. While the patented frame design is gone from this model, it still features an anodized matte black aluminum housing that is more than enough to protect the ultra-clear glass. With zero noticeable parallax and high-tech lens coatings, the glass in this mini red dot sight cuts down on glare and will stand up to heavy competition use. The Trijicon SRO Red Dot Sight is the next step forward in competitive handgun use, so don’t get left behind and drop this optic on your pistol.

Blue Force Gear Limited Edition Vickers Sling - Frog Skin

Sale Price: $54.99

The Blue Force Gear Limited Edition Vickers Sling is a two-point rifle sling that incorporates a patent-pending Quick Adjuster for rapid length changes and repeated, tactile adjustments. It is intended to facilitate swift transitions between comfortable carry and a ready-to-fire position while maintaining secure retention during dynamic weapon handling. This Frog Skin patterned Invista solution-dyed CORDURA sling measures 54 to 64 inches, and the hardware consists of low-profile, glass-reinforced DuPont Zytel nylon with a contrasting pull tab on the Quick Adjuster. The sling attaches directly to fixed-loop mounting systems and accepts optional hardware for alternate attachment methods. The sling is manufactured in the United States.

Armaspec Sound Mitigation Buffer H3 - Gen3

Sale Price: $53.99

Armaspec has been a firearm enthusiast's go-to source for AR15 and AR10 barrels, bolt carrier groups, Glock and Kalishnikov rifle parts, and even 1911 pistol enhancements for the last nine years. This Sound Mitigation Buffer™ H3 series for AR platform rifles from Armaspec is an excellent example of the company's dedication to producing products that offer a tactical advantage at a fair price.

Magpul ACS Carbine Stock - Mil-Spec - Black

Sale Price: $75.99

The Adaptable Carbine Stock is a drop-in replacement buttstock for AR-15/M4 carbines with MIL-SPEC receiver extensions. Dual, rear accessible, water-resistant battery storage tubes store up to three CR123A lithium or two AA batteries. An integral storage compartment in the butt of the stock offers additional storage. Features an anti-snag release latch to prevent accidental activation along with a friction lock system that minimizes excessive stock movement for enhanced weapon stability and accuracy.

Deals at Palmetto State Armory

PMC X-TAC 5.56 NATO Ammo 55 Grain FMJBT, 20 rds/box

Sale Price: $8.99 ($0.45/rnd)

Designed and manufactured as if your life depends on it because it might. PMC's exacting adherence to the precise specifications of military and law-enforcement organizations assures that X-TAC ammunition will perform perfectly in that fraction of a second when a serious threat arises and your life is on the line. Self defense begins and ends with reliable, consistent ammunition. Nothing is more important than life. Protect yours, confidently, with X-TAC from PMC. PMC X-TAC Line Manufactured to the highest industry and military specifications to ensure its performance, without fail, when your life is on the line. PMC's X-TAC ammunition is powerful, accurate and dependable, because in a life-threatening situation, no other standard is acceptable. 20 rounds per box.

Steel Yugo Hold-Open AK-47 Magazine - Used Surplus Condition

Sale Price: $12.99

These Surplus Yugoslavian AK Magazines are for 7.62x39 AK-47s and are constructed of steel. The 30-Round Capacity, all-steel, no flex construction makes this magazine rugged and dependable for hard use. The magazines also equipped with bolt hold open. Used Surplus Condition.

**Due to the nature of surplus magazines, the appearance of them can vary with some cosmoline, spot rust, paint, and scratches. They have been inspected to ensure functionality.

Smith & Wesson Model 686 .357 Magnum/.38 Special +P Stainless Steel Revolver

Sale Price: $649.399

The Smith & Wesson L-Frame is specifically engineered for continuous Magnum ammunition use. Its strong frame and barrel construction ensure long-lasting performance, making it a preferred choice for demanding shooters, including police officers and hunters. This reliable firearm features a 6-shot cylinder and a corrosion-resistant satin stainless finish.

Ruger Mark IV 22/45 .22LR 4.4" 10rd Pistol, Black

Sale Price: $329.99

Experience the perfect blend of simplicity, accuracy, and reliability with the Ruger Mark IV .22 LR pistol. Benefit from its groundbreaking one-button takedown for effortless cleaning and maintenance. Enjoy superior accuracy thanks to its cold hammer-forged barrel and consistent internal bolt design. Customize your setup with the integrated Picatinny rail and threaded barrel. The Ruger Mark IV offers a comfortable grip, ambidextrous safety, and comes with two 10-round magazines. A top choice for shooters of all levels.

Remington Ranch Hand .22LR 40 gr CPRN 100rds

Sale Price: $9.49

Introducing Remington's most reliable .22LR round ever, Rimfire Ride or Die Ranch Hand. Equipped with our cutting-edge rimfire technology, each round delivers premier performance both in your firearm and on target. Whether you're hunting small game or varmints, Ranch Hand ensures flawless feeding, functioning and firing across all common .22LR handguns and rifles. No matter your firearm of choice, trust Ranch Hand to bring exceptional reliability and accuracy to every shot.

Colt .22LR Drop-In Bolt Conversion Kit for AR15 w/ (3) 25-Round Magazines

Sale Price: $149.99

Enhance your .223/5.56mm AR platform rifle with the Colt .22 LR conversion bolt. Transform your reliable Colt rifle into a cost-effective training tool with this convenient drop-in conversion bolt. Designed for compatibility with any mil-spec .223/5.56mm upper receiver, the bolt ensures a seamless, hassle-free conversion.

Glock 43X MOS 3.41" 9mm 10rd Pistol, Coyote

Sale Price: $499.99

Chambered in 9x19 the G43X MOS features slide cuts designed for specific micro-optics and the GLOCK Slim Mounting Rail for mounting accessories. The perfect tactical partner in the well-known GLOCK Slimline design for comfortable concealability. The G43X MOS has a short subcompact barrel length and a comfortably balanced, versatile compact-size grip with a minimal profile. It incorporates elements of the Slimline series such as the short trigger distance, a frame with a built-in beavertail as seen on the G43 and the G42, a reversible magazine catch. This model has the incredibly accurate, match-grade GLOCK Marksman Barrel (GMB) of the Gen5 series. The G43X MOS also features precision-milled front serrations. The slim magazine is built in reliable GLOCK style, it has an orange magazine follower for higher visibility and is specifically developed to ensure the 10 rds magazine capacity. Note: The G43X with the Modular Optic System (MOS) does not come with adapter plates.

Gerber Armbar Cork Multi-Tool, Onyx

Sale Price:$ 47.99

Even the most resourceful can use some help opening up a wine bottle – meet the Armbar Cork. It’s a smart design that fits in pocket like a folding knife and operates like a fully capable multi-tool. The Armbar features tools to handle the tasks that a pocket knife simply can’t handle: a corkscrew, foil cutter, pry bar, bottle opener, and can/package opener. It also handles anything your pocket knife could with a one-hand opening fine edge blade and scissors.

Sig Sauer Romeo MSR Red Dot Gen II Optic

Sale Price:$ 109.99

Experience unmatched precision and adaptability with the new ROMEO-MSR GEN II optics lineup. Completely redesigned from the ground up, the ROMEO-MSR GEN II boasts a sleek new look and enhanced functionality, optimized specifically for MSR rifle platforms. This cutting-edge red dot sight features an analog rotary illumination dial with 12 individual brightness settings, including two dedicated night vision options, ensuring adaptability in any lighting condition. The redesigned see-through riser mount allows for convenient co-witnessing while maintaining exceptional durability. Perfect for discerning shooters who demand uncompromising quality, the ROMEO-MSR GEN II delivers superior performance, durability, and adaptability, setting a new standard in optical excellence.

Glock 48 MOS 9mm Pistol

Sale Price: $499.99

Chambered in 9x19 the G48 MOS features slide cuts designed for specific micro-optics and the GLOCK Slim Mounting Rail for mounting accessories. The perfect tactical partner with increased concealability. The G48 MOS is of similar length and height as the compact size G19 but has the well-known GLOCK Slimline design with the reduced width of the pistol for perfect carrying comfort. The frame features the GLOCK Slim Mounting Rail for mounting tactical accessories and incorporates elements of the Slimline series such the short trigger distance, a frame with a built-in beavertail, a reversible magazine catch and the incredibly accurate, match-grade GLOCK Marksman Barrel (GMB) of the Gen5 series. The G48 Rail also features precision-milled front serrations.

PMC X-TAC 5.56 NATO Ammo 55 Grain FMJBT, 20 rds

Sale Price: $9.99 ($0.50 per round)

Designed and manufactured as if your life depends on it because it might. PMC's exacting adherence to the precise specifications of military and law-enforcement organizations assures that X-TAC ammunition will perform perfectly in that fraction of a second when a serious threat arises and your life is on the line. Self defense begins and ends with reliable, consistent ammunition. Nothing is more important than life. Protect yours, confidently, with X-TAC from PMC. PMC X-TAC Line Manufactured to the highest industry and military specifications to ensure its performance, without fail, when your life is on the line. PMC's X-TAC ammunition is powerful, accurate and dependable, because in a life-threatening situation, no other standard is acceptable. 20 rounds per box.

Smith & Wesson M&P FPC 9mm Semi-Auto Rifle 16.25", Black

Sale Price: $499.99

The new optics-ready M&P FPC® showcases our brand new, compact, folding design. Coming with(one) 17-round and (two) 23-round magazines, the in-stock magazine storage w/ quick-release latch makes reloading convenient and quick. The M&P FPC® is compatible with M&P® full-size and compact pistol double-stack magazines, and includes a carrying bag with additional storage and Velcro® straps.

Compact, folding design.

Optics-ready.

Integrated recoil buffer system.

Reversible magazine catch.

30 3/8" unfolded length to 16 3/8" folded.

1/2-28 threaded muzzle with thread protector.

Flat-face trigger with crisp break.

Compatible with M&P® Pistol double-stack magazines.

In-stock magazine storage w/quick-release tab system.

Horizontal folding mechanism with locking latch.

Horizontal folding design doesn’t interfere with top-mounted optics (optics sold separately).

M-LOK® slots on handguard with Picatinny-style rail on top.

Charging slide/handle doubles as retainer when folded.

Ships with (one) 17-round magazine and (two) 23-round magazines.

Carrying bag with additional storage and Velcro® straps.

Made in U.S.A.

Streamlight ProTac Railmount 1 Long Gun Light

Sale Price: $99.99

The ProTac series expands into weapon-mounted lights with this 350 lumen light featuring a dedicated fixed-mount for Picatinny rails. It uses either a remote switch with momentary/constant on operation or a standard push-button tail switch, and can run on either a lithium battery or an easy-to-find alkaline battery. The Protac series flashlight allows for multiple battery choices - one AA alkaline or CR123A lithium battery (both included); also accepts AA lithium CR123A lithium battery. Strobe for signaling or disorienting TEN-TAP Programming - choice of three operating modes: 1.) high/strobe; 2.) high only; 3.) low/high Remote pressure switch features momentary and “constant on” operation. Integrated rail clamp attaches to MIL-STD-1913 rails for secure mounting. Includes remote pressure switch, push-button tail switch, remote retaining clips, double-sided tape and zip ties Durable, anodized aluminum construction with impact-resistant tempered glass lens IPX7 rated with the Standard button switch installed; waterproof to 1 meter for 30 minutes. IPX4 rated with the Remote Pressure Switch installed Operating temperature: -40°F to +120°F Limited lifetime warranty (through Streamlight).

Beretta 92X Performance Defensive Optics Ready 9mm Pistol, Nistan

Sale Price: $899.99

The new Beretta 92X Performance Defensive has been custom built to take your competition performance to the next level. Specifically designed for those consumers who participate in IDPA (International Defensive Pistol Association) competitions, the 92X Performance Defensive maintains the same ergonomic design and controls as the popular 92X Performance Production platform with new enhanced features such as a lightened steel frame and slide, a red-dot optic ready slide, and aggressively textured 92X-style thin grips for instinctive control.

Glock 17 Gen 6 Austria 4.49" 9mm

Sale Price: $649.99

The Glock 17 Gen 6 features a striker fired action that delivers consistent trigger operation and reliable ignition under demanding use. Its full size polymer frame enhances stability for accurate shot placement while maintaining the familiar handling characteristics Glock shooters expect. The improved optics ready system is a confirmed enhancement over the Gen 5 MOS design and supports a wider range of sighting solutions without modification.

Holosun ARO 2 MOA Red Dot w/ HM3X Magnifier Combo

Sale Price: $249.99

The Holosun ARO (Advanced Rifle Optic) Red Dot Sight is an advancement on the popular Holosun 20mm 403 and 503 series optics. The ARO features an all-new 22mm housing design that mates perfectly with Holosun magnifiers and includes an all-new 1.63" lower 1/3 co-witness pedestal mount. ARO is available as a 2MOA dot only or with the Holosun Multi-Reticle System (MRS) in Red, Green, or Gold.

Deals at GunMagWarehouse

Ruger BX-1 10/22 .22LR 10-Round Magazine 3 Pack

Sale Price: $41.99

Durable polymer construction

Reinforced steel feed lips

Rotary style magazine

Red polymer follower

This is a 3 pack of factory BX-1 10-round magazines for Ruger 10/22 rifles in .22 LR.

These factory rotary magazines are designed to endure extreme conditions and keep on feeding every single time. Featuring a red polymer follower and reinforced steel feed lips for proper cartridge alignment and for smooth, reliable feeding every time. America’s most popular rimfire rifle for over half a century, the Ruger 10/22 is an iconic firearm that you probably already own. These BX-1 magazines were designed in-house by Sturm Ruger & Co. to go along with other BX series upgrades and elevate the average 10/22 into something even better.

Hornady Frontier Cartridge 5.56 NATO Ammo 55gr M193 FMJ Box of 50

Sale Price: $24.99

Quality Hornady Mil-Spec M193 bullets

Non-corrosive boxer primers

Clean-burning powders and propellants

Reloadable brass casings

Favored by informal target shooters, law enforcement training academies, and military personnel across the country, Frontier® Cartridge 5.56x45mm NATO 55gr M193 FMJ target ammo offers dependable ignition and consistent performance without breaking the bank. This ammo features clean-burning powders, premium components, and premium Hornady® bullets, loaded in select brass casings for exceptionally smooth and reliable feeding and ejection performance with most semi-auto and bolt-action rifles chambered in 5.56x45mm. Stock up and order today!

Magpul PMAG GEN M2 MOE AR-15 .223 / 5.56 30-Round Magazine

Sale Price: $9.49

Impact and crush resistant polymer construction

Constant-curve internal geometry for smooth feeding

Anti-tilt, self-lubricating follower for increased reliability

USGI-spec stainless steel spring for corrosion resistance and field compatibility

Textured gripping surface and flared floorplate for positive magazine handling and easy disassembly

This is a Magpul Gen M2 MOE 30-round magazine for AR-15 rifles

Crafted from lightweight, impact-resistant polymer with stainless steel internal springs and anti-tilt, self-lubricating followers Magpul's PMAG MOE magazines are the perfect upgrade for your favorite rifle.

Duramag AR-15 .223, 5.56mm, .300BLK 30-Round Aluminum Magazine

Sale Price: $11.49

Lightweight aluminum construction

Corrosion resistant finish

Stainless steel wire spring

Anti-tilt polymer follower

Mil-Spec engineering

Load up for your next range day with the Duramag® AR-15 .223, 5.56mm, .300BLK 30-Round Aluminum Magazine. Featuring durable aluminum construction with a corrosion-resistant finish, this aftermarket magazine boasts superior strength and lasting corrosion resistance in even the harshest environments. The anti-tilt polymer follower and the stainless steel spring ensure smooth and reliable feeding with proper cartridge alignment in high-stress target and defensive environments. Duramag’s Aluminum .223 / 5.56 magazines have become the choice magazine for OEM, Law Enforcement, and Military Units throughout the world. There's no such thing as having too many magazines. Don't hesitate and order one or two new magazines today!

Federal American Eagle 9mm Luger Ammo 124gr FMJ 50 Rounds

Sale Price: $13.99

Clean-burning powders and propellants

FMJ Federal bullets

Reloadable brass casings

Ideal for high-volume shooting

Head to the range for some all-day training sessions or informal target practice with Federal® American Eagle® 9mm Luger pistol ammunition from GunMag Warehouse. Featuring clean-burning powders and premium components, loaded in reloadable brass casings, this affordable pistol ammo offers reliable ignition and consistent accuracy in virtually any environment. Ideal for volume shooters and tactical training. Better yet, each American Eagle round is hand-inspected by qualified quality control specialists for superior consistency and unmatched reliability. Made in USA.

Maglula UpLula 9mm to .45 ACP Universal Pistol Magazine Loader and Unloader

Sale Price: $26.99

Lightweight polymer construction

Simple spring action

Convenient slip-on design

Universal fit

All-weather performance

Compatible with any single- or double-stack pistol magazine chambered in pistol cartridges from 9mm to .45 ACP, the Maglula® UpLula® 9mm to .45 ACP Universal Pistol Magazine Loader and Unloader makes it comfortable, quick, and easy to reload and unload pistol magazines at the range or in the field. Durable polymer construction offers superior durability, while the convenient slip-on design offers simple, reliable operation and protects magazines and feed lips from damage. Better yet, this combat-tested, universal reloader offers all-weather performance for superior versatility.

The Federal Trade Commission's announcement about Beretta Holding and Sturm, Ruger & Company sounds dramatic. The agency says it is stopping an anticompetitive arrangement between two major firearm manufacturers. TFB covered the companies' cooperation agreement in May; this is the regulatory decision that followed it.

The FTC’s headline, “FTC Takes Action to Prevent Anticompetitive Arrangement in Beretta, Ruger Deal,” could leave the impression that the FTC blocked a Beretta takeover of Ruger. It did not. There is no merger in this deal, and Beretta is not buying all of Ruger. The FTC objected to who could fill Beretta's proposed Ruger board seats and what information might pass between the competing companies.

The stock purchase plan survived, and Beretta opened its tender offer September 17. If the FTC finalizes its proposed order, Beretta's board nominees will face tighter rules.

Start With Who Owns What

Beretta Holding is the Luxembourg-based corporate parent of Beretta and numerous other firearm and outdoor brands. It began buying Ruger stock in 2025 and, by March 2026, reported owning 1,587,000 shares. That represented 9.95% of Ruger's outstanding stock and made Beretta the company's largest shareholder.

Ruger responded to the growing position by adopting a shareholder-rights plan in October 2025. These plans are commonly called poison pills. Ruger's plan was designed to deter any investor from crossing a 10% ownership threshold without board approval.

The dispute grew fairly ugly in public. Beretta sought a larger position and nominated four candidates for Ruger's board. Ruger accused its competitor of trying to gain disproportionate influence. Beretta argued that Ruger needed operational changes and that its investment could help. They eventually settled the fight.

The May Agreement

Under the cooperation agreement announced in May, Beretta withdrew its four board nominees. Ruger agreed to let Beretta pursue a larger stake through a partial cash tender offer, an offer made directly to shareholders to buy some of their shares.

Beretta's September 17 offer seeks up to 2,400,184 shares at $44.80 each. If enough shareholders voluntarily tender their stock, Beretta could wind up with about 25% of Ruger. The agreement does not require shareholders to sell.

Beretta also gained the right to designate up to two candidates for Ruger's board. Two seats require Beretta to maintain at least 20% ownership. One seat requires at least 15%. Ruger's board still has approval rights, and the nominees must also qualify as independent under stock-exchange rules.

The rest of the agreement limits what Beretta can do with its position. A standstill runs through Ruger's 2029 election cycle. Beretta accepted voting obligations and special rules for shares above certain thresholds. Ruger remains an independent, publicly traded U.S. company. The companies said they would explore commercial cooperation, but that part is nonbinding and no product-sharing plan was announced.

Why the FTC Objected

The problem was not simply that Beretta would own a quarter of Ruger. The FTC's complaint focused on the two board seats.

