Founded by two friends in 2017, Montana’s Shield Arms has a simple philosophy of bringing new and innovative products to the firearms industry – while ingraining perseverance and community in all they do.
Established by Brandon Zeider and Seth Berglee in the Bigfork area, Shield is probably best known for its series of S15 pistol magazines for the Glock 43X/48, which boosts the pistol’s capacity from 10 rounds to 15.
A vintage deck gun system that was once a staple of the U.S. Navy and Coast Guard has quietly fired its final shots.
Designed by the famed munitions firm of OTO Melara of La Spezia, Italy, and marketed from 1963 onward as the 76/62C Compact, the remote-controlled 76mm (3-inch) gun with its characteristic bubble dome was an immediate hit with NATO and Western fleets, eventually seeing service with 60 nations.
West German Type 148 missile boats show their 76mm OTO guns during a visit to the UK, in 1977
The reason it was so popular was that using aluminum alloys, a water-cooled gun barrel, and an automatic loader with an 80-round magazine, it delivered much better performance than any manned 3-inch gun mount in service at the time while weighing much less. Guided by the ship’s onboard radar and fire control system, it could engage air targets as high as 13,000 feet and surface targets out to 20,000 yards.
The 76/62 designation comes from the bore (76mm) and barrel length (62 caliber), the latter figure denoting a 4,724mm long barrel, which translates to 15.5 feet.
The 76/62C Compact, seen in its components from a 1980 U.S. Navy training publication:
Note the gun control panel which was mounted in the ammunition handling room below deck under the mount. The mount captain fired the gun from the panel while two ammunition loaders stood by to reload the magazine.
A look under the hood so to speak, showing off the details of the gun itself and its magazine.
The mag used two concentric rings of shells, each holding 35 rounds, with a hydraulic motor rotating the screw feeder– which held another six rounds not unlike that of a common “six-shooter” revolver. Together with the four rounds held in the loader drum, the gun held 80 shells, which could be expended in just under one minute.
A view of the magazine rings of the MK-75 gun aboard USCGC Mohawk (WMEC 913) while underway in the Atlantic Ocean, Sept. 1, 2022. (U.S. Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer 3rd Class Jessica Fontenette)
The types of “war shot” rounds in U.S. service included High Explosive Point Detonating (HE-PD), High Explosive Infrared (HE-IR), Variable Time Non-fragmenting (VT-NF), High Explosive Variable Time (HE-VT), and High Explosive Radio Frequency proximity (HE-RF).
Exercise and training shells included the Blind-Loaded and Plugged (BL&P) round with a live round that had an inert projectile while wholly inert rammable and non-rammable dummy and gauging rounds were also available.
Crew load 76mm rounds into the magazine of the MK-75 gun aboard USCGC Mohawk (WMEC 913) while underway in the Atlantic Ocean, Sept. 1, 2022. HE-PD rounds can be seen in the outer ring and blue-colored BLP target rounds are peeking out of the inner ring. (U.S. Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer 3rd Class Jessica Fontenette)
The gun control panel below-deck under the mount, complete with its view of the magazine rings. Seen on the USCGC Midgett (WHEC 721) in June 1999. USCG photo by PA2 Alice Sennott
Shells were brought on and off the packed in grey shipping containers, loaded old-school via chain gangs.
Sailors aboard the Oliver Hazard Perry-class guided-missile frigate USS Rodney M. Davis (FFG 60) move 76mm rounds during an ammunition onload. Rodney M. Davis, based out of Everett, Wash., is on patrol in the 7th Fleet area of responsibility supporting security and stability in the Indo-Asia-Pacific region. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Derek A. Harkins/Released)
For a great look at the inner guts of the 76/62C Compact, check out this short video from the German Navy, which has used the gun since 1965. Don’t worry if your German is rusty, the video speaks for itself.
With the U.S. Navy opting to mount a smaller 3-inch gun on its planned Oliver Hazard Perry-class frigates in the 1970s– a big change from the manned 5-inch guns mounted on the Knox-class frigates that preceded them– the Pentagon went with the Italian “robot gun” design.
A destroyer escort, USS Talbot (DEG-4), in late 1974 had an Italian-produced 76/62C Compact installed on her bow forward of the superstructure in place of the ship’s original 5-inch manned mount which used a design that dated to World War II.
