Category Archives: gun culture

The Spanish 9mm Connection in Pulp Fiction

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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.

The what?

More in my column at Guns.com.

Suppressor Numbers Nearly Double in 3 Years

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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. 

Seems like things are getting quieter. 

Meet Kimber’s New CDS9

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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.

Now that’s a handful

More in my column at Guns.com.

My decade with a funky Krink that takes AR mags

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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)

And I liked it even more after it was SBR’d.

More in my column at Guns.com.

Plastic Perfection at 40

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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:

The Pig Endures! 

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25th Infantry Division PFC Milton L. Cook fires his M60 machine gun spraying a tree line, around the Filhol Plantation near Cu Chi, Republic of Vietnam, January 8, 1967.” (Photo: National Archives 111-CCV-345-CC37981)

The U.S. Army Contracting Command in Newark, New Jersey this week awarded an eight-figure contract to a Nevada firm for the venerable M60 machine gun.

The $14,960,325 firm-fixed-price contract awarded to U.S. Ordnance of Sparks, Nevada covers an unspecified quantity of M60E4 and M60E6 machine guns, along with spare parts, accessories, conversion kits, and training.

The “Echo Four” and “Echo Six” variants, better known as the MK43, shouldn’t be confused with the classic M60 and are much modified from the Vietnam-era 7.62 NATO general purpose machine gun made famous in the third act of “Rambo: First Blood.”

The M60E4/M60E6/MK43 is lighter, shorter, and decked out with accessory and optics rails. Further, the gas system is paired to the bottom of the barrel, meaning a quick barrel change can instantly fix most series of failures. (Photo: U.S. Ordnance)

The M60 – based on a redesign of the German MG42 – originally entered service in 1957 to replace the Great War-era M1917 water-cooled machine gun and the air-cooled M1919.

After becoming iconic in Vietnam and the Cold War, the platform was gradually phased out in favor of the FN-made M240, based on that company’s almost universally acclaimed FN MAG 58 platform. Besides small-scale use in special operations units, the M60 endures in a variety of training roles.

Kicking around the R7CC

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Kimber, best known to many for its assorted 1911 series pistols, introduced the original R7 Mako in August 2021. A striker-fired 11/13+1 shot micro 9 carry pistol with a polymer frame, it was pitched as an alternative to such handguns as the Taurus GX4, Ruger MAX, SIG P365, S&W Shield Plus, and Springfield Armory Hellcat.

Loaded with a lot of features that some of those competitors lacked, the Mako was optics-ready and had Kimber’s Performance Carry trigger, fully ambidextrous controls, a full wrap-around stippled texturing, and TruGlo Tritium Pro night sights.

I put well over 500 rounds through the original Mako, and it proved so accurate, comfortable, and dependable that I carried it for several months as an EDC.

I logged several hundred hours in the original Kimber R7 in 2021 in a ​​​​​DeSantis Slim-Tuk (#137) Kydex IWB holster that is cut on the top to allow the use of the MRD. Carrying in about a 3-o’clock position, my personal preference, the combo was comfortable and readily accessible, able to get off a just under 2-second par time to first shot on target from concealment. I’m sure I could work that lower with steady practice, even being an old wheezy guy.

Last month, Kimber introduced a more muscular version of the Mako, the new Carbon Compact line. Standard features of the new pistols are a pair of 15-shot magazines, an installed flared magwell, fully ambi surface controls, and three-dot TruGlo Tritium Pro night sights with an orange front ring and white rear rings.

The old Kimber R7 Mako, with its short slide and grip, was snappy but accurate and dependable, leading it to become something of an under-loved micro-9 option. The ergonomics of the new R7 Carbon Compact make it probably the best-feeling grip on a polymer-framed handgun on the market. Kimber knocked it out of the park, especially compared to the inaugural Mako variants.

Plus, while some polymer-framed handguns feel spongy – as if you could squeeze it flat if you tried hard enough – the carbon fiber-infused frame on the Carbon Compact feels rock-solid. This leads to the pistol being easy to control and get back on target.

More in my column at Guns.com.

New Walther 6-Pack

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Walther this week is bringing back some vaunted iconic pistol models with a modern twist as well as debuting several new models.

The announcement comes as part of the company’s TEQ (Trigger, Ergonomics, and Quality) Fest, a national event celebrating the brand’s “commitment to performance and engaging customers across the country.” ​The event will highlight a half dozen new handgun models.

The new guns include the compensated PDP PRO-X Parker Mountain Machine; the PDP F-Series PRO which includes an aluminum magwell and Dynamic Performance Trigger; a return of the original Police Pistol (PP) in both .380 and .32 ACP; the very Bond-like PPK/S SD in .32 ACP, which will be the first in the PPK family to ship with factory threaded barrels; the PDP PRO-E, and the WMP SD, which is the only factory threaded-barrel semi-auto .22 Magnum handgun on the market.

More in my column at Guns.com.

There’s a New 10 shot Rimfire Wheel Gun Out There

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Wisconsin-based Henry Repeating Arms this week expanded its line of high-quality double-action revolvers with a new rimfire model.

The Henry Golden Boy Revolver announced on Thursday, shares Henry’s lever-action rimfire aesthetic, featuring a deeply blued steel medium-size frame, genuine American walnut grip panels, and a highly polished brass backstrap and trigger guard. Chambered in .22 rimfire, they accept Short, Long, and Long Rifle cartridges, giving the user a bit of flexibility.

The new wheelguns will be available in both a square “Gunfighter” grip as well as an option for a Birdshead grip, and they sport 4-inch round-profile steel barrels.

More in my column at Guns.com.

An artifact from the Federal AWB Era

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Some 30 years ago this month, on Sept. 13, 1994, H.R.3355, the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994, became public law.

Signed by President Bill Clinton (D), the elephantine 356-page bill was a mash-up of pork, prison, penalties, and programs of the sort commonly crafted on Capitol Hill. Its most contentious section was an amendment by U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) to stop the sale and manufacture of “assault weapons” as defined through an arbitrary process of cosmetic features and the ability to accept a detachable magazine, as well as magazines capable of holding more than 10 rounds.

A silly relic of the 1989 California, and subsequent 1994 AWB below: the bayonet-neutered SKS. For a decade it was legal to sell the otherwise featureless rifle, with its 10-shot internal magazine, so long as the bayonet was dismounted.

You could still buy the bayonet as a curio – usually on the same table as the SKS at the gun show. (Photo: Chris Eger/Guns.com)

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