Section 8 of the Clayton Act generally prohibits the same person from serving as a director or officer of competing corporations under circumstances covered by the statute. The aim is straightforward: competitors should not gain a convenient route for coordinating decisions or exchanging sensitive information through their boards.

Beretta and Ruger compete across several firearm categories. A director may see nonpublic material about pricing, production, customers, product plans, acquisitions, and business strategy. The FTC alleged that the May agreement's independence language was not strict enough because it could permit nominees with meaningful Beretta connections. Ruger's board also had the power to waive part of the stated independence requirement.

The agency therefore treated the proposed arrangement as a possible illegal interlocking directorate under the Clayton Act and an unfair method of competition under the FTC Act. Those are allegations resolved through the consent process, not findings after a trial.

What the Proposed Order Changes

The proposed order does not erase Beretta's board-designation rights. It narrows who can use them.

A Beretta nominee may not be a Beretta or Upifra employee, officer, director, representative, or agent. The definition also looks back three years for compensation and material relationships that could impair the person's objectivity. Beretta must give the FTC at least 15 days' written notice before appointing, designating, nominating, or otherwise causing anyone to join Ruger's board.

The order also bars Beretta from seeking or receiving Ruger's nonpublic information through its nominees. Beretta cannot create an employment, financial, or other relationship with one of those directors that compromises the director's duty to Ruger or enables information sharing. That restriction continues for one year after the director leaves the board.

Beretta would have to file compliance reports 30 and 90 days after the order becomes final, followed by annual reports for four more years. The order itself would run for five years.

For now, it remains proposed. The Commission voted 2-0 to accept the agreement for public comment, due October 19. The FTC may then withdraw it, change it, or issue it as a final order with the force of law.

What Happens Next

On September 16, Ruger said the regulatory conditions in the May agreement had been satisfied. It terminated the shareholder-rights plan that had limited Beretta's purchases and said the agreement's terms were otherwise unchanged.

That does not mean Beretta already owns 25% of Ruger. The tender offer began September 17 and is scheduled to expire just after 11:59 p.m. New York City time on October 15, unless extended. Shareholders must decide whether to participate. If more shares are tendered than Beretta seeks, the offer calls for prorating purchases; it does not guarantee every tendered share will be bought.

For gun owners, nothing changes at the product counter today. Ruger has not become a Beretta subsidiary, and neither company has announced changes to its brands, manufacturing, warranties, or distribution. The practical things to watch are the tender offer's outcome, the identity of any Beretta-designated directors, and whether the FTC makes its order final.

The FTC intervened in a very narrow way. Beretta is now asking Ruger shareholders to sell it enough stock to reach a roughly 25% stake. The proposed order addresses a different question: who may take the board seats Beretta negotiated, and what information those directors may share.

For generations, the classic starter deer rifle in North America was an army surplus gun—an old SKS or Mosin-Nagant or Mauser in the U.S., an old Lee-Enfield in Canada. But a long time ago, when money was scarce and people used what they could find, an even more antiquated rifle was commonly used—the Springfield trapdoor .45-70. And in an upcoming Poulin Auction, you’ll have the chance to buy a surplus Springfield with a particularly interesting history, including ties to Custer’s Last Stand.

Mil-Surp @ TFB:

• CMP To Being Selling Surplus M14 Rifles 
• HOT GAT or FUDD CRAP? Sporterized Surplus or Tactical Circus? 
• First Firearm: Going Old School With Military Surplus Firearms 
• TFB Review: The Italian Surplus Beretta 84BB Pistol 

Springfield rifles tamed the West and filled the pot

Despite the marketing success of the Winchester ‘73, the Springfield trapdoor rifle was more likely the rifle that really tamed the Wild West. The U.S. government equipped its cavalry and other troops with these robust, hard-hitting rifles. A repeater like Winchester or the competition sold might have been more desirable, but the single-shot Springfield was still capable of a faster rate of fire than old muzzleloaders, and the cartridges were much more reliable and easy to deal with than a cap-and-ball carbine. The Springfield made peace with the warring factions in the West — natives and non-natives alike — and it kept the peace.

The U.S. military bought more than half a million of these rifles, back when that represented a significant chunk of the American population, and that’s why so many hunters used these rifles once the army was done with them. Guys like Lanny Benoit, a New England deer hunting legend, had stories about how these rifles were their first big game gun when they were kids.

In case you wondered, that’s partly why factory .45-70 loads are so dialed-down; a modern rifle in this chambering is typically capable of far stouter loads than what Winchester sells over the counter. But Winchester and Federal and the rest of the industry are worried about shooters buying hot new rounds and putting them into stiff old rifles that blow up as a result. Except for companies like Buffalo Bore, as a general rule, you must roll your own ammunition if you really want to take advantage of the .45-70’s capabilities.

Over the years, the rifle’s backstory has been told in a collector’s book. Here’s part of Poulin’s description of this Springfield:

“This rifle is discussed in the book “Documenting the Weapons used at The Little Bighorn” by Wendell Grangaard. Grangaard sourced information states this rifle was picked up by “Kicking Bear” from Private Edward Kennedy of Company C, 5th Cavalry. The carbine was placed into Sioux cache & Kicking Bear marked the rifle with burn damage as seen around buttplate & predominantly on left side. Another possible marking is the “star” marking on left side buttstock.”

The photos show an obvious repair to the stock, held together by rawhide, which appears to have been done during its time in the possession of the Sioux tribe. The rifle was at one point owned by collector Dr. Kenneth O. Leonard, who’d bought it from Tribal Judge Frank Zahn, who was associated with the Standing Rock Reservation—Leonard ran a medical clinic in Garrison, North Dakota, and collected native American weapons and other artifacts during that time.

Chances are that it was Zahn who realized its true importance in history (Zahn served in the U.S. military during World War I and acted in films as well as working as a go-between for the U.S. federal government and the reserves). In the generations since the Battle of the Little Bighorn, where U.S. cavalry general George Armstrong Custer led hundreds of troops to their death, the conflict has been widely studied, which would explain the rifle’s association with a specific warrior and soldier from opposite sides of the skirmish.

The auction house doesn’t list any details about the rifle’s history before Zahn got his hands on it. Based on its condition, it seems likely this would have been used by the natives for fighting but also for wilderness survival for years before it was taken into a private collection. It doesn’t have butchered scope bases or the other typical signs of milsurp sporter rifles. It still has its 22-inch barrel, with a pinned blade front sight and a tangent ladder rear sight that graduates out to 1200 yards. This Springfield got the job done in the 1870s and for who knows how many decades afterwards. It’s historic enough that its hunting days are over now, though, especially after it fetches a pretty price at the November auction—see more details on that here.

All photos: Poulin Auctions

SK Guns is back with another gorgeous, limited-edition 1911 handgun for us to drool over in the “Charro Negro,” or the legend of the Black Horseman. This limited run of only 200 Full Size Government Model Colt 1911s chambered in .38 Super blends traditional charro imagery with what some might call supernatural mystique. Each pistol will include a special engraved edition number.

SK Guns @ TFB:

• SK Guns Honors America's 250th with Exclusive 1911 Commander .45 ACP
• SK Guns Unveils NEW Agent Eclipse AOS 1911 Pistols
• SK Guns Honors 9/11 with Limited-Edition Custom Commander 1911 9mm
• SK Customs Launches New SK Guns Website In Rebranding Effort

SK Guns - The Legend of the Black Horseman

There is a lot going on with the newly debuted Charro Negro (Black Horseman) as far as its embellishments, engravings, and craftsmanship, but we will attempt to walk you through all of it.

• Left Side: The gun’s slide includes selective 24k gold and .999 silver-plating; the rear panel is decorated with a gold horseshoe, leading the flats of the slide a Cathedral, money bag and human skull, surrounded with the Poppy floral scroll representing death, resilience, and traditional healing.
• Right Side: The gun’s slide showcases a balance in selective 24k gold and .999 silver with a Raven representing bad omens and harbingers of misfortune in Mexican Folklore, Charro Nego shown scouting in distinguished Mexican Heritage attire holding his horse’s rein as a full moon meets the midnight peak. The poppy floral scroll continues the decorative floral scroll.
• Top Side: The slide is decorated with Charro Negro riding his horse in the night hours haunting a lonely road, tempting travellers with dangerous bargains. The rear of the slide displays a graveyard of those who have passed to the afterlife.

The frame, slide, barrel and hardware are all highly polished and feature 24k gold in select areas and controls in a deep Colt Royal Blue finish. The .999 silver plating is made complete with a black hematite Colt Rampart medallion inserted on presentation-grade black-cloud pearl Kirinite grips.

A Word from SK Guns on their Charro Negro 1911

“St. Augustine, Florida - September, 2026 - SK Guns®, the Nation’s only series-driven, limited-edition manufacturer of custom firearms, is proud to introduce Charro Negro, the premiere release in the highly anticipated Folklore Series. This ultra-exclusive, limited-edition run consists of only 200 Full-Size Government Colt 1911s chambered in the iconic .38 Super.

"Bringing the legend of the Charro Negro to life on the Colt 1911 was about more than just engraving a firearm; it was about honoring generations of Mexican storytelling,” said Simon Khiabani, owner and founder of SK Guns. “The Black Horseman represents a captivating blend of elegance, mystery, and moral tradition. By capturing his striking imagery—from the silver ornamentation to the haunting nighttime aesthetic—we are preserving a piece of vibrant oral history in a timeless, tangible masterpiece."”

Final Thoughts

Now, for the elephant in the room… these pistols will run you $3,000 each and are currently being pre-ordered with a predicted ship date of January - February 2027. Only 200 of these Full-Size Government Colt 1911s chambered in .38 Super will be produced for the Charro Negro series.

As always, let us know all of your thoughts about SK Guns and the newly announced Charro Negro - Black Horseman - handgun in the Comments below! We always appreciate your feedback and engagement.

Classic scatterguns @ TFB:

• Fudd Friday: Ithaca Is America's Old-School Pump Gun Manufacturer 
• TFB Armorer's Bench: Understanding Auto-5 Friction Ring Orientation 
• Fudd Friday: Winchester 1911 SL - Was the "Widowmaker" Really Deadly? 
• The Greatest Blunder In Commercial Firearms History 

How’d we get here?

Some background—the state of Connecticut banned the sale of pistols with cruciform triggers earlier in 2026, when Governor Ned Lamont signed H.B. 5043 into law. The idea behind this bill is to stop the sale of pistols that can be converted from semi-auto to full-auto with the installation of drop-in parts by replacing the slide backplate.

This means that pistols from Glock and many other popular manufacturers are no longer legal to sell in Connecticut, and the NSSF ain’t got no time for that. From their PR about their lawsuit:

“Connecticut's law targeting "convertible pistols" infringes on the right of citizens to purchase the most-popular-selling handguns that are used for self-defense and renowned for their reliability. Connecticut is unconstitutionally infringing on Second Amendment rights while ignoring criminals who violate federal and state law to illegally modify these handguns to attach a "machinegun conversion device," or MCD, which has long been illegal to both possess or to attach to a firearm outside of strict federal licensing. The firearm industry warns gun owners against illegal modifications that override intentional semiautomatic firearm engineering designs. Illegally modifying a firearm to enable automatic fire is a federal crime.”

Lawrence G. Keane, the NSSF’s Senior VP and General Counsel, says the problem is that the law targets good guys, not bad guys. In their statement, he didn’t pussyfoot around the problem as he sees it:

“Connecticut's elected officials pander to gun control donors and antigun special interests to scapegoat the industry and ban an entire class of ordinary firearms, which the U.S. Supreme Court's Heller decision clearly holds violates the U.S. Constitution. Governor Lamont knew this yet didn't hesitate to trample on the Second Amendment."

Connecticut’s proposed ban comes into place on October 1, 2026. The NSSF has filed for a preliminary injunction that will stop the law from being enforced, or a restraining order that stops HB 5034 from taking effect until the preliminary injunction is decided on. And they’d also like to remind gun owners that “Modifying a firearm by adding an illegal device that overrides the original, intended function or design to render a semiautomatic firearm into an automatic firearm is a felony. That includes importing, possessing, making or selling an MCD. It's a violation of the National Firearms Act (NFA) and carries a prison sentence of up to 10 years and up to $250,000 in fines.” Their words, not ours!

MDT has a new magnesium chassis optmized for night hunting. The DRT chassis system is fully outfitted for pursuits like hog hunting and all of the specialized equipment that requires. Keep reading for all the details.

MDT @ TFB:

• MDT Enters Bolt-Action Market with Fuzion, Fuzion Ti & Razor Platforms
• MDT News: CKYE-POD GEN3 in Single, Double, and Triple-Pull Versions
• Recoil Control with Minimal Weight - The MDT Titanium Hunting Brake
• TFB Review: MDT Lightweight CkyePod Bipod
• Classic Wood Meets Modern Precision: New MDT TIMBR CORE Rifle Stock

One feature optimized for nighttime use is the full-length NV rail. It has a 20-MOA cant to align with the scope. The mounting bridge offers ample space for clip-on night vision or thermal devices. The sides of the chassis also have MLOK slots for mounting lasers or other accessories.

Adding those imaging systems also adds a lot of weight to the firearm. To counteract this, MDT crafted the body of the chassis from magnesium. This is a lightweight but very strong material. The Arca mounting rail on the underside of the handguard is aluminum.

The DRT chassis system retails for $2249 and is available for order now for Remington 700 Short Action footprints in black or FDE.

From the manufacturer:

"Dead Right There. That's the only outcome you're hunting for tonight.

No wind. No distractions. Just the cold, dark night and the faint shape of a hog working the fence line two hundred yards out, its signature ghosting through your thermal. You've been sitting on this field for three hours, and your legs are stiff, but the rifle at your feet hasn't asked anything of you all night.

Get closer, and the ground turns to broken pasture and deadfall. A heavy rig punishes you here, every extra pound another reason to second-guess the stalk. The DRT doesn't. Magnesium construction keeps it light for the walk in, then locks down hard the second you settle into position. Fold it for the fence-line crossing. Drop into a tripod when the shot presents itself.

Behind the glass, the white heat washes in and everything else drops away. No noise. No stiff knees. Just the reticle and the shape moving through your scope. The DRT's NV bridge keeps your clip-on running true to that reticle, so the crosshair and the signature are always tracking on the same spot. There's no guessing here. You settle the shot, and you send it.

Dead Right There. Every time."

This is not a tactics piece. I am not going to tell you how to clear a hallway, and I am not going to publish room-entry sequencing on a public blog. That is not what this is. This is about the paper-to-pavement gap on the schools sitting inside your beat, and about the small, boring, structural work that determines whether a plan holds up under load. The thesis is simple: most schools have a safety plan, and most patrol officers have never seen it, walked the building, or tested a single assumption inside it. The plan exists to satisfy an institutional requirement. The capability does not exist until someone builds it, and that someone is usually not the school.

One disclaimer up front, because this topic invites bad-faith reading. Nothing here is a criticism of teachers, administrators, or school resource officers as people. The failures I am describing are structural. They come from incentive mismatches and procurement cycles, not from anyone being lazy or uncaring. Keep that frame. It is the only honest one.

Front Line Friday @ TFB:

• Off-Duty Carry Considerations
• After-Action Reviews Officers Will Actually Use
• Female Officer Gear and Fit: The Systemic Gap
• De-escalation Training That Actually Transfers
• In-Car First Aid and Trauma Kit Configuration

Here is the incentive problem in plain terms. The people who write the plan are usually administrators working against a deadline handed down from a district office or a state education agency. Their measure of success is that the plan is filed on time and passes review. Nobody in that chain is rewarded for the plan working under stress, because the plan is almost never tested under stress. It gets tested against a checklist. A checklist does not fight back.

The result is a plan full of confident language about "lockdown procedures" and "unified command" that nobody has ever run against a moving problem. The doors lock, in theory. Staff shelter in place, in theory. Law enforcement responds and takes command, in theory. Every one of those phrases hides an assumption, and every assumption is a place the plan can fail. The short version: a plan that has never been stress-tested is a hypothesis, not a capability.

What this means for you on patrol is that the binder is not your friend. The binder tells you what someone intended. It does not tell you which classroom doors actually latch, which master key works, or whether the front office can push a building-wide announcement without the principal physically present. Those are the things that decide outcomes, and none of them are in the audit.

You Cannot Command a Building You Have Never Walked

Ask yourself an honest question. Of the schools on your beat, how many have you been inside when there was no call? Walked the halls, counted the exits, found the mechanical room, figured out how the numbering system works on the second floor when the first floor uses a different scheme? For most patrol officers, the answer is zero, or close to it. That is the failure mode I want to name before I prescribe anything: officers are expected to run a critical incident inside a building they have only ever seen from the parking lot.

School buildings are hostile to responders in ways that are easy to miss until you are inside one under pressure. Room numbering is often non-intuitive. Additions built in different decades create dead-end wings and interior courtyards that do not appear on the fire-evacuation map by the door. Portable classrooms sit in the back lot with their own numbering and no connection to the main building's PA system. A responder navigating that geography for the first time, with adrenaline dumping and a radio full of traffic, is solving a spatial puzzle at the exact moment they can least afford to.

The fix is not complicated, but it costs time, and time is the one thing patrol never has enough of. Walk the schools. Not once, as a photo op, but on a rotating basis so that when your name comes up on a call there, you have already been inside. Pull the current floor plans and confirm they match reality, because they often do not after a renovation. Find out who holds keys and access at 2 a.m. versus during school hours, because those are two completely different answers. None of this is glamorous. All of it decides whether you are useful in the first four minutes.

There is a compounding argument here that matters more than any single shift. An officer who invests a few hours over a year building familiarity with the schools on the beat is building a capability that pays out across an entire career, on a day nobody can schedule. The officer who skips it is not less capable on the 364 uneventful days. They are less capable on the one day the difference is measured in lives, and by then it is too late to catch up.

Interoperability inside a large concrete-and-steel school building is a real problem, and we have touched on radio interoperability in prior installments, so I will keep this narrow to the school-specific piece. Portable radios lose signal in interior rooms, stairwells, and basements. If your agency and the responding fire and EMS units are on different systems, and they often are, the unified command the plan promises collapses into a parking lot full of people who cannot hear each other. That is not a training failure. It is an infrastructure gap that no amount of individual effort fixes, and it needs to be surfaced to the people who buy radios, not blamed on the officer whose radio went silent in a stairwell.

Doors are the other early failure. A modern school might have hundreds of interior doors, and the plan's lockdown procedure assumes they lock quickly and reliably from the inside. Some do. Some require a key from the hallway side, which means a teacher has to open the door and step into the hall to lock it, which is exactly the wrong direction. Some are propped open with a doorstop because the HVAC does not move air well and the room gets stuffy. The door that is supposed to buy time buys none if it is chocked open with a wooden wedge at the moment it matters.

Then there is your own access. If the building is in full lockdown and every exterior door has auto-locked behind the last person in, how do you get in? Is there a Knox box? Does your agency have the code or the key, and is it current? I have seen master keys that stopped working after a lock replacement that nobody told the PD about. The operational consequence is blunt: a responder standing outside a locked glass door during an active event is a responder who has been removed from the fight by a hardware problem that a single walkthrough would have caught.

Pre-Labeling the School as Low-Threat Is the Same Mistake, One Building Over

This column has spent real time on the myth of the routine call, and I want to connect that thread here without re-litigating it. The same cognitive trap that makes a traffic stop feel routine makes a school feel safe. It is a place full of children, staffed by people who care, in a part of town nobody flags as a problem. The building reads as low-threat, and that reading is itself the mechanism that leaves responders unprepared.

No call category is inherently routine, and no building is inherently safe. The school on your beat that has never generated a serious call is not a school where nothing can happen. It is a school where the prior is strong and the preparation is weak, which is the exact combination that produces a bad outcome when the low-probability event finally arrives. Familiarity that comes from driving past a building for years is not the same as capability. It feels like knowledge. It is mostly assumption.