USS Talbot seen circa 1974-75 with an OTO Melara 76/62C Compact installed. (Photos: U.S. Navy History and Heritage Command)
The Naval Systems Division of the FMC Corporation in 1975 won the U.S. contract to build the 76/62C Compact in Pennsylvania under license from OTO Melara and delivered the first American-built model in August 1978. The Navy, which designated the gun the MK 75, went on to install them in 51 Oliver Hazard Perry-class frigates built between 1975 and 1989, along with six Pegasus-class hydrofoil fast attack craft and on the Coast Guard’s 13 new Bear-class cutters that were constructed in the same era.
Likewise, when the Coast Guard’s 12 Vietnam-era Hamilton-class cutters were modernized starting in 1987, they received the MK 75 to replace their outdated 5-inch mounts. The guns were also installed on a series of warships built in the U.S. for overseas customers (Israel, Egypt, Australia, et.al).
The frigates carried the MK 75 atop their superstructure as the bow, the traditional location, was occupied by a missile launcher and its below-deck magazine.
October 2002. USS Sides (FFG 14) fires her 76mm dual-purpose gun at ex-USS Towers (DDG 9) during a SINKEX near San Diego. (Photo: U.S. Navy)
May 2011. The Oliver Hazard Perry-class guided-missile frigate USS Thach (FFG 43) fires its MK-75 76mm mounted gun while underway off the coast of Brazil. (Photo: U.S. Navy)
August 2014. The Oliver Hazard Perry-class guided-missile frigate USS Rodney M. Davis (FFG 60) conducts a live-fire exercise of its MK 75 76mm/62 caliber gun. (Photo: U.S. Navy)
One of the frigates, USS Simpson (FFG-56), part of Surface Action Group Charlie, had the first combat use of the MK 75 in U.S. service when, in April 1988, used the gun to destroy Iranian naval and intelligence facilities on the Sirri oil platform during Operation Praying Mantis.
Another frigate, USS Nicholas (FFG-47)used her MK 75 during Desert Storm in January 1991 to clear Iraqi troops placed on nine oil platforms in the northern Persian Gulf off of occupied Kuwait. As reported at the time, the frigate “fired three shots at each platform to set the range, followed by about 20 rounds of high-explosive shells, ‘for effect.’ The effect was to demolish quickly all the remaining bunkers.”
The speedy hydrofoils, meanwhile, wore their MK 75 as a hood ornament.
As did the Coast Guard cutters.
Coast Guard Cutter Harriet Lane firing a commemorative shot on 30 May 2019 to honor the 158th anniversary of its namesake’s action near Fort Sumter, South Carolina. (Photo: USCG)
The water-cooled barrel, using salt water during the firing process and a freshwater flush from the ship’s onboard supply after the firing ceased, led to often extreme muzzle shots with the intersection of steam and propellant.
The crew of Coast Guard Cutter Northland conducts a live firing of the MK 75 76mm weapons system while underway, on September 20, 2020, in the Atlantic Ocean. (Photo: USCG)
March 2000. The Coast Guard Cutter Tampa’s 76mm gun blasts a projectile at a moving target during live-fire exercises. Participants took turns firing at “robo-ski,” a small, remote-controlled jet ski. Tampa gunners hit the target every time. USCG Photo by ET3 Shane Taylor.
The gun uses a saltwater cooling system and a freshwater cleaning run after firing concludes, seen here on USCGC Escanaba in 2028.
All things come to an end
However, there has been a slow-motion end to this story that started with the retirement of the hydrofoils in 1993, and the frigates losing their MK 75s by 2015 in a series of refits. This left the Navy, who “owns” the installed weapons on Coast Guard cutters, still on the hook for logistics contracts with BAE systems and OTO Melara (now Leonardo) for parts and support.
Those days are gone as the 76/62C is out of production both in the U.S. and Italy, with Leonardo replacing the system in its catalog with the faster-firing (though still with only an 80-round ready magazine) and more stealthy 76/62 Super Rapid (SR) Gun Mount.
Eventually, the Ordnance Shop at the Coast Guard yard took ownership of the MK 75 program and was even tapped to support the guns on frigates and cutters transferred overseas.
Since then, the Hamilton class has all retired and has been transferred overseas and now the Bear class cutters are in the process of being stripped of their MK 75s during refits, and replaced by smaller (albeit currently produced) MK 38 25mm guns. Overseas allies are similarly phasing out the gun.
This brings us to the coda of the Bear-class USCGC Mohawk (WMEC 913) firing her MK 75 for the last time this summer, an event that was held during a gunnery exercise in the Florida Straits. The service said in a press release this week that it was a “significant historical event” as Mohawk was “the last in its class to fire the onboard Mk 75 gun weapon system.”
Coast Guard Cutter Mohawk’s (WMEC 613) Mk 75 weapon system fires, Aug. 16, 2024, during a gunnery exercise in the Florida Straits. Mohawk was the last Famous-class medium endurance cutter to fire the onboard Mk 75 mm gun weapon system as large caliber weapon systems onboard these cutters are being modernized for the service life extension program. (U.S. Coast Guard photo by Ensign Brian Morel)
Perhaps once the mount is phased out for good, the USS Aries Museum, the only preserved U.S. Navy hydrofoil, can pick up one of the old MK 75s to help complete her Cold War profile.
The Kalashnikov pattern AKS-74U (GRAU Index 6P26) rifle was adopted for service by the Soviet military in 1979. A shortened version of the 5.45x39mm AK74, the U stands for “Ukorochenniy,” which is Russian for “shortened” which is logical as it only has an 8.3-inch barrel and 19.36-inch overall length with its stock side folded.
Soviet paratrooper clutching his AKS-74U Krinkov
Of course, the AKS-74U is better known in the West as the Krinkov. Its typically issued in the same vein as the M1 Carbine was in WWII among the U.S. Army: to equip vehicle crews, for use by officers and NCOs, and by light/elite troops such as airborne and special operations units. In all, equipping something like 30-40 percent of the Russian ground forces.
Well, it seems those days are over.
The Kalashnikov Concern JSC announced recently it plans to put the 5.45mm AM-17 compact rifle into mass production in 2025. The rifle’s design, based on the Dragunov MA (yes, as in the same guy behind the SVD rifle) was updated following combat trials in the Ukraine.
The new features include a folding telescopic buttstock, an ambidextrous fire selector switch, a Picatinny rail coupled to the barrel, what looks to be M-LOK slots, and a charging handle that can be installed on either the right or left side.
The same general size of the AKS-7U, the AM-17 is lighter and easier to produce due to the fact that it uses a polymer lower rather than sheet metal, while still allowing a rate of fire of 850 rpm.
Germany’s Heckler & Koch finally dropped a commercially available micro compact 9mm pistol this week, debuting the thoroughly tested HK CC9 onto the market.
The polymer-framed striker-fired “one and a half stack” 9mm offers flush 10+1 and extended 12+1 capacity magazines, is optics-ready (RMSc/407k footprint) with a tritium front sight and a blacked out, serrated rear sight; and is somewhat modular through the use of interchangeable backstraps.
It is almost the exact same size as the SIG P365 (introduced in Jan. 2018), Springfield Armory Hellcat (Aug. 2019), and March 2021’s Ruger MAX-9 and S&W M&P Shield Plus. Then of course there are the more recent Canik Mete MC9, Taurus GX4, Stoeger STR-9MC, et. al, ad nauseum.
However, HK has a big up by saying they held to the same standards as their full-size duty pistols and tested the micro compact to the NATO AC/225 standards across 750,000 rounds. This meant running it in extreme temperatures, dust, sand, and mud, and “being dropped to simulate real-world conditions,” with the latter part seeming like the company was throwing a little shade at some other pistol makers.
So they may have just taken the time to get it right…
Palmetto State Armory on Tuesday signaled the end, at least for now, of its love-hate relationship with rebooting the iconic StG 44.
The South Carolina-based gunmaker announced at SHOT ’23 that its clone would be the first in what they dubbed the “Battlefield” series of historic guns. PSA had enlisted Mac Steil, the “M” of the defunct Hill & Mac Gunworks, a small gunmaker that had been working on an updated semi-auto Sturmgewehr clone for the better part of a decade but never made it to market.
The StG reboot is now vapor ware.
The guns were to be made with modern techniques complete with a threaded barrel, a long stroke piston operating tilting bolt action, an HK style trigger pack, wooden furniture, and the possibility of being chambered in 5.56 NATO, 7.62x39mm, .300 AAC Blackout, or the original 7.92 Kurz– the latter is still in production by Privi Partisan in Europe.