There is a fatigue dimension to this that deserves naming, because it interacts badly with complacency. A patrol officer on the back half of a rotating shift schedule is often operating with a sleep debt that degrades reaction time and decision-making. Research on sustained wakefulness has found that being awake for around 17 hours impairs performance to a level comparable to a blood alcohol concentration of 0.05 percent, and pushing past 20 to 24 hours awake pushes that comparable impairment up to roughly 0.10 percent, which is over the legal driving limit in every state. That is not a character flaw. It is physiology. An impaired responder walking into an unfamiliar building on a low-threat assumption is stacking three risk factors on top of each other, and the operational consequence is slower, worse decisions at the exact moment the situation demands the opposite.

I raise fatigue not to solve it here, but because it changes how much the preparation matters. The more degraded the responder, the more the outcome depends on what was built in advance: the walkthrough already done, the floor plan already studied, the door already known to latch. Preparation is what carries you when your own bandwidth is gone. It is the reason the boring work is not optional.

A scheduled lockdown drill tests whether staff and students can execute a rehearsed sequence when they know it is coming, on a normal day, with the regular teacher present and the schedule intact. That is worth something. It builds baseline muscle memory. What it does not test is the unscheduled version: the substitute who never got the briefing, the class that was in the gym instead of its home room, the fire alarm pulled deliberately to push people into the halls. The drill proves the choreography works when everyone hits their marks. It does not prove the response holds when the marks move, which is the only version that counts.

The same distinction applies to your own training. A certificate that says you completed an active-threat response course proves you were present for the instruction and passed whatever the standard was on that day. It does not prove you can navigate a specific building you have never entered, coordinate with a fire crew you have never trained alongside, or function through the sleep debt described above. Certification tests exposure to a curriculum. It does not guarantee performance in the specific, degraded, unfamiliar conditions of a real event. Treat the certificate as a floor, not a ceiling, and treat the specific building as the thing that still needs work.

The most useful exercises I have seen are the ones that deliberately break the script: change the location mid-drill, remove a key player, introduce a communications failure on purpose. Those are uncomfortable, and they make the numbers look worse, which is exactly why the incentive structure resists them. An exercise designed to make the agency look prepared is a different animal from an exercise designed to find out where it is not. Only the second kind builds real capability.

The parallel breaks down on the integrated response. A modern school incident increasingly demands that police and medics work the same space, with officers providing security while medics or Rescue Task Force elements reach casualties. That model only works if both sides have walked the building together and can talk to each other on scene. Where I have seen it fail, it failed on the two systems named earlier: communications and access. The medic could not raise the officer, or the staging point the plan designated turned out to be behind a locked gate. The fix is joint walkthroughs, not separate ones. If police and fire pre-plan the same school on different days and never compare notes, you have two partial pictures and no shared one, and the seam between them is where the response tears.

Bottom Line / What to Do Monday

• Individual officer, this week: Pick one school on your beat and go inside during off-peak hours. Walk it, learn the room-numbering logic, find the exits and the mechanical spaces, and confirm how you would get in during a full lockdown. Do one more next month. Build the coverage over a year.
• Individual officer: Confirm your own access today. Find out whether there is a Knox box or master key, whether your agency has current access, and whether that key still works after any recent lock changes. A dead key is a problem you want to discover now, not at the door.
• FTOs and supervisors: Build school familiarization into the field training rotation. A trainee who rides the beat for months without ever setting foot inside the schools has a hole in their knowledge that nobody is measuring. Make the walkthrough a documented task, not a suggestion.
• FTOs and supervisors: Push for at least one unscheduled or script-broken exercise per cycle. An exercise that only tests the rehearsed version is measuring the wrong thing. Design at least one to fail on purpose and learn from where it breaks.
• Agencies and procurement: Treat radio coverage inside your major school buildings as an infrastructure question, not an officer-skill question. Test portable coverage in interior rooms and stairwells, and if it fails, that is a purchasing and engineering fix, not something to train around.
• Agencies: Get the current floor plans, verify they match the building after any renovation, and store them where a responding unit can actually pull them up. Coordinate joint pre-planning with fire and EMS on the same buildings so both sides share one picture.
• Fire/EMS note: Offer to bring law enforcement along on your next school pre-incident walkthrough. You already know how to do this. Sharing the trip is the cheapest way to close the integrated-response seam before it matters.

A few months back, Safariland and Haley Strategic Partners flew a handful of us out to HSP's headquarters in Arizona. The main event for this trip was the Incog XS, the new single-clip concealment version of the Incog X, and that's where most of our range time went. But before we packed up, they pulled out something that hadn't leaked yet: BASELINE, a full belt system Safariland and HSP had been building quietly on the side. I've been running it since, and while I've got more testing planned, here's where I've landed so far.

More from Safariland @ TFB:

• TFB Behind the Gun #225: Safariland IncogXS w/ Dave Higginbotham 
• TFB Review: Safariland Solis Holster, ALS Security For EDC 
• Safariland HOLLE Solves the Duty Belt's Oldest Frustrations 
• New BASELINE Belts From Safariland And Haley Strategic 

TFB Review: Getting to Know the HSP/Safariland BASELINE Belt System

Travis Haley and Safariland's Dave Higginbotham, who's been a guest on my podcast, walked the group through it. The whole HSP/Safariland partnership is built around configurability: give a shooter the gear they need and make it easy to rearrange when the task changes. Travis Haley also took this time to share a few new projects he’s been working on, set to come out later this year that I think a lot of you will either love or hate depending on your taste in handguns. However, before the skunkworks stuff, he gave us the broad overview of the BASELINE system and its various optional accessories.

Product Link: https://safariland.com/collections/baseline-belts-accessories/products/baseline-molle-belt 

BASELINE MOLLE Belt ($170)

Safariland describes it as a belt that delivers a rigid, lightweight platform that supports demanding loadouts without unnecessary bulk.

• Laminate construction with a high-density polyethylene stiffener; MIL-SPEC webbing and nylon laminate
• Overlock Tab Closure System paired with an integrated 1-inch Raptor buckle
• Half-inch MOLLE interface, compatible with standard MOLLE/PALS, Malice Clips, and Mandible Straps
• VELCRO Brand High Technology Hook for inner-belt engagement
• Ships with a Mandible Vertical MOLLE Strap 2-pack
• Sizes/weights: Small 32"-36.5" / 7.45 oz / 20 columns; Medium 35"-39.5" / 7.9 oz / 22 columns; Large 38"-42.5" / 8.3 oz / 24 columns; XL 41"-45.5" / 8.66 oz / 26 columns (all 1.75" H x 0.25" W, 3 rows of ½" MOLLE)
• Colors: Black, Coyote, MultiCam, Ranger Green

The Overlock Tab Closure System works in conjunction with the integrated 1" Raptor® buckle to eliminate traditional weak points at the closure, delivering true 360° rigidity and consistent support under load.

Single ($25) / Double ($40) Pistol Mag Pouch

Safariland's description: features a robust laminate construction with a removable injection-molded MP2 Handgun Insert that enables secure retention of most double-stack 9mm pistol magazines without the need for pull tabs, bungies or loud hook-and-loop flaps.

• Positive click-in retention; MP2 insert installs bullets-out or bullets-forward
• Single includes 1 MP2 insert; Double includes 2
• Ships with a pair of Mandible Vertical MOLLE Straps; sized for 1.5" to 2.0" outer belts
• MIL-SPEC 500D/1000D nylon laminate; Berry Compliant
• Fits common double-stack 9mm mags (Glock 17/19/34/45, Sig P320/M17/M18/P226, 2011/Staccato, M&P9, XD/Hellcat, HK VP9/P30, Walther PDP)
• Colors: Black, Coyote, MultiCam, Ranger Green

Mandible MOLLE Straps

• Vertical Strap ($3.50) and Angled Strap ($5.00, Left or Right)
• Angled strap cants pouches outboard; proprietary extruded hook and loop laminate for extra-strength adhesion to inner belts

Dump Pouch ($45)

An extremely lightweight roll-up pouch designed to securely store magazines, breaching charges/equipment, provisions, water bottles and other kit.

• One-handed cinch cord closure; drainage grommets at the bottom
• VELCRO Brand hook-and-loop drop-down attachment
• DWR-treated ripstop nylon; MIL-SPEC 550 paracord; Berry Compliant
• Colors: Black, Coyote, MultiCam

Improved Trauma Response Kit ($80)

Developed in collaboration with Special Operations Aid and Rescue™ (SOARescue).

• Ambidextrous medical tray with rubberized loop handles for single-handed, wet-hand retrieval
• Two-way mount: vertical on 2 columns of MOLLE, or horizontal belt pass-through
• Fits 1" to 2.25" belts; holds 6.25" to 7.25" shears; sized for a sealed SOARescue MedMag IFAK
• Includes weatherproof Medical Info & TCCC card; laser-cut medical cross
• Waterproof MIL-SPEC 500D/400D Aramid X-PLY laminate; Berry Compliant
• Colors: Black, Coyote, MultiCam, Ranger Green

The closure for the outer belt uses Safariland's Overlock Tab system with a 1-inch Raptor buckle, meant to spread load around the belt rather than concentrate it at the buckle. The plastic tab simply slips back into the belt itself, leaving no “tail” and providing better structure on the front of the belt where there is usually less Velcro contact. Speaking of which, the outer belt, of course, runs over a D3 or D3 Pro inner belt ($25/$45) that attaches with hook-and-loop. I have a plain D3 belt which features a G-hook closure method instead of Velcro. Currently, the belt only comes in two colors, tan or black.

Similarly, retention is adjustable, and as a bonus feature, the pouches can be canted: they ship on a vertical Mandible strap, and the $5 angled strap tilts it outboard. Vertical takes up less belt; canted is quicker to reach for a competition draw, which is how I've set mine. The $45 Dump Pouch rolls flat and closes one-handed. The $80 Improved Trauma Response Kit, made with SOARescue, mounts vertically on MOLLE or horizontally on the belt and has a tray built to open with wet or gloved hands. Thankfully, I’ve only had to open up the trauma kit so far to get everything staged properly.

Range Time So Far

I’ve only had the belt setup for a few months and only been able to take it to two competitions so far. The first thing I noticed with the whole kit assembled was that the belt keeps its shape under a loaded holster and mags without stiffening up enough to dig in when you sit or twist. In two gun, you often have more gear on your belt than you would during a USPSA match, so I like having the extra weight capabilities. I didn't get much time on it at the HSP event in Arizona, since the range portion went to the Incog XS, but I've worn it through several matches up to this point and training days since, and nothing has loosened, shifted, or worn in a way worth flagging. Furthermore, making small adjustments is pretty easy if you use their special One Wrap tabs.

In comparison to some less weight-conscious rigs, the BASELINE seems like it does indeed hold up the extra weight very well, and I experience virtually no shift in the position of the belt, even under intense movement. Like other belt systems that use one wrap, however, if you overload your belt with incompatible surfaces (like the holster mount I’m using), you’ll lose some of that positive retention around your waist. That is why it’s probably best to keep as many pieces of the system together as possible, rather than breaking it out. If you want to build your

Because BASELINE is so new, there isn't a deep well of long-term owner feedback, including my own, to lean on yet, and that's probably a little concerning for anyone spending this kind of money on day one for a belt. However, to help you as much as I can, a few things stand out from the spec sheets and the design choices, at least to me. The proprietary Mandible strap attachment means the mag pouches rely heavily on Safariland's own ecosystem rather than dropping straight onto standard MOLLE like a typical Tenicor or Tek-Lok setup, so canting a pouch costs you an extra $5 strap on top of the pouch itself and isn’t a native capability of the belt or the attachments.

Safariland's own product page also says that certain metal 2011 magazines can scrape or gouge the MP2 insert during break-in, which I haven’t really experienced, but instead I have experienced the insert coming out occasionally when performing a particularly aggressive draw with my Staccato C mags. And the pistol pouches are 9mm double-stack specific, so .45, single-stack, or oddball platforms are out unless you want them jiggling around on your belt. None of these are dealbreakers, I think, but they're the kind of things that don't typically show up in a launch-day press release, or necessarily an early product page review.

Final Thoughts

At roughly $280 for the whole belt, inner belt, a double pouch, and a dump pouch before a holster, it's priced with the established battle belt makers, not under them. I like it so far, but this is a first look on purpose. I have three more two-gun matches this year, and those are long days that put real hours on a belt, closer to what duty or hard use does to one than a normal range trip. I'll follow up after those. Safariland's own 4333 Low Profile Battle Belt (roughly $180) and just above the new HOLLE duty belt ($157 to $232 depending on buckle), so it's not undercutting the house lineup so much as offering a different flavor of load-bearing belt at the same tier. I think it's also worth pointing out that the older 032 ELS Competition Belt runs around $75 to $89, which makes BASELINE a real step up in price if your only goal is to get a bare-bones match belt.

To sum my thoughts up, I think BASELINE gets the fundamentals right, and the accessory system is genuinely thoughtful in a way that rewards shooters who want to tinker with their layout and also keep matching sets together. I’m becoming more of a stickler about matching sets of gear and accessories as I age, and I think my Magpul furniture addiction is a strong indication of that. What I can't tell you yet is whether the laminate used in this belt holds its rigidity after years of getting thrown in a range bag, cinched down hard, and worn through full match days or duty shifts in the heat and cold. I’ve only had the belt for about 6 months, and range days alone and a handful of 2 Gun ACMs can’t test a belt sufficiently.

Welcome back to another edition of Concealed Carry Corner. Last week, we took a look at the big difference between having fun with your handguns by upgrading them versus practical upgrades that make a difference. If you happened to miss that article, be sure to click the link here to check it out. This week, with the rise of red dots and almost all major manufacturers offering some sort of optics-ready version of their handguns, there's a wide variety of options at almost every price point imaginable, but how do you determine what's best? I would absolutely be willing to do a buyer's guide to carry optics in the coming weeks, but I wanted to set the groundwork by explaining what's important to look at when deciding on carry optics.

Choosing Your Carry Optic For The Gun

Whether it's a beginner shopping for their first carry optic or an experienced shooter trying to figure out what exact model they want to purchase for their new gun, it can be overwhelming because of the sheer number of choices on the market today. The first thing I would take into account is what gun you decide on because this will ultimately guide you on one of two paths. There are compact and robust optics that allow for a comfortable carry despite a small package or the larger optics that allow a wider field of view but don't always fit every model, especially the smaller-sized handguns. The old saying, right tool for the right job, certainly applies to this and with a huge amount of choices on the market, it can be tricky to decide on one particular optic. After looking at what size optic you want to go with, you have to look at enclosed versus open emitter optics and what shape you want the glass to be.

Most choices for optics will be a square field of view, but various models like the Trijicon SRO have an oval shape to allow for more light collection and a larger field of view, allowing for a clearer picture. I've had a number of SROs and they have been bulletproof reliable, but other oval-shaped optics haven't done as well, like the discontinued Kahles red dot sight I reviewed a few years ago, which I immediately broke within the first hour of training at the range. No matter how tough or durable an optic is, there's always a chance they go down or break eventually since they are fundamentally a mechanical part at the end of the day. I’ve had budget optics fail on me and I've had expensive high-end optics fail after years of reliability; sometimes things just happen and that's important to remember. Sometimes reticle can be a deal breaker, whether people want a circle and dot, circle only or just a regular single dot. Then there are the different MOA variants that you have to choose from, whether to have a smaller, more precise dot or a larger dot for easier acquisition at the cost of covering the target at a distance. Choices are amazing when it comes to products because we can get exactly what we need, but it can certainly be a lot to figure out at the moment and that's ok.

Budget Determines Your Optic

One of the biggest determining factors when it comes to an optic is what you're willing to spend on it. Holosun came screaming into the market a few years ago, offering high-quality optics at an affordable price. People tend to go with those options because they are great value for money and offer a reliable option, but they certainly are not the only option when it comes to pistol optics. In recent years, there has been a number of very reliable optics come onto the market that may not be extremely durable but offer reliability for their price point. Other options like EOTech with their EFLX line have tried to bring the price down for high-quality options as well.

When it comes to the high-end market, Trijicon still owns that game, but many say they have not kept up with other companies and innovated enough despite being some of the most reliable pistol optics on the market. I can sense the Holosun crowd racing to the comments to leave their comments about how Holosuns are better, but we can't deny that Trijicon's are fantastic options while being American-made, but for a higher price. If I were starting out fresh, I would pick a budget I’m comfortable with and then start looking at the various options for that particular budget.

I tend to stick with brands like Steiner with their MPS and MPSc options, EOTech with their EFLX CE line or a Trijicon RMR/RMR HD or SRO for a heavy-use range gun. If you're not a die-hard gun person and just getting into the gun scene, the best advice I would give is to go with something that has a high enough price to be reliable and durable but won't break the bank. Eventually you can always upgrade it to something else once you know exactly what you like, but diving headfirst into a $700 optic only to not like it is a tough lesson to learn right off the bat.

What is The Future?

When it comes to pistol optics in the future, I think we are already seeing the trend of what's coming with Aimpoint releasing the COA line of handguns with Glock. I think in time we will see pistol optics built in and as technology improves and everything shrinks down, I truly believe we will have an optics system straight from the factory where they are either made by the manufacturer or a collaboration of an optics company and a gun company. We are already seeing the market shift to being as modular as possible, but I really do think it will develop into a complete system straight from the factory.

Companies like SIG Sauer have already started with their own line of optics, creating a system which I think will be the ultimate path to the future of optics on handguns. I may be wrong and it could go in an entirely different direction, but handguns with an optic weren't a thing 20 years ago and the progression has been incredible to watch. This is one of the aspects I'm truly excited to see where it goes and how things progress when it comes to optics technology in the firearms industry down the road.

Overall Thoughts

While going through various optics for pistols and comparing them is always fun, it's important to take a step back and see the requirements for your carry gun and what you need. Whether it's a full-size gun with a weapon-mounted light or a small single-stack handgun that maximizes concealability, there are certainly fantastic options on the market for every style of handgun you may carry. I’m putting together a second part where I get into the nitty-gritty of carry optics, and if you have personal favorites, please leave them in the comments below. If you have questions about carry optics or firearms in general, feel free to shoot me a message on Instagram @fridgeoperator. Stay safe out there and we will see you next week for another edition of Concealed Carry Corner.

TFB’s Concealed Carry Corner is brought to you by GLOCK

If you ventured out into the wild and currently own a rifle chambered in the new 300 HAMR cartridge, Remington has got your back by not only producing and cataloging that ammunition, but it will also be available this hunting season. They have announced that their Remington Core-Lokt flavor of 300 HAMR is now shipping to dealers across the US.

Remington @ TFB:

• It’s on the Truck! Remington, Federal Rifle & Shotgun Ammo is Shipping
• Federal & Remington Awarded FBI Rifle Ammo Contract for 4 Bullet Types
• The Rimfire Report: Is Remington’s Budget Cyclone 22LR Any Good?
• The Rimfire Report: Remington’s Discontinued Standard Target 40gr RN

Remington Core-Lokt 300 HAMR - Now Shipping

The Remington Core-Lokt bullet is legendary, and has been around for what seems like forever (since 1939), and now it is being made for an extremely infant cartridge in the respectable 300 HAMR. With its tapered copper jacket that is mechanically locked-in-place to a solid lead core to consistently deliver up to 2-times the expansion (two times the width of the original bullet), you also get deep penetration and best-in-class weight retention upon impact. These new Core-Lokt 300 HAMR rounds will be available in standard 20-count boxes with an attainable MSRP of $37.99 per box.

• 300 HAMR 130 Grain Pointed Soft Point | 2,340 FPS | SKU: R21351 | MSRP $37.99

A Word from Remington on their Core-Lokt 300 HAMR

“Lonoke, Arkansas - September, 2026 - Remington Ammunition announces the expansion of its trusted Core-Lokt rifle ammunition line with a new centerfire rifle offering in 300 HAMR. Now shipping to dealers nationwide, Core-Lokt’s new 300 HAMR 130-grain, Pointed Soft Point load brings the proven performance of “The Deadliest Mushroom in the Woods” to even more modern hunting platforms.

“The .300 HAMR has become highly popular with hunters because it provides .30-30 ballistics with a lot less recoil than a .308 from a standard, lightweight AR-15 modern sporting rifle,” said Kris Carson, Remington’s Centerfire Product Director. “By expanding the line into new, highly demanded chamberings like 300 HAMR, we are giving today’s hunters more ways to rely on a bullet they have trusted for generations.””

Henry Repeating Arms isn’t simply known for making quality lever-action rifles, but also making some of the best and most timeless commemorative firearms in the industry as well. Their newest announcement is a true throwback as they announce their Founding Fathers rimfire rifle collection that includes 7 unique offerings.

Henry Repeating Arms @ TFB:

• Henry H1 Bandit Is The Next Step Up
• Gun Review: Henry Repeating Arms –Original Henry Rifle
• The Rimfire Report: Do You Have The Green For This Historic Henry?
• The Rimfire Report: The Henry Magnum Express Review

Henry Repeating Arms Founding Fathers Rifle Collection

This new Founding Fathers rifle collection has tribute rifles for seven of our most famous founding fathers. Each commemorative rifle has an MSRP of $1,776 (extremely fitting), or you can go ahead and buy the entire collection of seven firearms at once for $10,150 (this would save you $2,282 as opposed to purchasing them individually).

Only 250 rifles of each tribute firearm are going to be produced with all of them being crafted off of a Golden Boy Silver series firearm. All of them will feature selective 24kt gold plating of the founder’s portrait, his name, and the 1776–2026 anniversary dates. You will also receive exhibition-grade American walnut - the highest grade of walnut that Henry uses.

• George Washington Tribute Edition .22 S/L/LR | H004S-GW
• John Adams Tribute Edition .22 S/L/LR | H004S-JA
• Thomas Jefferson Tribute Edition .22 S/L/LR | H004S-TJ
• James Madison Tribute Edition .22 S/L/LR | H004S-JM
• Benjamin Franklin Tribute Edition .22 S/L/LR | H004S-BM
• Alexander Hamilton Tribute Edition .22 S/L/LR | H004S-AH
• John Jay Tribute Edition .22 S/L/LR | H004S-JJ

A Word from Henry Repeating Arms on the Founding Fathers Collection

“Rice Lake, Wisconsin - September, 2026 - Henry Repeating Arms has introduced the Founding Fathers Collection, a series of seven Tribute Edition rifles honoring the men who shaped the American republic: George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, James Madison, John Jay, and Alexander Hamilton. The series arrives as the United States of America continues to celebrate its 250th anniversary of independence.

“This is, without a doubt, the most ambitious tribute series we’ve ever done,” said Anthony Imperato, Founder & CEO of Henry Repeating Arms. “We put our finest walnut and our best engraving work into each one. I think collectors are going to understand right away why these are so special.”

Like every Henry firearm, the Founding Fathers Collection is made entirely in the United States, at the company’s facilities in Wisconsin. Each rifle is roll-marked “Henry Repeating Arms, Rice Lake, WI, Made in USA.””

Final Thoughts

These rifles look truly exquisite and 250 firearms of each of the 7 chosen founding fathers might sound like a lot, but it really is not. I would expect all of these to sell extremely fast.

As always, let us know all of your thoughts about Henry Repeating Arms as well as their limited-edition Founding Fathers rifle collection in the Comments below! We always appreciate your feedback and engagement.

This week on TFB's Behind the Gun Podcast, Dan Wolgin from Ammunition Depot is back on the show. We had him on a while back to talk tariffs and pricing, and this time we're covering two bigger stories: the launch of AmmoVault, their new buy-now-store-later ammo reserve service, and Ammunition Depot's new partnership with the NRA to help fund Second Amendment litigation. That includes Rhode v. Bonta, the ammunition background-check case that Ammunition Depot has been fighting as a plaintiff for years. Dan walks us through how AmmoVault actually works, where Rhode v. Bonta stands now that it's before the full Ninth Circuit, and why an ammo retailer decided to get involved in the legal fight instead of just selling a product with almost endless demand.

More TFB Behind the Gun Podcast Episodes:

• TFB Behind the Gun #233: Keeping Britain's Guns Alive in America 
• TFB Behind the Gun #232: FAST Auto Rifle Division ft. Russell Phagan 
• TFB Behind the Gun #231: Derrick Ratliff of Horizon Firearms 

TFB Behind the Gun #236: Dan Wolgin of Ammunition Depot

Dan Wolgin of Ammunition Depot returns to TFB's Behind the Gun podcast to talk about AmmoVault, the company's new reserve-and-storage service that lets shooters buy ammunition over time, have it held in a climate-controlled facility, and ship it whenever they're ready. We also dig into Ammunition Depot's new partnership with the NRA, which adds a checkout donation option funding NRA and NRA-ILA litigation, and get an update on Rhode v. Bonta, the long-running challenge to California's ammunition background check law where Ammunition Depot has been a plaintiff from the start. The case is now before the full Ninth Circuit following March 2026 oral arguments, with a ruling still pending.

Follow Ammunition Depot:

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AmmoVault

Kimber’s award-winning R7 Mako: the polymer-frame, striker-fired micro-compact with 14 rounds total capacity, and a trigger you have to experience to believe. Feed your appetite for something different at www.R7Mako.com.

VNSH Holsters – www.vnsh.com/behindthegun

Industry Standards

The firearms industry is as technical as it is competitive. Midwest Industries has survived in an industry for well over two decades by making reliable, well-engineered accessories and firearms that meet and exceed industry standards for reliability, durability, and quality. I have been using Midwest Industries accessories and even their firearms since the early 2000s. As an 18B, Weapons Sergeant in Special Forces, I have put an emphasis on knowing quality weapon parts and their implementation. Midwest Industries has been a player and has been on my downrange weapons with the highest level of reliability in combat.

There are many choices today with great designs and reputations across the board; not many companies have the time that Midwest Industries does to innovate for so many different platforms. Troy and the Midwest Team have taken the time to create a wide variety of products, and these are well documented. What we as end users haven’t seen as of yet is the wide variety of improved products and new designs that Midwest has brought to market. In this article, we will look at some of these new products, from the improved Gen. 2 optics mounts and the new Combat HD handguard designed from the ground up to be a tier-one performer competing with the best handguards on the market. The products manufactured by MI are all made from 6160 hard anodized aluminum.

Combat HD Handguard

Midwest Industries is most likely known for its various handguards, most notably its AR-15 and AK handguards. Today, with the massive amount of mission diversity that is necessitated by modern warfare, the ability to reliably mount a significant number of various accessories to a handguard is a greater demand for rigidity and adaptability for AR-based weapons. The need for increased rigidity in handguards has been recognised. Several companies have stepped up their game to facilitate these needs, and Midwest was also paying attention.

The new Combat HD handguard is the culmination of the Midwest Industries handguard experience, evolved into a top contender for multirole use. The Combat HD is preset in length to facilitate the use of suppressors with the application of Rifle Speed adjustable gas blocks. The Combat HD is purpose-built to be a suppressor-compatible handguard. The lengths are pre-machined to support the quick-adjustable gas block for adjustments on the fly based on current needs or weapon status.

Another necessity for the design was maximum rigidity. With day/night accessories that require a zero, end clients demanded increased rigidity to ensure no shift in zero. The 4140-steel barrel nut was increased more than twice in length to stabilize the handguard, and the anti-rotational wedges were also increased, providing more surface area while increasing strength significantly.

The 12 o’clock rail remains and is scalloped to reduce weight, increase ergonomics, and provide easier routing of cables for better management. QD sling mounts are improved by angled placement and steel anti-rotational inserts. The M-Lok slots are on the rest of the side of the handguard at 7 different angles, providing significant mounting options. The thickness of the handguard has been significantly increased, adding to the rigidity. With the added thickness, Midwest has machined scalloped reductions into the handguard, and where M-Lok was not advantageous, relief cuts were made to lighten the handguard. This includes special relief cuts for hand traction.

The Combat HD handguard is also fully deburred, removing any sharp angles, even those regularly seen and felt on Picatinny. The patented locking system with hex is continued for secure lock-in and completed in a type 3 hard anodization. To say the new handguard is combat-ready would be an understatement. While not the most expensive, the new Combat HD handguard is cross-platform compatible with other standard milspec uppers and is not relegated to being used on special upper receivers. When combining all of these characteristics, the Midwest Combat HD handguard performs at the top level and directly rivals other more expensive handguards, and it does this at a price point that does not disappoint.

Midwest Optics Mounts

Rings

Another area of recognition Midwest Industries has built a reputation in is optics mounts. MI is known for its wide variety of optics mounts. The scope mounts are of note; with version 2 now released, the 30, 34, and 35mm ring mounts are available with the option of QD or non-QD. The design is backwards compatible, allowing upgradable rings that facilitate mounting optics and accessories on the scope rings and will also interface with the first generation of ring mounts. The non-QD mounts are quite nice if removing is not a needed option; by removing the QD lever, the mount is kept slimmer and doesn’t interfere with the lines, and no protrusions get in the way. Less complexity equals greater overall reliability due to fewer points of failure or required maintenance.

I set up primarily 30mm rings, but have two with 34mm. The mounts are solid; even with QD, the tension can be set up as needed to ensure a very snug fit. The top rings can be set up with a variety of footprints: Acro, RMR, and T2 with your choice of 12 o’clock or 45-degree offsets. The rings offer the most common footprints for small red dots or other mission-specific optics. The offering of a Picatinny rail is available for ranging and other mission devices. The quality of machining is excellent, and the weight is comparable to other high-end brands.

Risers and Red Dot Mounts

The MI MK2 M1913 riser is also a smart mount. It is not simply a riser; it’s an elongated Picatinny riser allowing pairing of optics on one focal plane paired on one riser. This ensures that space is used economically; couple this with the bevelled front and rear so there is universal mounting while reducing the mounting footprint space and you have an optic riser that is universally applicable for most end uses.

Finally, I tested the MI red dot risers. These riser red dot mounts are, like the rings, optic-specific with the most common footprints offered. The mounts stand at a lower 1/3 co-witness; this offers the end user usable height without the worry of going too far over the bore axis, so adjustments need to be taken into account. The lower 1/3 is almost an industry standard for raised optic mounts; the more specific “heads up” height of 2.26” is available with other standard heights. The design is simplified with direct thread-to-receiver mounting or QD if needed. The mounts are small footprints, allowing maximum flexibility for the end user to choose the intended mounting solution.

AK Accessories

Finally, the tested MI accessories are the Alpha series of AK products. While I only tested the railed dust cover and gas tube mounts for optics, I can say without hesitation that both solutions offer stable, repeatable mounting that provides an excellent solution for zeroed optics and accessories. The Alpha series is without a doubt one of the finest upgrade kits I have used thus far. The improvements over the older MI AK accessories were a welcome upgrade to an already proven industry standard.

The dust cover is well engineered, with an obvious influence from the Zenitco line-up; MI took these concepts and furthered the design and quality to a new standard. The option to use the stock dust cover and simply use a small optics mounting solution was a welcome offering. The full-length dust cover optics mounting was my first choice. Both options lock into the handguard at multiple points and easily pivot without losing zero. The aesthetic improvements complement the investment one makes when modernising and customising their platform.

The Alpha handguard is also extremely well designed and made to function in combat conditions. With a variety of options, length and lower handguard or gas tube only, one can also combine the two with the addition of the optics mounting. There is no shortage of choices. I did not test the traditional designs of the side-mounted platforms, so I can not personally attest, but reviews have always been excellent.

The Alpha stock is another Zentico-inspired but highly improved offering. Not only is it an excellent choice for many combat rifles, but I have found it to be exceptional for precision needs as well. With adjustable length of pull, comb, and butt pad, the Alpha offers a wide variety of options for meeting exactly the position an end user requires. Another point is the ability to mount it high or low on a rear Picatinny for better fitment, while the option to fold is there. Making transporting or storing the weapon more advantageous. As with all MI lockups on the folding mechanism, the lockup is solid with zero movement that I experienced. While folded, the design supports folding but does not lock in place. This is more advantageous in my opinion, due to the ability to rapidly deploy the stock; it is more than likely not requiring a locking mechanism to remain folded.

Ported Compensators

MI makes a well-established ported compensator; the Two Chambered Compensator is reminiscent of the AK74 design but with some improvements. With the obvious Western thread patterns, M14x1L is available, as are standard Western thread pitches for 5.56, 7.62x51, and 9mm. There is even an AK12-inspired compensator threaded in three offerings: M14X1LH / M24X1.5RH / 1/2X28. For those looking at lever guns, there is also an entire listing of common lever gun thread pitches available. I have found the compensator to work extremely well and reduce recoil and climb. While not the best choice for CQB, most compensators are not intended for use in close spaces, especially when blast is an issue, as seen with adjacent shooters or glass.

Inline Compensators

There are three different inline compensators I have personally used and can attest to. The first point is to understand why an individual may opt for the use of an inline compensator. Inline compensators are normally good at reducing felt blast to the environment adjacent to the end user. This reduces the concussive blast felt on either side of the muzzle. This matters when shooting in confined spaces and/or when directly next to another person. This is achieved by directing the blast forward. In some cases, if the compensator has an expansion chamber built into the design, it can nearly or completely reduce flash. Another use for inline compensators is to also create back pressure. For some shortened platforms, this adds operational reliability, helping the platform to cycle correctly when not enough back pressure can be created due to the shortened barrel.

The Blast Can is a smaller diameter elongated chamber that creates added back pressure but offers porting at the end to allow safe use. This is excellent for improved operation and highly reduced compensation to the sides of the platform. The Blast Diverter is a small front-ported inline compensator that minimises length for platforms like a PDW while again minimising the side overpressure seen with traditional ported compensators. It will not reduce flash but is good for small packaged rifles. Finally, there is the Alpha Blast Diverter; this is a modern take on a traditional Russian design for creating improved cycling while massively reducing flash. The Alpha comes in both standard Soviet thread patterns as well as 1/2x28 for Western use.

There are a few other indigenous flash hiders and compensators with proven design profiles. I have not used these personally but have used other devices exactly like these in the past on issued firearms or on platforms I have experimented with. Their performance is well documented, and many other companies utilise these same design cues.

Final Thoughts

The weapons market is flooded with a massive number of manufacturers and vendors offering thousands of different products. I could not cover in a year the number of products offered just domestically. Choosing a brand is a personal experience, and every end user has their own personal bias, myself included. I have used many brands issued for actual combat use. My personal use at home and in combat with Midwest Industries has always been one of success and dependability. I have yet to have used an accessory or rifle that did not meet or exceed my expectations.

Midwest Industries has been, in my opinion, a solid performer that sets standards and performs well above its cost. The commitment to create high-quality products that are fairly priced and perform as expected is not an easy accomplishment. To be objective, some products may edge out Midwest Industries in some areas based on user-specific needs, but I have not found them yet in my last 20 years of use. Starting with my SCAR 17 handguard upgrade, I deployed to Afghanistan, and the handguard was a serious upgrade, allowing for exceptional flexibility during deployment, never lost zero for my laser and gave me a much-needed upgrade on real estate.

Again, the objective is to provide you, the end user, with a look at why Midwest Industries is a viable, combat-proven option for accessories. Some individuals will remain brand loyal; I too have my opinions based on experience. The objective facts are that MI is performing at a level expected by professionals and affordable to the masses. In a market where cloning and copying what influencers and media show, it's nice to choose a path of personalisation that isn’t exploited by social media, but still performs at the highest standards. I have bet my life on these products and been pleased with the result. Midwest Industries is a product that is money well spent on a name that has earned trust and respect over two decades of providing products.

Pietta has added a second revolver to its partnership with Oregon's Pendleton Round-Up. The new Pendleton II is a decorated 1873-pattern single-action available in .357 Magnum and .45 Colt.

If you are not a rodeo person, the name needs some explanation. The Pendleton Round-Up is a week-long rodeo and western-heritage festival in Pendleton, Oregon. It began in 1910 and now includes four days of rodeo competition alongside parades, concerts, and the Happy Canyon night pageant.

Pietta's product description is a little thin, but the underlying gun is not a mystery. This is the company's 1873-pattern revolver, based on the familiar Colt Single Action Army layout. Both versions have a 4.75-inch barrel, an engraved and painted "Ultra Black" grip, and a listed price of $1,175. It’s available in .357 Magnum or the more-traditional .45 Colt.

New Artwork, Same Sixgun

This is a new engraving package, not a mechanical update. The Pendleton II keeps the rodeo's bucking-horse logo on the grip and adds bucking-chute artwork to the revolver. There is another horse on the frame, while the barrel carries the familiar "Let'er Buck" slogan.

Pietta does not claim a new action, different sights, or any other functional change. That is fine. Nobody buys a rodeo commemorative because the lockwork has been reinvented.

The first Pendleton revolver was sold exclusively at the 2025 Round-Up. According to Pietta, it sold out within two weeks, and the response led to a broader licensing agreement with the Pendleton Round-Up Association. The Pendleton I remains listed at $1,010. The second edition costs $165 more.

Price and Availability

The Pendleton Round-Up dates to 1910. This year's event ran from September 16 through 19, which explains the timing of the new model.

When checked on September 16, Pietta's .357 page presented the Pendleton II as a preorder. The company did not publish a production limit, shipping schedule, or dealer-delivery date. Pietta previously said distribution for the series would concentrate on farm-and-fleet retailers, but buyers should confirm availability before making a trip.

SIG Sauer introduced the P385 at its SIG NEXT event on September 22. It is a new family of modular, striker-fired 9mm pistols. The lineup includes the P385-MACH3D, P385-COMP, P385-FULL, P385-CARRY, and P385-COMPACT.

This is a separate pistol platform, not another P320 configuration. The P385 has its own serialized fire-control unit (FCU), along with interchangeable slides and barrels. SIG also gave it a low bore axis and a recoil-dampening system housed in the grip module.

A New Fire-control Unit with Some P320 Compatibility

The P385 uses standard P320 magazines. Older P320 magazines with the original rounded basepad will work, but SIG says the P385's metal magwell must be removed first. The P320 AXG magwell and P-Series dovetail sights are also compatible. Other P320 and P365 parts are not, and neither pistol's holsters will fit the P385.

SIG's MagStrap system changes the grip length, circumference, and trigger reach without requiring a different grip module. It does more than the usual small, medium, and large backstrap set. The same module can be changed from full-size to compact length.

The new Trigger Block sits flush with the trigger face instead of protruding like a conventional trigger-safety tab. SIG describes it as a redundant drop-safety mechanism. That is a manufacturer claim, and the pistol has not been independently tested here. Models with and without a manual safety are listed.

From September 1 through December 31, qualifying firearms, ammunition, and certain accessories are exempt from Florida sales tax under the state's 2026 Hunting, Fishing, and Camping Sales Tax Holiday.

The Department of Revenue's list names pistols, rifles, and shotguns. It also names suppressors, magazines, optics, barrels, triggers, stocks and braces, and holsters. Range bags, cleaning kits, chronographs, and shooting rests are on there, too. The department lists no price cap for the firearm categories, though some fishing and camping items have one.

The state did not write a blanket exemption for anything labeled a firearm accessory. Its list is specific. If you're buying something less obvious than ammunition or a rifle, check the publication before assuming the tax comes off.

Online Orders and Layaway

However, a qualifying online purchase may become eligible even if it comes in after the cut-off date of December 31st. The seller has to accept the order during the holiday season and ship immediately. While a backorder does not render the transaction ineligible, a request from the customer to have it delayed can.

Layaway becomes qualifying if an eligible product is placed on layaway during the holiday, regardless of the date of the last installment. However, a gift card purchase will not make the transaction eligible, as purchasing the gift card prior to the cut-off date will not qualify the transaction.

Limits of the Tax Break

Florida's example of a mixed package is worth watching. Buy a qualifying scope by itself, and the exemption applies. Buy that same scope packaged with a taxable hunting vest and the entire set is taxable.

The holiday does not cover rentals, repairs, or commercial-use purchases. Sales in a theme park, entertainment complex, public lodging establishment, or airport are excluded as well.

This is a sales-tax exemption, not a change to the rules for purchasing, transferring, or possessing a firearm or suppressor. Those requirements still apply. If a retailer charges tax on an eligible purchase, Florida's consumer FAQ says to bring the receipt to the business and request a refund.

One of the best firearms museums in the world, the Cody Firearms Museum in Cody, WY, has launched a new book shining a light on a part of their incredible collection which rarely gets displayed!

Did you know that alongside thousands of historic and fascinating firearms the Cody Firearms Museum is also custodian of an incredible collection of factory design drawings? The Museum, together with the McCracken Research Library, hold a collection of approximately 30,000 surviving drawings from the Winchester engineering archive.

‘Drawing Fire: Technical Drawings from the Winchester Factory Collection’ is set to be published by Helio House Press and a new Kickstarter has been launched to help fund the project. The book will draw on unique hand-drawn design plans covering the Winchester’s work from the 1880s through to the 1940s. This will include blueprints for everything from individual screws to entire guns to the tools used to make the guns to the buildings in which to make them.

Incredibly, some firearms are fully documented in the archive from concept through to final product, complete with drawings of each individual part, while others only survive as partial technical records. Nearly all of the plans were drawn on oversize drafting sheets that enabled designers and engineers to visualize even the small parts easily. This creates a unique challenge to digitise and present the drawings in book form.

Helios House Press say that the drawings will be “presented in a large-format smythe-sewn hardcover volume with a landscape orientation designed to highlight the expansive nature of the original drawings.” They also note that ‘Drawing Fire’ is “an essential item for the Winchester aficionado, a fascinating resource for anyone with an interest in American industry and manufacturing, and a beautiful work of art in its own right.” The sample images of the book certainly do look beautiful. 

Design drawings are incredibly delicate and difficult to display to the public due to their size and fragility. This new book from the museum offers a glimpse of a part of the expansive collection that most of us would never get to see.

The Kickstarter page explains what the book covers and offers more detail on how it will present the drawings:

“together a selection of highlights from this archive, including key drawings for iconic firearms such as the M1 Garand and Winchester 1895, for which there is extensive documentation, as well as a number of lesser-known and prototype weapons, as well as tools and factory drawings. Drawings and other archival sources are supplemented throughout by beautiful original photography from Helios, and short-text summaries from the Cody Firearms Museum and Helios staff.”

If, like me, you’re an patent or engineering drawing nerd or just someone who appreciates the aesthetics of firearms head over to the Kickstarter page to find out more about ‘Drawing Fire’, check out a video showing the storage vault where the design drawings are held and find out about stretch goals for the project. At the time of writing the project is almost half funded after launching on the 21st September.

Find out more here www.kickstarter.com/projects/helios-house/drawing-fire

Ammunition Depot's AmmoVault lets customers buy ammunition a little at a time, leave it in the company's warehouse, and request delivery later. Purchases can be made individually or on a recurring schedule, with plans starting at $5.

This is not a mystery-box subscription or store-credit program. AmmoVault says each successful purchase buys live ammunition reserved for the customer's account. The company stores it in a climate-controlled facility and insures it while it remains there.

However, there is a catch. Customers choose a caliber, use type, and sometimes bullet weight, but they do not necessarily choose a specific brand. The site's own example says a purchase of 9mm 115-grain practice ammunition may be filled with different qualifying brands. AmmoVault also says its prices match Ammunition Depot's box prices, while case lots sold through the regular store may cost less per round.

Free storage has an inactivity clause

AmmoVault advertises no membership fee and no storage fee for active accounts. According to the terms and conditions, an account becomes inactive after 12 consecutive months without a purchase, login, account or payment update, or response to a reactivation email. A shipment request is not separately listed as qualifying activity. The company says it will attempt to contact an inactive customer.

If the account remains inactive for another 60 days, a monthly storage fee begins. That fee is 4 percent of the stored inventory's value when the account became inactive, or $10, whichever is greater. The fee is paid by reducing the ammunition credited to the account. Logging in, buying ammunition, updating account details, or responding to the email reactivates the account, but ammunition already applied to fees is not recoverable.

Customers can pause or cancel recurring purchases at any time. Closing the account is also allowed, although the terms say refunds for stored inventory are not guaranteed, and any buyback or refund is offered at AmmoVault's discretion.

Shipping still follows the usual rules

Stored ammunition can be shipped on request, subject to federal, state, and local restrictions. AmmoVault's shipping policy says requests worth at least $199 qualify for free ground shipping; smaller shipments incur a charge. Taxes and any shipping fees are calculated when delivery is requested.

The service does not ship ammunition outside the contiguous United States or to PO boxes. Several jurisdictions require permits, identification, or delivery through a licensed dealer, and ammunition cannot be returned once shipped. Buyers should check the current rules for their destination before building a reserve they may not be able to receive directly.

TFB covered Ammunition Depot's views on ammunition prices and panic buying last year. AmmoVault gives customers a way to stock up gradually without storing the ammunition at home. The trade-offs are variable brands, box-level pricing, and inactivity terms worth putting on the calendar.

Specs

The Canik MC9 Prime Radian is somewhat of a rarity because it's the only handgun on the market that comes with a Radian Ramjet from the factory, along with a few other accessories. The Radian Ramjet does its job of taming any muzzle rise along with the majority of felt recoil. The regular slide is slightly shorter to allow the ramjet to fit better without hanging over the frame. The MC9 Prime Radian also comes standard with an optics cut to install your favorite red dot, along with night sights standard from the factory.

Canik ships the MC9 Prime Radian with a 3.8” barrel and a striker-fired trigger with a trigger safety. The pistol has a 4.5 lbs trigger with a metal trigger shoe. One of the unique things about this handgun is how the trigger breaks at exactly 90 degrees, making it a very predictable and easy trigger to shoot quickly with an audible, crisp reset. When it comes to a factory trigger, this handgun is a fantastic example of what can be done with a bit of preplanning and execution. Every MC9 Prime Radian comes with 2 magazines and a hard carry case and a holster from the factory. MSRP on the MC9 Prime Elite is $1,089.99.

Range Time

I put roughly 625 rounds through the MC9 Prime Radian over 5 range sessions. When I first took the Prime Radian out for a spin, the first two things that immediately stood out were how much the Radian Ramjet kills any muzzle rise and most of the felt recoil, and just how crisp and tactile the trigger was. Starting this review, I was curious if the Canik would be worth the price tag, but the additions from Radian certainly make this feel like a different animal. With the compensator working to keep the muzzle flat, it really has an interesting recoil impulse, but with the trigger and barrel combination, this gun truly likes to run fast with quick follow-up shots.

There is a metal backstrap from Radian as well as a magwell standard from the factory, so the gun locks well into the palm of your hand without chewing up your skin or feeling abrasive. When it comes to overall feel, the new MC9 Prime Radian does feel like a premium option with the factory upgrades along with the standard hard case from Canik. The night sights were clearly visible in low or no light situations, and during the day they were easy to pick up as well. I think this is an interesting mix of a quality carry gun and a capable range gun. The majority of the frame is polymer to keep down on the overall weight, but the backstrap area is metal for better contact, allowing for a better shooting experience. It's an interesting middle-ground gun and I am certainly a fan when it comes to performing at the range.

Carrying the Prime Radian

When it comes to carrying the Canik MC9 Prime Radian, it's actually fairly easy since Canik includes a holster with the firearm. I carried the Canik Prime Radian for roughly three weeks straight with absolutely no issues. I wasn't sure how the magwell and metal backstrap would feel or if they would rub your skin, but I had no issues with any sort of hot spotting or unnecessary rubbing. I didn't install an optic for this review, but I could certainly see something small like a Steiner MPScc or something similar being fantastic on this pistol.

Overall Thoughts  

At the beginning of reviewing this pistol, I wasn't sure what to expect. It's fairly expensive with the RamJet installed from the factory, but this is an out-of-the-box custom pistol you don't have to go and outfit from aftermarket companies. If you tried to do the same thing, it would certainly be $400-500 more, so this really does offer a great value for a factory-compensated handgun. After my time with the Canik MC9 Prime Radian, I can confidently give it a solid recommendation and encourage people to go ahead and pick one up if they are interested in one.

How many remember Rutger Hauer in “The Hitcher” nowadays? Fewer and fewer, I’d presume, but everyone knows the SPAS-12 he used. It’s the shotgun that defined tactical shotguns for an entire generation, dominating everything from real special operations to the silver screen as the ultimate symbol of concentrated firepower. Now, Tactical Imports Canada has engineered a non-restricted interpretation of the Special Purpose Automatic Shotgun.

Built on an existing receiver with SPAS-12 inspired components (made by Sulun), the 12-gauge 21.5" gun features a 3-inch chamber, ghost-ring sights for precision target work, and a gas piston system for reliable operation in adverse conditions. The handguard, steel with parkerized finish, includes venting for cooling and reduced weight.

Tactical Imports addressed the original SPAS design limitations - the loading mechanism, buffer system, and sling attachment - making this a refined evolution of a firearm that never quite lost its mystique.

Images from Tactical Imports Canada

A divided Fifth Circuit panel has ruled that the federal laws blocking a direct handgun sale to an out-of-state buyer violate the Second Amendment. The September 18 opinion in Elite Precision Customs v. ATF reverses a Texas district court and enters judgment for a gun shop and its fellow plaintiffs. The court's answer is clear. What dealers should do next is not.

Most readers who have bought a handgun from a dealer in another state know the existing routine. The seller ships the gun to a federal firearms licensee in the buyer's home state. That second dealer handles the transfer and usually charges a fee. The buyer cannot simply walk into the out-of-state shop, pay, and take the handgun home. The plaintiffs challenged the federal barrier to that direct sale.

The law the buyers challenged

The case centers on three parts of 18 U.S.C. § 922. Subsection (a)(3) generally stops an unlicensed person from bringing home a firearm acquired outside the person's state of residence. Subsection (a)(5) generally restricts transfers between unlicensed residents of different states. Subsection (b)(3) restricts what a licensed dealer may sell or deliver to a nonresident.

Congress made an exception under (b)(3) for certain in-person rifle and shotgun sales, provided the transaction complies with the laws of both states. It did not make the same exception for handguns. Taken together, the three provisions prevent a Texas dealer from handing a handgun directly to an otherwise eligible buyer who lives in Arizona or New Mexico, the buyers' home states in this case. A transfer through a dealer in the buyer's home state remains possible under the longstanding procedure.

That extra stop is not theoretical for the plaintiffs. Elite Precision Customs is a licensed Texas manufacturer and dealer that says it would make direct sales to nonresidents. Freddie Blish lives in Arizona; Tim Herron lives in New Mexico. Herron told the court that the home-state dealer route has cost him $30 to $40 per transfer and delayed delivery. Firearms Policy Coalition joined them as a plaintiff.

The district court dismissed the challenge. In its view, the restriction did not implicate the Second Amendment's plain text, so there was no need to examine historical regulations. The Fifth Circuit disagreed and, rather than send the case back for that historical analysis, decided it on the record already briefed by both sides.

A condition of sale, or a purchase ban?

Judge Jerry Smith wrote the majority opinion, joined by Judge Kurt Engelhardt. Their starting point was the court's earlier Reese v. ATF decision: a right to keep and bear arms implies a right to purchase them. The government argued that the interstate rules merely regulate the manner of sale. After all, a buyer can still obtain the handgun by involving a dealer back home.

The majority was not persuaded. A workaround does not make a direct purchase possible, it said. No amount of waiting lets a nonresident complete that transaction at the selling dealer's counter. That distinction matters because the Fifth Circuit has upheld an extended background-check period in a different case, McRorey v. Garland. The majority treated a delay with a defined end differently from a categorical bar on a particular kind of sale. It also noted the added fee and the fact that no receiving dealer is required to take the transfer.

The court did not hold that every condition on a commercial firearm sale is unconstitutional. It rejected the argument that calling this restriction a condition, rather than a ban, ends the Second Amendment inquiry.

The history did not carry the government's argument

Under the Supreme Court's Bruen framework, once the majority found the purchase restriction covered by the Second Amendment, the government had to show a historical tradition that justified it. The government offered 18 laws and regulations, reaching from the colonial period into the early nineteenth century.

Some restricted arms exports during war or dealt with government-issued guns. Others concerned trade across colonial boundaries or with Native American tribes. A third group addressed inspection, recordkeeping, or product quality. The majority said those examples did not do what the modern handgun rule does: prohibit an otherwise lawful peacetime sale to a resident of another state within the same country. It also discounted a Dutch-era New York restriction whose full text has not survived.

The opinion explicitly disagrees with the Second Circuit's 2025 decision in United States v. Vereen, which upheld a comparable federal restriction. The Fifth Circuit said the Second Circuit drew too loose a comparison between colonial border controls and modern interstate commerce. Two federal appeals courts have now reached different answers on substantially similar questions. That conflict is important, but it does not turn either panel opinion into a nationwide Supreme Court ruling.

Judge Catharina Haynes dissented. Her dissent is short: she agreed with the district court that the challenged provisions were constitutional and would have affirmed. The panel's judgment was 2–1, not unanimous.

What a buyer should take from it

The Fifth Circuit reversed the dismissal and rendered judgment for the plaintiffs. It did not rewrite the Gun Control Act, publish a revised Form 4473, or answer how dealers should handle every combination of state laws. The court addressed the federal prohibition on direct interstate handgun purchases formed by these provisions. It did not wipe out background checks, prohibited-person rules, or state requirements for buying, receiving, and possessing a handgun.

The paperwork has not caught up. As of September 20, ATF's published dealer guidance still describes the home-state FFL transfer as the way to sell to a nonresident and reserves direct over-the-counter sales for qualifying rifles and shotguns. Further court review and agency instructions are also possible. The opinion alone is a poor substitute for a dealer's current compliance advice.

The court rejected the categorical federal barrier to buying a handgun directly from a dealer across a state line. It did not settle what happens at a particular dealer counter tomorrow. Whether a sale can actually happen depends on what the courts and ATF do next, along with the laws of the states involved. Until those pieces are clear, expect dealers to be careful. They have more at stake than a transfer fee.

Both rifles carry over the modular chassis system that defines the ACE line, now built around a left-hand bolt-action. Jared Smethurst, Beretta USA's Product Manager for Long Guns, frames it as an overdue move rather than a novelty, noting that extending the ACE platform to left-handed shooters was a natural next step, since the platform was already designed around precision and adaptability that lefties have simply been locked out of in factory form.

The T3x ACE Game leans toward field and range versatility. It keeps the fluted, medium-contour barrel that balances accuracy against portability, an interchangeable magwell, and Tikka's standardized mounting solutions, so existing ACE accessories should bolt right on regardless of hand orientation. It's offered across a wide range of hunting and precision calibers.

Both rifles arrive alongside Tikka's newly launched U.S. website, tikka.us, which Beretta USA now runs as the exclusive American distributor for the brand. Tikka accessories, including magazines, mounts, rails, and grips, are also sold through Beretta.com.

Neither rifle carries a listed MSRP yet, so pricing will presumably follow closer to availability.

T3x ACE Target specs:

• Left-hand bolt-action
• Heavy, medium-contour barrel for sustained accuracy
• Adjustable two-stage trigger
• 10-round metal magazine
• Modular, adjustable chassis
• Standardized mounting and accessory compatibility
• Calibers: .223 Rem., .308 Win., 6.5 Creedmoor

T3x ACE Game specs:

• Left-hand bolt-action
• Fluted, medium-contour barrel
• Interchangeable magwell
• Modular chassis for adjustability and comfort
• Standardized mounting and accessory compatibility
• Wide range of hunting and precision calibers

Does Tikka's left-hand expansion make the ACE platform a real contender against the other chassis guns already courting PRS shooters?

Bird blasting @ TFB:

• Fudd Friday: Ithaca Is America's Old-School Pump Gun Manufacturer 
• Shotgun Shells are Coming! Grouse, Quail, Sporting Clays & Waterfowl 
• HEVI-Shot Ammo Introduces New HEVI-Hammer 12 Gauge Waterfowl 
• Winchester Super X Waterfowl Hunter In Mossy Oak Shadow Grass 

These are duplex loads, with pellets of different sizes that allow you to reach out to farther-away birds but still giving medium-range coverage. In the case of the new Apex loads, they use S3 zinc-coated steel pellets for the 12-gauge loads in BB and #2 sizes, or #2 and #4 sizes, or #4 and #6 sizes. The 20-gauge loads come in a #2 and #4-blended load, or a #4 and #6-blended load. Those pellet sizes should cover all ranges of waterfowl, from small teal to big northern redlegs or geese.

Both 12-gauge and 20-gauge options are sold in 25-round boxes, with a $27.99 price tag for a box of 12 gauge, or $26.99 for a box of 20 gauge.

“The Waterfowl Stratified Series was developed in direct response to our most dedicated hunters asking for a smarter, harder-hitting shell for ducks and geese,” said Jason Lonsberry, big boss at Apex Ammunition. “By combining multiple shot sizes in a single payload, this shell ensures you get tight pattern coverage up close and hard-hitting knockdown at distance, making it ideal for the unpredictable nature of waterfowl hunting.”

For more details, visit ApexMunition.com.

The Justice Department says it cannot criminally prosecute federally licensed dealers for selling handguns to otherwise law-abiding adults ages 18 to 20 under the federal age restrictions in 18 U.S.C. § 922(b)(1) and (c)(1). The department announced that position Friday after its Office of Legal Counsel issued a 49-page opinion dated September 17.

Those provisions generally bar licensed dealers from selling handguns to buyers under 21. DOJ's conclusion is that applying them to this group conflicts with the Second Amendment. The opinion argues that adults ages 18 to 20 are part of “the people” protected by the amendment and that the government cannot point to a sufficiently comparable historical ban on their purchasing handguns.

What the opinion does, and does not, do

This is the Justice Department's interpretation of federal law, not a judgment by the Supreme Court striking the statutes from the books. The DOJ announcement specifically addresses the department's ability to seek criminal penalties against dealers for covered handgun sales. It does not say that every 18-year-old can complete a dealer handgun purchase today, everywhere, without further questions.

The opinion notes that ATF regulations implement the age restrictions, but it does not announce a replacement rule or explain how dealers should process these transactions. ATF's public guidance still says licensees may not transfer handguns to anyone under 21. DOJ's position and that guidance now conflict, and the opinion does not address the background-check or recordkeeping steps a dealer would have to follow.

OLC also confined its analysis to handguns. It expressly set aside items such as suppressors, frames and receivers, and other firearm categories. Existing restrictions on prohibited persons and applicable state or local age limits are separate questions. None of those vanish because the department changed its federal enforcement position.

For younger adults and dealers, this is a change in federal enforcement policy, not yet a simple checkout-counter answer. Written ATF guidance is the next thing to watch. Buyers and dealers still need to check the rules where a transaction would take place.

The Patrol Glove 2.0 (seen above) uses a goatskin palm for durability and traction. The wrap-up finger pattern and articulated palm are built to let the glove close around a grip rather than resist it. Padded knuckle panels run across the back of the fingers, flexing with hand movement while absorbing impact. The standard colorways use a corded stretch nylon back, but per the product listing, the MultiCam version instead gets a standard stretch nylon back. Both thumbs are touchscreen capable.

Osight, known for pistol optics with clear glass, sharp multi-reticle displays, and competitive features at a budget-friendly price point, has entered the rifle red dot market with the new Osight R, a large-window, multi-reticle T1/T2 footprint optic with day and night vision settings, motion activation, up to 83,000 hours of battery life, a rugged 7075-T6 aluminum housing, built-in lens covers, and an included anti-reflective device (ARD), all for an MSRP of $279.99. If that got your attention, stick around for the details and how you can get even more for your money during the Osight R’s launch period.

Sight Picture

The Osight R’s 1.1" × 0.87" window is generous for a relatively compact red dot, with a multi-coated lens that improves light transmission and delivers a brighter, clearer sight picture. It features a multi-reticle system built around three distinct patterns: a 2 MOA dot, a 65 MOA circle, or a combination of the two, helping shooters make more precise shots and acquire targets faster in close quarters. A simple press of either the + or - illumination button turns the Osight R on, and holding the - button for two seconds cycles the reticle options.

The Osight R offers nine daylight brightness settings and three night vision settings. A dedicated NV button provides direct access to the night vision mode without cycling through the full brightness range. Each setting retains its last-used position independently, meaning the optic returns to the previously selected daylight level when switched back from night vision mode rather than requiring the shooter to re-establish their preferred setting.

In daylight mode, hold the NV button for one second to enter night vision mode, then single-press the NV button to cycle through night vision brightness levels. The + and - buttons adjust brightness only in daylight mode and are disabled in night vision mode. Hold the NV button for one second in night vision mode to switch back to daylight. When toggling through daylight settings, the reticle flashes once when you press + at the maximum brightness setting and once again when you press - at the lowest setting. To switch off the Osight R manually, press both the + and - buttons simultaneously for half a second.

The Osight R is designed to be parallax-free and offer unlimited eye relief for close-to-mid-range applications, with an enclosed emitter and a 650 nm light wavelength.

Motion Activation & Power Management

The Osight R incorporates factory-enabled Motion Activation Technology. When the optic is on, it will automatically power down after 3 minutes of inactivity to conserve battery, but wakes up at the slightest movement. This is practical for duty or home defense, where an optic must be ready without manual activation. To disable motion sensing, ensure the optic is on, then double-press and hold the - button for more than three seconds. The reticle will flash once to confirm. Repeat the same process to turn motion sensing back on; the reticle will flash twice to confirm.

The Osight R runs on a single CR2032 battery, included from the factory and seated in a battery tray secured by a pair of T-10 Torx screws. At brightness Mode 5, Osight rates battery life at 83,000 hours for the 2 MOA dot, 18,000 hours for the 65 MOA circle, and 15,000 hours when both reticles are engaged simultaneously. A low-battery indicator triggers when voltage drops below 2.2V, at which point the reticle triple-flashes once per minute as a replacement prompt. The memory function retains the last selected brightness level across power cycles, eliminating the need to re-establish settings after the optic wakes.

Construction

The housing is machined from 7075-T6 aluminum, placing it in the same class as optics that cost considerably more. It features an IPX8 waterproof rating, meaning it is rated for continuous submersion beyond one meter. External dimensions measure 2.72" × 1.42" × 2.52” and the Osight R weighs 6.70 oz with the included lower 1/3 co-witness (1.535”) mount and battery installed.

The front and rear lens covers are made of glass fiber reinforced polyamide and protect against debris, scratches, and impact. The front cover is interchangeable and can be swapped for the included ARD, which reduces glare and outward reflection from the objective lens. Windage and elevation adjustments move in 0.5 MOA increments, with a total travel range of ±50 MOA in each direction.

The Osight R uses the Micro T1/T2 footprint, placing it in the most widely adopted mounting ecosystem in the compact red dot category. In addition to the included lower 1/3 co-witness mount, providing an immediate mounting solution compatible with standard iron sight configurations on most modern rifles, Osight will offer both 1.21" and 1.93” compatible mounts that can be purchased separately.

Available Now

The Osight R is available directly through the official Osight store at osight.com. Buyers who purchase through the official store during the promotional period, running from September 21 at 8:00 PM EST through September 25 at 11:59 PM EST, will receive a 1.93" height mount at no additional charge, stacking on $45.99 more value.

The Osight R ships with the lower 1/3 co-witness mount, an adjustment tool, protective lens covers, the ARD, mounting screws, a cleaning cloth, and a user manual. It comes with a lifetime warranty; details are available at osight.com/lifetime-warranty. At an MSRP of $279.99, it’s worth a look, so I did. Osight sent me an Osight R with the 1.21" and 1.93” mounts and asked me to provide an honest evaluation of whether the Osight R provides great value or whether you always get what you pay for.

On The Range

My first impression of the Osight R is that it feels solid in the hand, and that all three buttons on the left side of the optic are easy to actuate with a tactile click I can feel, even with gloves on. The lower 1/3 co-witness mount seems pretty solid also, but one of the first things I did was swap it out for the 1.93” mount.

Looking through the optic with the lens covers closed is surprisingly nice. The protective covers are clear, and their frames do not obstruct the optic when closed, so you get that large window either way. Looking through the lens covers individually, there is no discernible tint or distortion. Looking through the Osight R, however, I see a faint blue tint. Overall, the clarity is great, and the housing around the large window is unobtrusive, providing less distraction while you stay target-focused.

I ended up swapping the front lens cover for the ARD because operating in the woods around my home requires stealth if you want to stay off radar from the local beavers, wild rabbits, and deer, and because it looks cool. As with any ARD on a 1x optic, you can definitely see the honeycomb pattern in your field of view, but that’s something to get used to if you run these. The nice thing about the Osight R is that you can simply flip it down with a flick of your finger anytime you want it out of the way.

Red dot brightness works very well under bright sunlight. In fact, I found myself not using the highest setting, but it’s there if you need it. The dot is crisp, as it should be, and although I tend to prefer the standard 2 MOA dot, having the option to switch over to the circle of death never hurts.

I tried my best to induce parallax on the Osight R, but I couldn’t find it in practice. That isn’t to say it doesn't exist, but it was hard enough for me to tell when I had my Caracal 816 anchored to a tripod and didn’t notice any shift on the range, working from various standing, kneeling, prone, and barrier positions.

Out of curiosity, I mounted a 3x magnifier I had lying around, but it returned boring results. It magnifies. Yes, that’s it, like any other red dot sight. The reticle stays sharp and crisp in all modes, and the ARD magically disappeared, as it tends to with a little magnification.

For an optic at this price, I was pleasantly surprised when I tried passive aiming in night vision mode with my helmet-mounted NODs. Of the three night vision settings, I stuck to the lowest two, as the highest setting was a bit bright for me and caused faint blooming. Night vision is also one of the big reasons I go for the 1.93” mount, giving me all the clearance I need without jacking up my height over bore and affecting my cheek weld.

I didn’t have 83,000 hours to test the battery, but like any red dot I review, I turned it on and left it on level five from the moment I opened the box, aside from function-testing the brightness and night vision settings and running the Osight R on level eight under the sun. You can probably guess that a few weeks doesn’t dent battery life when you have the potential for just under a decade. Keep in mind that the Osight goes into motion-activated standby mode after three minutes of sitting still and awakens when it senses movement. I tested this feature, leaving the rifle on my tripod in the middle of the living room throughout the day, because I know my wife loves it when I do that. Every now and then, I walked up to it, confirmed that the dot was off, then tapped the stock or the Handguard. The dot came on immediately. I don’t think battery life will be an issue, but only time will tell.

Final Thoughts

It’s easy to talk about the features not included in the Osight R, because there are so few. First, it does not include a light sensor for automatic brightness control. This isn’t such a big deal for many, like myself, who prefer manual settings on their rifle optic anyway, but you should know. The second missing feature is a solar battery backup. To be fair, you’ll be hard-pressed to find both features in an optic like this at an MSRP of $279.99. 

On the other hand, the Osight R includes everything most shooters need from a red dot, myself included. The large window has been great to work with, and the multi-reticle system is nice to have; I know shooters have varying preferences. 83,000 hours of battery life backed by motion activation is very impressive and useful, providing much-needed peace of mind. I like the lens covers and find the sight picture excellent whether they are open or closed, and the included ARD is a nice touch. I really appreciate the usability of the night vision settings, which I use fairly often, and it was smart to go with a T1/T2 footprint, opening up a world of mounting options, though I have yet to find any shortcomings in the Osight mounts and really like the 1.93” mount I’ve stayed with.

I’m sure everyone would like to know how rugged the Osight R is, but I didn’t throw it off the roof, run it over with my truck, cryogenically freeze it, or stick it in the microwave. I did, however, mount it to a rifle and run through around 640 rounds of 5.56mm NATO ammunition. I also banged it into a few barricades, not on purpose, but because that happens sometimes. A 7075-T6 aluminum housing is really a great basis for a durable optic, and this one follows that pattern. The electronics seem solid, and I did not experience any flickering or uncommanded shutoff. Once again, this is a new optic, and time will tell, but I’d say it is off to a great start.

Would I recommend the Osight R? I’m not saying that $279.99 isn’t a chunk of change, but considering the features and quality, the value is there, especially if you’re hitting the range or own multiple rifles and don’t want to take out a second mortgage to mount an optic on each.

If you’re running any number of tried-and-true high-end optics on the rifle you trust to defend your life, then you’re probably all set, but if you need a nice optic loaded with features and are on a budget, the Osight R is one you’ll likely be able to afford and enjoy, and it won’t remind you of how little it cost whenever you use it.

For more information about Osight optics, please visit: osight.com 

When you woke up today, you didn’t expect to find this SIG M7 with a 13″ barrel and the strangest “suppressor” you ever saw. Strategic Sciences' Multi-Function Muzzle Device doesn't ask you to pick your poison. Traditional muzzle devices demand compromise: you suppress flash or manage recoil or kill sound, but rarely all three without penalty.

Since no barrel ever seems to be too short, here’s the MFMD-6.8 shown on the SIG M7C with a 10.3″ barrel. It looks like someone mounted a .50 BMG compensator vertically.

Reading from their website, the MFMD upends that algebra by treating flash suppression, recoil control, and sound reduction as a single integrated architecture rather than competing priorities. The result is a hybrid that delivers up to 99 percent first-round flash reduction, handles up to 60 percent recoil mitigation for faster follow-ups, and holds sub-140 dB sound levels across all systems. If true, that's a hearing-safe operation without sacrificing too much weapon length or introducing new trade-offs.

To end this Photo Of The Day, let’s look at the MFMD-6.8-2.0MG on a SIG M250 16″ machine gun. The size of the firearm versus the size of the stock looks a bit like when I drew guns as a kid, but if it works, it works.

Earlier this summer, CCI and Henry Repeating Arms teamed up to come out with a special limited-edition run of 36-grain .22 LR ammo said to be “optimized” for cycling within the Golden Boy rifle - which I happen to have handy, as I’m sure many of you out there also do. CCI is no stranger to collaborative ammunition branding deals; we’ve seen that in the past with 22 Plinkster’s “Stanger” Stingers and Steve Rinella's Meat Eater series of .22 LR ammo. The real question I’m sure everyone has is what actually CCI Henry Golden Boy Edition 22LR any different than any of CCI's existing offerings. The answer for today’s example might surprise you, so let's get right into it.

More Rimfire Report @ TFB:

• The Rimfire Report: PMAC Supernova .22LR Tracer - Plink In Color 
• The Rimfire Report: Does Remington’s 22 Viper 36gr Have the Fangs? 
• The Rimfire Report: Is CCI’s Uppercut A Knockout 22LR Cartridge? 

CCI Golden Boy 22LR Ammo Overview

Product Link: https://www.cci-ammunition.com/rimfire/cci/cci-x-henry-golden-boy/6-HGB22.html

When one of America’s the most iconic firearms manufacturers teams up with The Leader in Rimfire Ammunition®, great things happen. CCI® has collaborated with Henry Repeating Arms, maker of the legendary Golden Boy lever-action rifle on a collector’s edition load. Offered in 275-round bulk packs, the loads feature a 36-grain copper-plated hollow-point bullet pushed at 1,260 fps—perfect for targets and small game.

Superior cycling through the Henry Golden Boy rifle

Great for targets and small game

275-count pack

Caliber: .22 LR

Grain Weight: 36 gr

Bullet Style: Copper-Plated Hollow Point

Muzzle Velocity: 1,260 fps

Ballistic Coefficient: .125

Package Quantity: 275 rounds

Usage: Small Game, Target Shooting

Unsurprisingly, this ammo, even though it only started shipping to customers at the beginning of August, is already sold out on the official CCI ammunition website. You can find it for about $30 a box or $0.11 per round at your typical big-box stores like Sportsman’s Warehouse, which isn’t all that bad for what seems like reboxed 36-grain CCI Mini mags on the surface.

Upon closer inspection, however, not only has CCI gone through the trouble of reboxing the ammo, but they’ve also gone through the trouble of giving this ammo its own special “HENRY” headstamp for the cases, which is very cool. The cases have some dry, particulate wax on them inside of the bulk pack, which was to be expected, and in my testing so far it hasn’t led to any adverse fouling or cycling issues out of the Henry Golden Boy or any of the other rifles I’ve tested this ammo with, leading me to believe this is really just 36-grain Mini-Mags but with a special Henry Headstamp.

For our standard 50-round test, the Henry’s 20” octagonal barrel produced a slightly higher velocity than advertised, with an average velocity of 1,311 fps, a full 50fps faster than advertised, likely because the Mini-Mag load data CCI is using for this ammo is meant to be shot out of an 18” barrel and CCI more than likely copy/pasted the data from one page to the other for convenience. The standard deviation and extreme spread were also in line with what I’d typically expect to see out of a good box of CCI Mini-Mags, which is always good to see.

Below is the group I shot at 25 yards with the Henry Golden Boy Rifle from a prone position using the factory iron sights. The group is about 2” in size (orange 2” dot for reference), and while on the face of things this might seem “bad,” it’s probably about as good as it was going to get given the quality of my Mark I eyeball optics, and the fact that the light on this day wasn’t playing particularly well with the gold bead front sight and black-out rear irons. Clearly I need more practice.

It’s for this reason that I decided to test the ammo out of the Ruger Precision Rimfire (pictured below), and I was pleasantly surprised that my assumption that this was just re-skinned CCI Mini-Mag was all but confirmed. This stuff is very accurate and produced an almost ⅓” sized hole in the same target at 25 yards (1” dot for reference). Out of the right gun, with the right optics, and in the hands of the right shooter, this is a very affordable way to get some good CCI Mini Mag in a unique package.

Where it does differ is the part I didn't expect. CCI put a dedicated HENRY headstamp on this run, and having walked the Lewiston plant, I know what that costs them, and for those who care about that kind of stuff, something as little as a special headstamp can improve the satisfaction someone might get out of owning or gifting a Henry Golden Boy Rifle. I know I rather like when my rifle furniture matches brands, or when my optics stack all comes from the same company - the same principle is being applied here but on a consumable scale. Pulling one to stamp a limited run of collector brass is a real commitment of production time and machine investment, and it's a lot more than a sticker on a box for a lot of customers.

That leaves us with the value question, which is where this gets easy for me. At roughly $0.11 per round, you're paying less than you would for a regular 300-count brick of Mini-Mag at MSRP, and you're getting a headstamp that matches your Henry Rifle on top of that. There's no premium being charged for the branding. If you own a Golden Boy, buy two boxes, shoot half of one, and keep the rest in a drawer for your kids or nephews. If you don't own a Golden Boy, you're still buying Mini-Mag at a fair price, and there are worse things to have 275 of. What I can't tell you is why CCI landed on 275 rounds instead of their usual 100, 300, or 325. If anyone from CCI wants to clear that up, I'm all ears.

Meet the T1ABTG, a .45 ACP semi-auto carbine built on the classic 1927A-1 platform, now flashed out in black steel and polished titanium gold. This is the gun Capone would've wanted: menacing matte black on the body, gold glinting off every piece that matters. Front sight. Rear battle sight. Charging handle. Trigger. Safety selector. Sling swivels. Even the buttplate catches the light. It ships with two 20-round drums, one gold, one black, because even your spare mag should look like it means business. This is prohibition-era muscle, dressed for the club.

The 1927A-1 platform remains with Thompson's semi-automatic civilian offering, chambered in .45 ACP with a 16.5-inch finned barrel and a Cutts compensator. American walnut furniture includes the stock, pistol grip, and vertical foregrip with finger grooves. The compensator design reflects the submachine gun lineage, though semi-automatic operation removes the practical recoil management benefit in civilian use. That titanium gold might get dirty really quickly, though.

Auto-Ordnance marks this release as the final Thompson manufactured in Worcester, Massachusetts. Subsequent production will shift to Greeley, Pennsylvania, making this run historically significant for any collectors focused on manufacturing provenance. The company has produced Thompsons continuously from the Worcester facility since relocating there decades ago.

Auto-Ordnance Thompson T1ABTG Specifications:

• Caliber: .45 ACP, semi-automatic
• Barrel: 16.5 inches, finned, Cutts compensator
• Receiver finish: Matte black steel
• Accents: Polished titanium gold
• Furniture: Premium American walnut, horizontal rear stock, pistol grip, vertical foregrip with finger grooves
• Magazines: Two 20-round (one polished gold, one black)
• Manufacture: Worcester, MA (final production run)

The MSRP comes in at $2,981.

Custom & Collectable Firearms has released a limited-edition Colt 1911 for the 25th anniversary of the September 11 attacks. The Colt 1911 Remember 9-11 is chambered in .45 ACP, limited to 500 pistols, and priced at $1,799.99.

TFB covered the SK Guns 9/11 Commander in June. CNC's pistol is a separate project built on a Colt, chambered in .45 ACP rather than 9mm, and produced in a larger run.

Five hundred numbered pistols

CNC describes the finish as "Engraved Stainless" and fits the pistol with engraved aluminum grips. The company says the artwork honors those killed in the attacks and the first responders who answered them. This is a commemorative gun, and CNC did not take the understated route.

Each pistol gets a serial number running from REMEMBER001 through REMEMBER500. The package also includes a challenge coin and a certificate of authenticity signed by the owner of Custom & Collectable Firearms. CNC lists the SKU as CNCREMEMBER and the UPC as 884400138750.

Under the engraving is a full-size Colt Government Model. The frame is marked accordingly, and CNC's photos show the familiar five-inch configuration with a standard barrel bushing, fixed sights, spur hammer, and traditional single-stack grip. CNC does not identify the exact Colt catalog SKU or say whether the commemorative work includes any internal changes. Nothing in the description suggests that it does.

Price and availability

CNC still lists the Remember 9-11 in the New Releases section of its website at $1,799.99 and sends buyers to a dealer locator. It does not provide a shipping date or live inventory count.

The limited serial range, engraving, coin, and certificate are the selling points. Whether those touches justify the price depends on the collector. Mechanically, CNC is starting with the most traditional version of Colt's 1911 rather than a competition or carry model.

Buyers should confirm the pistol's specifications and availability through a dealer and comply with all federal, state, and local laws.

Elk O’Clock @ TFB:

• Fudd Friday: Seven Decades Of The Savage 110 
• Best Long Range Cartridges 
• TFB Review: Bushnell Nitro 6-24x50mm FFP Deploy MOA Reticle 
• NEW Vortex Razor HD LHT – Lightweight Meets Pristine Resolution 

Back to school

Learning about big game ammo makes sense, because there are many options on the market that will knock down a deer, moose or elk, but certain rounds are optimized for specific features—even frugality, if you could call that a feature, because Winchester Power Point ammunition has been doing the job for budget-conscious hunters for years.

Recently, Winchester launched its American Lever Range, optimized for lever-action hunting rifles (see more here). Their new AutoBuck buckshot shells are optimized for running in semi-auto shotguns and are made to cover hunting purposes as well as other uses (see more here). Over the past few years, they’ve launched other new ammunition as well, including Deer Season XP at SHOT Show in 2025.

Welcome to TFB Weekly Web Deals 205! We’re back with more deals on guns, gear, ammunition, and accessories from some of our most frequented online retailers like Strike Industries, 5.11 Tactical, Primary Arms, Natchez Shooters Supply, Palmetto State Armory, Brownells, and more. Whether you’re looking for deals on new or used guns, ammo to add to your reserves, or specific accessories like flashlights, range bags, optics, bipods, and magazines, each week we’ll have new sets of deals that might fulfill one of those needs and save you a few dollars.

Deals at 5.11 Tactical

5.11 Norris Sneaker

Sale Price: $29.97

The 5.11® Norris Sneaker is a high-top casual sneaker that combines style, comfort, and tactical intelligence, making it an exceptional choice for those who value both fashion and functionality. This unique footwear is designed to provide optimal traction and durability, particularly on wet surfaces, thanks to its Vibram® Marbrani outsole with XS Trek. The 5.11® Norris also features Ortholite® technology, ensuring your feet are cushioned in total support and comfort throughout the day. The sneaker is ASTM certified for puncture resistance, and its super-strong Welmax board protects your feet against up to 1,200 newtons of force. This shoe is more than just a stylish addition to your wardrobe; it's a reliable and functional choice for any situation. The climbing grade rubber toe protection and Ortholite® upper cuff offer additional comfort, heel hold, and protection, making the 5.11® Norris Sneaker a top choice for anyone in need of versatile, durable footwear. Imported and built to last, the Norris Sneaker is the perfect blend of style, comfort, and tactical intelligence.

RUSH® MOAB™ 8 Sling Pack 13L

Sale Price: $69.49

The MOAB™ is built for the calls that keep you mobile. The sling flips sides and adjusts on the move. Breakaway CCW access gets you in fast. MOLLE on the strap, front, and sides lets you dial in your loadout. Interior layout keeps tools and essentials tight. It's as close to being adaptable as you are.

Ambidextrous sling shoulder strap system with MOLLE

Tactec™ CCW compartment with breakaway hook-and-loop access

External MOLLE on front, sides, and strap for modular attachments

Rear hydration pocket with pass-through port

Large front pocket with internal admin organization

Main compartment with internal storage pockets

Fleece-lined eyewear pocket for scratch-free protection

Allhaula™ Backpack 30L

Sale Price: $99.49

From weekday grind to off-grid chaos, the Allhaula 30L stays in the fight. Day pack. Go-bag. Ride-or-die hauler. Toss it. Drag it. Beat it down. Doesn't matter how hard you run it. When you push past the limits, it hauls through 'em.

30L capacity is big enough for a day’s worth of gear, compact enough to stay agile

Zippered main compartment fits a laptop or hydration setup

Fleece-lined valuables pocket protects your phone, shades, or essentials

Interior organization pockets keep cables, tools, and gear squared away

Water-resistant, easy-to-clean fabric is tough against spills, dirt, and grime

Ballistic nylon bottom panel is reinforced to take a beating where it counts

Laser-cut MOLLE panels for modular loadouts across shoulder straps, front, and side

Skyweight hip belt compatible makes it add-on ready for heavy hauls (belt not included)

Elements Fleece Hoodie

Sale Price: $40.87

Everyday Comfort. Built to Endure.

5.11 graphic hoodies are designed for everyday performance and all-season comfort. This premium midweight fleece delivers dependable warmth, lasting softness, and a structured feel that holds up to daily wear.

Midweight Fleece Comfort: Delivers warmth without unnecessary bulk.

Soft with Structure: Comfortable feel that maintains its shape.

Everyday Versatility: Designed for wear from start to finish.

Built for Longevity: Holds up through regular use.

MATERIALS: 80% GOTS-certified organic cotton / 20% recycled polyester

COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: Made in the USA

5.11® Men's Straight Fit Defender-Flex Light Pant

Sale Price: $40.87

The Defender-Flex Light Pant delivers a clean straight fit with lightweight durability built for everyday wear. Constructed from breathable stretch plain weave, it balances mobility, comfort, and dependable performance through long days on the move. With thoughtful pocketing and stretch where it matters most, it’s a versatile pant designed to adapt to work, travel, and everything in between.

Lightweight Stretch Fabric – Durable polyester-elastane plain weave provides flexibility and breathable comfort throughout the day.

Enhanced Stretch Construction – Stretch waistband and pocket bags move naturally with your body for improved comfort and durability.

Expanded Utility Storage – Eight-pocket layout with utility drop and back yoke pockets keeps essentials organized and accessible.

MATERIALS: Body: 87% polyester / 13% elastane plain weave with moisture-wicking and odor-control properties

COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: Imported

36" Single Rifle Case 28L

Sale Price: $59.49

Your new go-to rifle case comes with all the right stuff for a trip to the range or out on exercises. Fully padded with external MOLLE webbing and Gear Set™ compatibility so you can Always Be Ready with extra mags or attachments. On the inside, you have removeable rifle retention straps as well as padded butt stock and muzzle sleeves to protect your firearm. Provides excellent carry-ability with a comfortable padded handle and removable shoulder strap. Whether you're planning a day of sport shooting or an overseas mission, this case has your six. Imported.

Engage Full Zip Sweatshirt 2.0

Sale Price: $29.97

Tackle the day ahead in our Engage Fleece Full Zip 2.0. This hoodie-style jacket will serve you for years thanks to a tough, yet soft, 60-percent cotton and 40-percent polyester fleece blend. The ribbed cotton-elastane sleeve cuffs and waist help retain body heat and keep the jacket in place while you move throughout the day. A two-way zipper in the front provides easy on and off while the hood cinches down for blustery conditions. Pockets are kangaroo style with double entry and zippered outer layer.

Deals at Primary Arms

Primary Arms GLx Mini Reflex Sight – 3 MOA Dot - OPEN BOX

Sale Price: $199.49

Occasionally, we get open box products in-stock. These items may have open packaging or slightly different packaging, which means a discounted price for you! Each listed Open Box product is in very limited supply, so act fast while they are still in stock! Their original warranties still apply.

This mini reflex sight is part of the mid-tier optics line called GLx. GLx brings premium technology and materials into an approachable price range.

Bringing the quality of the GLx optics to mini reflex sights, the RS-15 is the next generation of pistol optic packed full of features. This mini red dot sight features a larger window, 7075 aluminum construction, and fits the popular C-More footprint for out of the box compatibility with a large variety of pistol slides and adapter plates. Side mounted brightness buttons make it easy to use and the top mounted battery compartment allows you to quickly change batteries without having to remove your optic. This model comes with a Red Dot Bright® 3 MOA dot reticle and of course the popular ACSS Vulcan reticle option is available as well.

Geissele Automatics 2-Stage AK-X Trigger

Sale Price: $239.89

The Geissele Automatics 2 Stage AK Trigger was designed to provide shooters with a consistent, clean trigger pull for excellent and repeatable accuracy. Easy to install, this trigger is compatible with AK-47 and AK-74 pattern rifles and pistols and features an orange housing and tool steel trigger face with a corrosion-resistant black finish. This premium AK trigger features a smooth and consistent pull with a crisp wall and clean break, allowing shooters to stay on target more effectively.

Rugged Alaskan360™ Multi-Caliber Suppressor

Sale Price: $679.74

The Alaskan360 Suppressor from Rugged Suppressors is a multi-caliber suppressor that's built tough enough to handle your next expedition. The Alaskan360 was made with the Alaskan climate in mind, so it uses 17-4 stainless steel and U.S. grade 5 titanium to excel in even the toughest conditions. Weighing in at only 11.8 ounces and only 7.5" long with the included mount, you can add this suppressor to a wide range of firearms thanks to the .36 cal bore. Whether you need an effective suppressor for 5.56, 9mm or .308 caliber weapons, the Alaskan360 is designed to tame even the highest pressure rounds and is full auto rated.

Blue Force Gear Limited Edition Vickers Sling - Frog Skin

Sale Price: $54.99

The Blue Force Gear Limited Edition Vickers Sling is a two-point rifle sling that incorporates a patent-pending Quick Adjuster for rapid length changes and repeated, tactile adjustments. It is intended to facilitate swift transitions between comfortable carry and a ready-to-fire position while maintaining secure retention during dynamic weapon handling. This Frog Skin patterned Invista solution-dyed CORDURA sling measures 54 to 64 inches, and the hardware consists of low-profile, glass-reinforced DuPont Zytel nylon with a contrasting pull tab on the Quick Adjuster. The sling attaches directly to fixed-loop mounting systems and accepts optional hardware for alternate attachment methods. The sling is manufactured in the United States.

Magpul ACS Carbine Stock - Mil-Spec - Black

Sale Price: $75.99

The Adaptable Carbine Stock is a drop-in replacement buttstock for AR-15/M4 carbines with MIL-SPEC receiver extensions. Dual, rear accessible, water-resistant battery storage tubes store up to three CR123A lithium or two AA batteries. An integral storage compartment in the butt of the stock offers additional storage. Features an anti-snag release latch to prevent accidental activation along with a friction lock system that minimizes excessive stock movement for enhanced weapon stability and accuracy.

Deals at Venture Surplus

Canvas Parachute Cargo Bag

Sale Price: $35.99

Please note that the Olive Drab Canvas Parachute Cargo Bags are a browner shade of OD as opposed to a typical green OD shade.

These are Canvas Parachute Cargo Bags. These bags are great for storing extra gear at home, as a kit carry bag for those range days or as a truck bed bag for keeping those tools and tie downs together. The bags are constructed from heavyweight canvas and feature a zipper/ button snap closure, D-Rings for attaching a carry sling, fixed carry straps and boast’s a huge 75L/ 4500 Cubic Inches of space. So, whether you’re storing extra gear at home, need a new kit bag for range days or just want something to keep all the loose stuff in your truck bed together consider grabbing one or more of these Canvas Parachute Cargo Bags today!

Dimensions:

-75L/ 4500 Cubic Inches

– 24” W x 15” T x 13” D

North American Rescue Gen 7 CAT Tourniquet and Pouch Bundle

Sale Price: $44.99

These are NAR CAT Tourniquets and TQ Pouch Bundles. These bundles are an excellent way to get equipped in one single click, no more wandering the website trying to locate both halves. Included with each bundle is 1 new CAT Gen 7 TQ and a matching CAT TQ Pouch. The pouch features a 500D construction and features an elastic pouch flap, single vertical MOLLE strap, 2 horizontal MOLLE straps and a drainage grommet. So, whether you’re putting together your 1st IFAK or building out your 100th consider picking up one or more of the CAT TQ and pouch bundles for your kit(s) today!

Bundle Includes:

X1 Gen 7 CAT TQ, Black Tip

X1 NAR CAT Pouch (pouches may be from various government manufacturers such as Resource Center)

Altama Maritime, Mid Cut, Coyote Brown

Sale Price: $97.74

These are Mid-Cut Maritimes from Altama in Coyote Brown. These shoes are designed for operators with an aquatic disposition or for those who just want lightweight and breathable daily wear shoes. Due to their aqua operation origins, the Altama Maritimes are swim fin friendly and are compatible with most swim fins used by militaries world wide. The Maritimes features a “0 drop” outsole with PE shank for increased stability, lay flat laces, non-shine/ flat hardware, non-metallic drain ports, PU contoured insole and “Tuff Stuff” nylon quarter panels. So, whether you need some new kicks for the next aqua operation or just need a new pair of shoes for day to day wear consider adding a pir of these Mid-Cut Maritimes from Altama today!

Ripstop BDU Shorts, Jungle Tiger Stripe

Sale Price: $31.99

These are Jungle Tiger Stripe BDU Shorts from Rothco. These shorts are a great way to still be allowed outside even if you don’t like pants. The shorts are constructed from 55% Cotton and 45% Polyester ripstop making them lightweight and durable. Additionally, the shorts feature a button fly, waist adjusters, hand pockets, back pockets and cargo pockets. So, whether you’re trying to beat the summer heat or just have an aversion to pants with legs on them, make sure to pick up a pair or two of these Rothco BDU Shorts today!

Shorts waists are sized like BDU pants and have some adjustment in the waist. Shorts have 10 inch inseam.

G.I. Style Canvas Mechanics Tool Bag

Sale Price: $19.00

Please note that the Olive Drab G.I. Type Mechanics Tool Bags are a browner shade of OD as opposed to a typical green OD shade.

These are Rothco G.I. Style Canvas Mechanics Tool Bags. These handy little canvas bags are a great way to keep tools, ammo or spare parts stored and easy to carry. The bags are constructed from heavyweight canvas and feature a zippered main compartment with zipper closure, 8 interior tool pocket organizers, 2 external snap button pockets and fixed bag carry straps. So whether you need a tool bag for carrying your tools when your at the auto salvage yard or something to carry ammo for the next range day then consider grabbing one of these G.I. Style Canvas Mechanics Tool Bags today!

-Dimensions:

-7.5L/ 492 Cubic Inches

-11” W x 7” T x 6” D

Deals at Palmetto State Armory

Remington Ranch Hand .22LR 40 gr CPRN 100rds

Sale Price: $9.49

Introducing Remington's most reliable .22LR round ever, Rimfire Ride or Die Ranch Hand. Equipped with our cutting-edge rimfire technology, each round delivers premier performance both in your firearm and on target. Whether you're hunting small game or varmints, Ranch Hand ensures flawless feeding, functioning and firing across all common .22LR handguns and rifles. No matter your firearm of choice, trust Ranch Hand to bring exceptional reliability and accuracy to every shot.

Colt .22LR Drop-In Bolt Conversion Kit for AR15 w/ (3) 25-Round Magazines

Sale Price: $149.99

Enhance your .223/5.56mm AR platform rifle with the Colt .22 LR conversion bolt. Transform your reliable Colt rifle into a cost-effective training tool with this convenient drop-in conversion bolt. Designed for compatibility with any mil-spec .223/5.56mm upper receiver, the bolt ensures a seamless, hassle-free conversion.

Sig Foxtrot-MSR Full Size Rail Mounted 1,350 lumens White Light, Black

Sale Price:$ 149.99

The FOXTROT-MSR rifle-mounted white light combines power and versatility in a rugged design. Building on the success of SIG SAUER's FOXTROT tactical lights, the FOXTROT-MSR delivers an impressive 1350 lumens and 33,000 candela within a durable 6061 aluminum housing, optimized for short-barreled personal defense platforms. It features a remote tape switch with a SureFire-compatible plug and offers integrated push-button activation with both momentary and latching modes. With up to 1.5 hours of runtime on a single battery, this full-size light includes two 18650 lithium-ion batteries for extended use. The FOXTROT-MSR is Scout Mount compatible and comes with both Picatinny and M-Lok mounting interfaces for flexible installation options.

CCI Quiet-22 Semi-Auto .22LR 45 gr Lead Round Nose Ammo, 50/box

Sale Price: $4.99

Experience significantly quieter shooting with CCI Quiet-22 ammunition. Engineered specifically for bolt-action rifles and single-shot rifles, these 22 Long Rifle rounds reduce perceived noise by a remarkable 75 percent compared to standard velocity loads. The low noise signature makes Quiet-22 an excellent choice for shooting in noise-sensitive areas and a gentle way to introduce beginners to the rewarding world of shooting sports.

Gerber Armbar Cork Multi-Tool, Onyx

Sale Price:$ 47.99

Even the most resourceful can use some help opening up a wine bottle – meet the Armbar Cork. It’s a smart design that fits in pocket like a folding knife and operates like a fully capable multi-tool. The Armbar features tools to handle the tasks that a pocket knife simply can’t handle: a corkscrew, foil cutter, pry bar, bottle opener, and can/package opener. It also handles anything your pocket knife could with a one-hand opening fine edge blade and scissors.

Sig Sauer Romeo MSR Red Dot Gen II Optic

Sale Price:$ 109.99

Experience unmatched precision and adaptability with the new ROMEO-MSR GEN II optics lineup. Completely redesigned from the ground up, the ROMEO-MSR GEN II boasts a sleek new look and enhanced functionality, optimized specifically for MSR rifle platforms. This cutting-edge red dot sight features an analog rotary illumination dial with 12 individual brightness settings, including two dedicated night vision options, ensuring adaptability in any lighting condition. The redesigned see-through riser mount allows for convenient co-witnessing while maintaining exceptional durability. Perfect for discerning shooters who demand uncompromising quality, the ROMEO-MSR GEN II delivers superior performance, durability, and adaptability, setting a new standard in optical excellence.

Glock 48 MOS 9mm Pistol

Sale Price: $499.99

Chambered in 9x19 the G48 MOS features slide cuts designed for specific micro-optics and the GLOCK Slim Mounting Rail for mounting accessories. The perfect tactical partner with increased concealability. The G48 MOS is of similar length and height as the compact size G19 but has the well-known GLOCK Slimline design with the reduced width of the pistol for perfect carrying comfort. The frame features the GLOCK Slim Mounting Rail for mounting tactical accessories and incorporates elements of the Slimline series such the short trigger distance, a frame with a built-in beavertail, a reversible magazine catch and the incredibly accurate, match-grade GLOCK Marksman Barrel (GMB) of the Gen5 series. The G48 Rail also features precision-milled front serrations.

PMC X-TAC 5.56 NATO Ammo 55 Grain FMJBT, 20 rds

Sale Price: $9.99 ($0.50 per round)

Designed and manufactured as if your life depends on it because it might. PMC's exacting adherence to the precise specifications of military and law-enforcement organizations assures that X-TAC ammunition will perform perfectly in that fraction of a second when a serious threat arises and your life is on the line. Self defense begins and ends with reliable, consistent ammunition. Nothing is more important than life. Protect yours, confidently, with X-TAC from PMC. PMC X-TAC Line Manufactured to the highest industry and military specifications to ensure its performance, without fail, when your life is on the line. PMC's X-TAC ammunition is powerful, accurate and dependable, because in a life-threatening situation, no other standard is acceptable. 20 rounds per box.

Smith & Wesson M&P FPC 9mm Semi-Auto Rifle 16.25", Black

Sale Price: $499.99

Features

The new optics-ready M&P FPC® showcases our brand new, compact, folding design. Coming with(one) 17-round and (two) 23-round magazines, the in-stock magazine storage w/ quick-release latch makes reloading convenient and quick. The M&P FPC® is compatible with M&P® full-size and compact pistol double-stack magazines, and includes a carrying bag with additional storage and Velcro® straps.

Compact, folding design.

Optics-ready.

Integrated recoil buffer system.

Reversible magazine catch.

30 3/8" unfolded length to 16 3/8" folded.

1/2-28 threaded muzzle with thread protector.

Flat-face trigger with crisp break.

Compatible with M&P® Pistol double-stack magazines.

In-stock magazine storage w/quick-release tab system.

Horizontal folding mechanism with locking latch.

Horizontal folding design doesn’t interfere with top-mounted optics (optics sold separately).

M-LOK® slots on handguard with Picatinny-style rail on top.

Charging slide/handle doubles as retainer when folded.

Ships with (one) 17-round magazine and (two) 23-round magazines.

Carrying bag with additional storage and Velcro® straps.

Made in U.S.A.

Streamlight ProTac Railmount 1 Long Gun Light

Sale Price: $99.99

The ProTac series expands into weapon-mounted lights with this 350 lumen light featuring a dedicated fixed-mount for Picatinny rails. It uses either a remote switch with momentary/constant on operation or a standard push-button tail switch, and can run on either a lithium battery or an easy-to-find alkaline battery. The Protac series flashlight allows for multiple battery choices - one AA alkaline or CR123A lithium battery (both included); also accepts AA lithium CR123A lithium battery. Strobe for signaling or disorienting TEN-TAP Programming - choice of three operating modes: 1.) high/strobe; 2.) high only; 3.) low/high Remote pressure switch features momentary and “constant on” operation. Integrated rail clamp attaches to MIL-STD-1913 rails for secure mounting. Includes remote pressure switch, push-button tail switch, remote retaining clips, double-sided tape and zip ties Durable, anodized aluminum construction with impact-resistant tempered glass lens IPX7 rated with the Standard button switch installed; waterproof to 1 meter for 30 minutes. IPX4 rated with the Remote Pressure Switch installed Operating temperature: -40°F to +120°F Limited lifetime warranty (through Streamlight).

Beretta 92X Performance Defensive Optics Ready 9mm Pistol, Nistan

Sale Price: $899.99

The new Beretta 92X Performance Defensive has been custom built to take your competition performance to the next level. Specifically designed for those consumers who participate in IDPA (International Defensive Pistol Association) competitions, the 92X Performance Defensive maintains the same ergonomic design and controls as the popular 92X Performance Production platform with new enhanced features such as a lightened steel frame and slide, a red-dot optic ready slide, and aggressively textured 92X-style thin grips for instinctive control.

Glock 17 Gen 6 Austria 4.49" 9mm

Sale Price: $649.99

The Glock 17 Gen 6 features a striker fired action that delivers consistent trigger operation and reliable ignition under demanding use. Its full size polymer frame enhances stability for accurate shot placement while maintaining the familiar handling characteristics Glock shooters expect. The improved optics ready system is a confirmed enhancement over the Gen 5 MOS design and supports a wider range of sighting solutions without modification.

Holosun ARO 2 MOA Red Dot w/ HM3X Magnifier Combo

Sale Price: $249.99

The Holosun ARO (Advanced Rifle Optic) Red Dot Sight is an advancement on the popular Holosun 20mm 403 and 503 series optics. The ARO features an all-new 22mm housing design that mates perfectly with Holosun magnifiers and includes an all-new 1.63" lower 1/3 co-witness pedestal mount. ARO is available as a 2MOA dot only or with the Holosun Multi-Reticle System (MRS) in Red, Green, or Gold.

Deals at GunMagWarehouse

Ruger BX-1 10/22 .22LR 10-Round Magazine 3 Pack

Sale Price: $41.99

Durable polymer construction

Reinforced steel feed lips

Rotary style magazine

Red polymer follower

This is a 3 pack of factory BX-1 10-round magazines for Ruger 10/22 rifles in .22 LR.

These factory rotary magazines are designed to endure extreme conditions and keep on feeding every single time. Featuring a red polymer follower and reinforced steel feed lips for proper cartridge alignment and for smooth, reliable feeding every time. America’s most popular rimfire rifle for over half a century, the Ruger 10/22 is an iconic firearm that you probably already own. These BX-1 magazines were designed in-house by Sturm Ruger & Co. to go along with other BX series upgrades and elevate the average 10/22 into something even better.

Hornady Frontier Cartridge 5.56 NATO Ammo 55gr M193 FMJ Box of 50

Sale Price: $24.99

Quality Hornady Mil-Spec M193 bullets

Non-corrosive boxer primers

Clean-burning powders and propellants

Reloadable brass casings

Favored by informal target shooters, law enforcement training academies, and military personnel across the country, Frontier® Cartridge 5.56x45mm NATO 55gr M193 FMJ target ammo offers dependable ignition and consistent performance without breaking the bank. This ammo features clean-burning powders, premium components, and premium Hornady® bullets, loaded in select brass casings for exceptionally smooth and reliable feeding and ejection performance with most semi-auto and bolt-action rifles chambered in 5.56x45mm. Stock up and order today!

Magpul PMAG GEN M2 MOE AR-15 .223 / 5.56 30-Round Magazine

Sale Price: $9.49

Impact and crush resistant polymer construction

Constant-curve internal geometry for smooth feeding

Anti-tilt, self-lubricating follower for increased reliability

USGI-spec stainless steel spring for corrosion resistance and field compatibility

Textured gripping surface and flared floorplate for positive magazine handling and easy disassembly

This is a Magpul Gen M2 MOE 30-round magazine for AR-15 rifles

Crafted from lightweight, impact-resistant polymer with stainless steel internal springs and anti-tilt, self-lubricating followers Magpul's PMAG MOE magazines are the perfect upgrade for your favorite rifle.

Duramag AR-15 .223, 5.56mm, .300BLK 30-Round Aluminum Magazine

Sale Price: $11.49

Load up for your next range day with the Duramag® AR-15 .223, 5.56mm, .300BLK 30-Round Aluminum Magazine. Featuring durable aluminum construction with a corrosion-resistant finish, this aftermarket magazine boasts superior strength and lasting corrosion resistance in even the harshest environments. The anti-tilt polymer follower and the stainless steel spring ensure smooth and reliable feeding with proper cartridge alignment in high-stress target and defensive environments. Duramag’s Aluminum .223 / 5.56 magazines have become the choice magazine for OEM, Law Enforcement, and Military Units throughout the world. There's no such thing as having too many magazines. Don't hesitate and order one or two new magazines today!

Federal American Eagle 9mm Luger Ammo 124gr FMJ 50 Rounds

Sale Price: $13.99

Head to the range for some all-day training sessions or informal target practice with Federal® American Eagle® 9mm Luger pistol ammunition from GunMag Warehouse. Featuring clean-burning powders and premium components, loaded in reloadable brass casings, this affordable pistol ammo offers reliable ignition and consistent accuracy in virtually any environment. Ideal for volume shooters and tactical training. Better yet, each American Eagle round is hand-inspected by qualified quality control specialists for superior consistency and unmatched reliability. Made in USA.

Maglula UpLula 9mm to .45 ACP Universal Pistol Magazine Loader and Unloader

Sale Price: $26.99

Compatible with any single- or double-stack pistol magazine chambered in pistol cartridges from 9mm to .45 ACP, the Maglula® UpLula® 9mm to .45 ACP Universal Pistol Magazine Loader and Unloader makes it comfortable, quick, and easy to reload and unload pistol magazines at the range or in the field. Durable polymer construction offers superior durability, while the convenient slip-on design offers simple, reliable operation and protects magazines and feed lips from damage. Better yet, this combat-tested, universal reloader offers all-weather performance for superior versatility.

Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome back to TFB’s Silencer Saturday, brought to you by Yankee Hill Machine, manufacturer of the new Victra 20-gauge shotgun suppressor. It has been more than a month since the first legal, non-stamp silencer transfer. More questions remain than answers, but that has not stopped broad adoption of transfers on a Form 4473. Is it safe to do so, or should you wait and see?

Silencer Saturday @ TFB:

• Silencer Saturday #449: A One-Of-A-Kind Ruger American 
• Silencer Saturday #448: Liberty Suppressors Infiniti X First Look
• Silencer Saturday #447: Thunder Beast Silencer Summit 2026 
• Silencer Saturday #446: Market Trends In A Post-Stamp World
• Silencer Saturday #445: Unregistered Silencers For All?

Disclaimer: This is not legal advice. I am not your attorney.

Unless you live under a rock, you have probably heard about the injunction against the NFA that has allowed the first stamp-free silencer transfers since 1934. That injunction was a huge win for the silencer world, but it does not apply uniformly. This leaves us in a bit of a confusing situation. Clearly, for some people, it is legal to transfer silencers without a form. The clearest way for that to happen is to be a member of GOA.

But this also leaves many points for future clarification. Thankfully, the ATF is working on it. In a post on X, ATF Director Robert Cekeda stated that the agency is working on guidance but that it would take time. This is not an unreasonable position. There are a lot of moving pieces, and whatever advice the ATF gives needs to be correct. It would be awful if they get it wrong and have to redo it later. It would be doubly bad if people rely on that and make decisions that could incur criminal liability.

One upside of this message is that Director Cekeda notes that no enforcement action will be taken against individuals who are complying with the terms of the injunction. This is huge. Knowing that the enforcement agency will not take action in the interim while this is getting figured out is very reassuring. So while you may not have to worry about masked men descending on your compound to do you harm, there are still logistical and regulatory concerns to factor in.

One of the big ones is on the dealer side. Dealers receive their silencers on a Form 3 transfer from a manufacturer or distributor. The item is then disposed of to the recipient, be it an individual, a trust, or an LLC, via a Form 4. That Form 4 performs the function of moving the silencer out of the dealer's inventory and into that of the final purchaser. But with no Form 4 to show the item has moved out, then what? Those silencers still appear as items within the dealer's inventory. This is one of the types of logistical hurdles the ATF needs to fix.

So should you jump on the bandwagon and do a 4473 transfer or stick with the trusty old Form 4? That is a question that only you can decide for yourself. While this is not legal advice, let me share a couple of points that can help you make the right choice for you.

First up, I like the certainty of a Form 4. I have a lot of them. Having more of them is no big deal. I already have my trust instrument that possesses them. I am already set up to receive items for Form 4 and track the documentation. I have also observed that Form 4s and Form 1s, for that matter, are moving very quickly. The last Form 1 I submitted to turn a Military Armament Corporation MAC-5 into an SBR is under review, and that took about 3 days on a trust. That is way quicker than it used to be.

The ATF has not yet published their transfer data or average transfer times for August, but I think the transfer delays will be minimal in that dataset. On the other hand, if the 4473 is the new normal, why not start doing it now? Many dealers have gotten on board, and most have processes in place. My discussions with people in the industry suggest that we are into the hundreds of thousands of silencers transferred on a 4473 already. This is not a thing that can be ignored by the regulator. The ground facts have changed to a point where it would be very hard to implement some sort of unilateral or unreasonable control, simply because there are so many now in circulation without a Form 4.

That's not a guarantee that you might not face problems in the future, but the more people who do it, the less risky it is. The question you need to answer is: do I want to be part of that group or not? While it is not a guarantee that everything will turn out all right in the end, this could be the basis for some type of future amnesty or grandfathering. Let's say a few years down the road, things change in the U.S. legal system, and we go back to needing Form 4s. On transfers, perhaps those transfers will cost more than $200. What to do about the silencers that don't have a Form 4 at all is a tricky question to answer as a bureaucrat. Grandfathering is usually the safest course legally.

If that is the case, getting on the train now may set you up in the future to avoid other regulatory burdens that could be added, but it also might subject you to regulatory burdens in the interim as the system gets worked out (or maybe even heightened burdens down the road). This is the hard part with telling the future. No one really knows. For me personally, again, this is not advice to you. I am still proceeding with Form 4 transfers in most instances. There's one specific item that I might try on a 4473, but I am a very risk-averse person, and I want to see what the ATF guidance says before I move into the 4473 realm.

I also am not a huge fan of some of the waivers that dealers are having people sign. Waivers may not be all they are cracked up to be, and attorneys are often able to get around them successfully. That said, waivers can create a lot of other problems. They may subject you to something like mandatory arbitration or have other confessions of judgment or terms that are hugely detrimental to you in the event of any problems you may have with the dealer. Read the terms and conditions very carefully before you decide to sign someone's waiver.

The most reasonable waiver in this circumstance will be limited strictly to the unclear regulatory status of the silencer. It will say that you will not sue the dealer as a result of whatever may happen with your 4473 silencer. That's not unfair, and I would not feel uncomfortable signing one of those myself, but if it is a multi-page document and talks about all sorts of other things, I would beware.

In summary, the 4473 route is less risky than it was a few weeks ago. There are still many open questions. But there are now lots of silencers without tax stamps in circulation, and the Director of the ATF has promised that clarification is coming and that action will not be taken against those people protected by the injunction. A Form 4 is still the lowest risk option. And dealers who are staying in that lane don’t deserve hate or vitriol. Once the ATF guidance releases we will need to reassess, and we will be sure to keep you updated.

SILENCER SHOP –    HANSOHN BROTHERS –    DEADEYE GUNS

MAC TACTICAL

ALL YHM PRODUCTS AT BROWNELLS

DEALERS: If you want your link to buy YHM suppressors included in future Silencer Saturday posts, email:   silencers@thefirearmblog.com

The AR15 market is swarmed and completely saturated with a wide variety of models and variations of the iconic “black rifle”. What separates one AR15 from another, what delineates a high-quality platform from mid- to low-tier? Midwest Industries wanted to offer a rifle that was more than simply reliable and well-made; Midwest Industries wanted to provide the option for a weapon made for the most stringent and demanding end users, something that achieved race-gun performance but survived the worst conditions and demands. This is where the CRM HD came into existence.

Terms and Conditions

The Global War on Terror has been protracted, seeing its reach stretch to every major part of the world. As this global conflict has progressed, so too have tactics and technology, culminating in a new and frightening blend of technology and tactics never before witnessed. Regardless of the advancements, warfare comes down to taking and holding territory and denying it to the enemy. This necessitates troops on the ground, and a soldier requires a rifle. Advancements in day and night combat have led to a variety of accessories needed to take and maintain the advantage. The use of multiple optics, lasers, lights, and other technology has integrated itself into the rifle. These additional requirements have equated to weapon platforms that can facilitate their use, but also support long-term use in the worst conditions.

Due to the performance requirements, several reputable manufacturers have risen to address the needs of special operations and standard combat operations alike. Companies like H&K, Geissele, Daniel Defense, SOLGW, LWRC, and others have staked their claim and seat at the table. This is where Troy of Midwest Industries saw his opportunity. Midwest Industries was already a respected name with over 20 years of experience in the weapons industry; the relationships they had built, along with partnerships poised Midwest Industries to bring something special to the market. This is where the CRM HD Rifle was born.

The name CRM HD stands for Combat Rail MLOK Heavy Duty. A major emphasis of all the rifles being manufactured for the SOF community and the missions they embark upon is the handguard/rail. While the heart of the rifle is the barrel and trigger, it’s the unique requirement of an exceptionally rigid rail that becomes a major focus due to the requirements for lasers and other accessories. Midwest Industries did not flinch. The new Combat Handguard is significantly thicker than all previous handguards from MI, but it's also the new barrel nut and mounting that make this the most rigid handguard on the market while still being able to integrate with standard AR15 upper receivers. The design has created a platform that performs at the tier one level, but at a price point far below what it should be. Troy chose to make a rifle that performed and felt good and paid less attention to unnecessary touches that were aesthetically pleasing but offered little in performance and demanded a hefty price increase.

Rifle Anatomy

The CMR HD is not just another AR15; much like other tier 1 rifles, the manufacturer must consider what the rifle’s purpose is. For the sake of argument, we can look at the CQB or Close Quarters Battle, rifle and the General-Purpose Rifle. This is an oversimplification of the two categories, but in most of these rifles there are two guaranteed selections; you will be offered a 10.5”/11.5” and a 16” barreled offering. Some manufacturers will offer more barrel length variations, but these two classifications are common.

One important part of the initial assessment is that MI chose not to create an upper receiver or handguard that was proprietary. This choice could limit some of the potential performance, but more than likely will not have any real impact on the stability of the handguard and its rigidity. The positive of not having a proprietary upper receiver and handguard is that pre-existing uppers can be easily mated with the HD handguard, providing end users the benefits that come with MI’s new design.

This leads us to the beginning of the rifle, the body of the build. The upper and lower receivers are forged, which will provide a stronger receiver set; MI also chose to keep the design traditional without any proprietary designs in order to maintain a traditional look and function. Both the upper and lower receivers are machined from 7075 T6 aluminium and finished in a matte black hard-coat anodized Mil 8625 Type 3 Class 2 finish to ensure strength and durability. Cerekote finishes are offered; in the case of my rifle, it was finished in MI’s Mas Grey (an off-green). The receivers are machined to Mil-Spec standards to ensure continuity with the AR market and parts.

Starting at the back of the receiver is a Radian Weapons Raptor Ambi Charging Handle, an obvious choice and well trusted by thousands of end users. The BCG is KAK K-Spec by MI & is NP3 coated for durability and reliability and features sand cuts with dual ejectors; this combination ensures maximum reliability for prolonged use in austere environments and conditions. The barrel selected is the renowned Criterion Core in a 16” length with M4 feed-ramps and a mid-length direct impingement gas system, and comes with an industry-standard ½ x 28 thread pitch. The barrel has been mated with a Rifle Speed adjustable gas block; this provides the end user with rapid adjustments to the gas system without the need for tools or other specific devices. Gas flow can be rapidly dialled in to provide the perfect amount of gas on the fly; this makes for incredible operational durability whether suppressed or unsuppressed.

The real focus of the upper receiver is the new revolutionary handguard system created specifically for professionals and designed to interface with the Rifle Speed gas block. The HD handguard is purpose-cut to length to allow for the adjustment ring on the Rifle Speed gas block to be accessible at all times, even when suppressed with a QD or direct thread suppressor. The HD handguard is significantly thicker to reduce flex, increase both durability and zero and has been designed to optimize heat exchange while providing the end user mounting solutions where they are most used. The top of the handguard is a full length Picatinny rail machined to standard with lightening cuts through out, at the 1, 5, 7, and 11 of the handguard more lightening cuts have been machined to reduce weight and allow for heat exchange while the 3, 6, and 9 offer MLOK the full length down the handguard; at the last quarter of the handguard the 1, 5, 7, and 11 offer MLOK slots as well where they are needed. The first quarter of the handguard at the base is solid, as this is taken up by the extremely long and rigid barrel nut and handguard locking interface. At the 1 and 11 o'clock positions is a steel-reinforced, non-rotational QD socket optimizing sling interface and anatomic comfort for the end user.

The handguard uses MI’s proprietary anti-rotational flanges that protrude on both sides of the 12 o’clock rail, combined with their locking interface plate into the barrel nut. This provides a handguard designed from the ground up for all-conditions warfare, ensuring 100% rigidity in the most austere environments for lasers and other accessories. The appearance is clean and custom, with all edges dehorned and machined for maximum comfort. The inside diameter is 1.250” with an outside diameter of 1.750”. While our handguard mated with our 16” barrel is 13.5”; two other lengths are offered in 9.25” and 10.50”, intended for use with a Rifle Speed gas block.

Lower

The lower receiver comes with MI’s 2-stage Nickel Boron match trigger and a Radian Weapons 45-degree ambi safety. The magazine release and bolt catch/release are ambidextrous, allowing this platform to truly run from either hand with ease. The receiver is mil-spec in order to facilitate the replacement of parts from both military and aftermarket selections. The CMR HD uses a standard weight buffer and spring with a MI heavy duty QD end plate, and is outfitted with the new Magpul DT Stock and a Live Free Kung Fu grip. Together, the system is a significant package.

You might have noticed that the type of flash hider or compensator was left off the build list. This is due to the system intentionally providing a simple birdcage flash hider; MI decided that the end user will inherently choose the compensator and suppressor desired, and this is a saving that can be passed along to the customer.

The Set Up

The rifle needed a proper setup; outfitting a modern fighting rifle goes beyond a simple forward grip and a red dot. As this is a 16” barreled rifle with a precision combat barrel and was designed from the ground up to support modern warfighting requirements, the CMR HD was outfitted with some of the finest and most coveted accessories on the market to ensure combat reliability combined with ease of use for all conditions.

We already have excellent furniture and full ambidextrous controls, so the need to upgrade was completely negated. The beginning then goes beyond upgraded furniture, charging handles, and triggers and then leaps into the combat accessories. We start with the Vortex AMG 1-10 FFP rifle scope. This state-of-the-art optic is nearly as small as an ACOG in length but provides a true 1-10 capability in a 34mm housing for improved target acquisition with exceptional durability. We mounted it in MI MK2 34mm scope rings with a 12 o’clock Acro mount with a Viridian RFX44 enclosed mini green dot. At the front, we are running an Inforce dual-illuminated weapon light for visible/IR and a Zenitco Perse4 visible/IR laser. The handguard has been equipped with a MachineMachine Co Rooski and Vladi for the hand placement, and we topped off the muzzle with a direct-thread Witt Machine and Tool TuTu3 5.56 direct-thread suppressor. This combination facilitates a well-chosen selection of accessories that are proven to hold up over demanding missions and harsh conditions.

Hands On

At first glance, the rifle has a clean appearance, with the obvious handguard standing out, but the CMR HD has the feel of a sleeper. The performance is meant to be felt rather than seen. The unassuming physical reality is that the finer details of the handguard and the ambi controls are evidence of a high-tier rifle, but MI has gone to great lengths to provide a bona fide race engine in what appears to be a normal sedan. The result is an attractive rifle focused more on providing performance over making waves on Instagram.

The use of the Kung Fu grip enables an excellent marriage of the shooter’s hand to the rifle for ease of indexing controls, which is further exploited by the comfort of the stock and charging handle. The CMR HD handguard, like all MI handguards, has the relief cuts machined into the grip surface, creating excellent traction without being too aggressive or excessive to the point of distracting from its use. Access to the Rifle Speed gas block dial is excellent, as the handguard is purpose-built to interface with the gas system during operational use.

Shouldering the rifle feels as natural as it has for over 30 years of professional use, but the rifle maintains a light and almost deceivingly nimble feeling; this becomes more prevalent during range time with the Witt Machine and Tool suppressor attached. The MI match trigger is light and crisp, with the break at 4 lbs., and remains predictable with a reliable wall and strong reset. Rapid fire felt controlled and easy with the light trigger, and I never had any issues when pressed for speed over control. Slow aimed fire also felt excellent, with the take-up being fairly short and again the wall easily discernible and predictably breaking when squeezed.