However, that bubble now seems to have popped, as PSA announced this week.
The TL;DR: They couldn’t make it work and the juice apparently wasn’t worth the squeeze.
One of the uncredited gun cameos that got the most screentime in writer-director Quentin Tarantino’s 1994 neo-noir classic is a humble M1911-look-alike 9mm pistol made by Star of Spain.
“Pulp Fiction’s” hitman-turned-newfound-Buddist Jules Winnfield, portrayed by Samuel L. Jackson, begins the film in a classic black suit and ends it in a borrowed T-shirt and shorts while holding on to his customized BMF wallet, Jhericurls, and nickel-plated 9mm Star Model B throughout the film.
Cans have come a long way in terms of popularity just in the past decade. Above, my SiCo Omega 36M modular multi-caliber suppressor on an FN-15.
Data from Federal regulators show that the number of firearm suppressors, often called silencers, is climbing at an incredible rate.
The ATF until 2020, detailed the number of NFA items such as suppressors and short-barreled rifles held on the agency’s National Firearms Registration and Transfer Record in the “Annual Firearms Commerce in the United States” report. In the past, this allowed media outlets like Guns.com to document the steady rise in suppressors in circulation, for instance from 900,000 in 2016 to 1.5 million in 2018.
However, the ATF stopped including the NFRTR numbers in the annual report starting in May 2021, in effect leaving the figures frozen in time at 2,664,774.
This recently changed following a Freedom of Information Act request from the National Shooting Sports Foundation, the trade association for the American firearms industry. The group’s FOIA request uncovered that a whopping 4,857,897 NFA-compliant suppressors were in circulation as of June 2024, a jump of 82 percent from the 2021 figure.
This averages to nearly 60,000 new suppressors added to the NFRTR every month for the past three years.
Alabama-based Kimber has doubled the capacity of its well-liked Micro 1911 platform with a new CDS9 line – and I got a sneak peek.
The 9mm Micro 1911 began to appear in 2016, taking a page from the company’s earlier Micro Covert in .380 ACP. Well-liked, hammer-fired, slim, and with a profile that made easy friends with those looking to EDC without printing, these Micro 9s have been well-reviewed.
However, as single-stacks, they were limited in capacity to six or seven rounds.
That’s where the new CDS9 series enters the game, and changes it.
Rebuilt from the frame up with a more modern design that retains what people liked about the old Micro 9s – slim and compact profile, all-metal, hammer-fired – but with more capacity and better ergonomics, the CDS9 looks very familiar.
Stacking a legacy single-stack Micro 9 against a new CDS9. Still slim and trim but with a seriously upgraded capacity. (All photos: Chris Ege)
Kimber’s new CDS9 will initially be offered in two optics-ready models with fully ambidextrous controls, differing from each other by way of a TFS package – an extended threaded barrel. Both have an aluminum alloy frame, stainless-steel slide with a direct-mount RMSc optic footprint, an accessory rail for lights or lasers, and options for double-stack magazines with 10, 13, or 15-round capacities.
I’ve owned several Kalash over the years, including some Arsenals and Norincos of various stripes, but never really considered myself an AK guy and at several times during my firearms collecting journey voluntarily got out of the AK game altogether – including getting rid of their ammo, parts, and accessories.
On the other hand, at any given time over the past 30 years, I tended to have a safe or two full of AR-pattern rifles as well as the mags and ammo stacked in bulk to support them.
So in 2014, the Century-imported Zastava M85 NP caught my eye. It was cheap (sub-$500) and, as large format pistols generally escape 922 regulations, I knew that it would be more or less complete when it left Zastava’s factory in Serbia rather than be subjected to an infusion of questionable parts here in the U.S.
Taking a closer look at it, there was a lot to like.
The M85 line is based on the old Yugo M70 short rifle, which itself was patterned after the Soviet AKS-74U. It has a 10.25-inch chrome lined cold hammer forged barrel and a 21.5-inch overall length. (All photos here to bottom: Chris Eger)
How about this blast from the past from 40 years ago this month: the first (as far as I can tell) review published in the U.S. on the new Glock pistol from the October 1984 SOF, penned by the esteemed Peter G. Kokalis, one of the most underrated firearm experts of our time. Of note, this came before the gun was even imported.
For reference, the first Glock ad was published in the U.S. in July 1986, from the pages of American Handgunner:
