Category Archives: gun culture

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)

Ruger in the 10mm Carbine Game?

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Further fleshing out its line of pistol caliber blowback-action LC Carbines that accept common handgun magazines, Ruger has gone 10mm.

The company introduced its current fourth-generation centerfire PCC platform in 2022 as a rifle variant of the Ruger 57 pistol in 5.7×28, then added a .45 ACP companion earlier this year at SHOT Show. Now, the news has come that the LC Carbine will be offered in the resurgent 10mm Auto chambering. Best yet, it accepts standard Glock-pattern double-stack 10mm magazines – even legacy 3rd Gen models.

Shown with a flush 15+1 and with a 30-round extended

The bad news is that the Ruger LC Carbine in 10mm has an MSRP of $1,049, which, while just $40 more than its .45 and 5.7mm brothers in the same family, is still kind of spendy for a PCC.

Still, there aren’t a lot of 10mm carbines out there, with the Ruger falling squarely between the $400-ish Hi-Point 1095 and the super Gucci $1,400 KRISS CRB – which probably gives the new offering a wide open market for those who wish to run the “centimeter” in a full-length barrel.

The worst kind of firewood

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These recent images via the Botswana Police Service, show stands of impounded and surrendered rifles and shotguns given the hard goodbye.

Sure lots of these look to be Chinese pellet rifles, cottage industry-made smokepoles, and cobbled together “Dane Guns” but on closer look, you can see plenty of old Martini-Henrys, Enfields, and boxlocks. There are likely a few Rigbys, big game Mausers, and Holland & Hollands there as well.

A pity.

The Most Affordable 5.7 Carbine?

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Florida and Wyoming-based KelTec late last week debuted the latest caliber offering in the company’s extremely popular SUB2000 carbine series.

Introduced in 2001 with a host of different common magazine well choices, the SUB2000’s biggest claim to fame is that it folds neatly in half for storage. Evolving into a second and currently third generation since then, the pistol-caliber carbine had previously been offered in 9mm or .40 S&W. Well, until now, at least.

The newest SUB2000 runs FN’s 5.7x28mm and uses common 20 and 30-round FN Five-seveN pattern magazines. It can also accept 55-round drums. Running from a blowback action, standard features include integrated M-LOK and Picatinny rails for accessories and optics. It is also threaded (1/2×28 TPI) for easy suppressor use.

When speaking to that asking price, the new SUB2000 with its $500 ask easily beats everything else in the semi-auto 5.7 carbine space, coming in cheaper than the CMMG Resolute and MK4, FN’s PS90, Ruger’s LC Carbine, and even KelTec’s own R50.

More in my column at Guns.com.

Battle Rifle Recce

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Phuoc Tuy Province, Republic of Vietnam, 1970. Sergeant John (Jack) Gebhardt of 1 Sqn Special Air Service Regiment (SASR) of Mount Yokine, Western Australia, points to direct while on patrol. “The Special Air Services (SAS) men creep through the jungle to spy on the enemy to provide raw intelligence for the Australian Task Force Commander to act upon.”

Photo by John Geoffrey Fairley, AWM FAI/70/0312/VN

SGT Gebhardt is armed with a well-camouflaged L1A1 SLR, a semi-auto-only “inch pattern” development of the Belgian FN FAL, which was the standard rifle of the Australian (and British) Army from 1960 to 1992, sandwiched in Ozzie service between the No. 1 Mk III Enfield and the F88 AuSteyr.

The new L1A1 Self-Loading Rifle is being examined by “Pig Iron Bob,” Prime Minster Robert Menzies, 1962. Made at Lithgow, the SLR replaced not only the Enfield bolt guns in .303 but also stocks of Owen and STEN 9mm SMGs left over from WWII and American M1/M2 .30 caliber carbines left over from Korea. Some 175,000 were made.

One particularly curious use of the L1A1 by Australian SAS in Vietnam to break contact while on a recce was the “Slaughtermatic” (AKA, “Beast” or “Bitch”) a field mod SLR tweaked to run full-auto with L2A1 parts and shortened via the removal of handguards and given a chopped barrel. To keep it running, 30-round L2A1 mags were likewise acquired. 

Such a modded L1A1 is seen in the two circa 1971 2SASR images, below left, along with M16s equipped with experimental Colt CGL-4/XM148 40mm grenade launchers and lots of grenades.

Nui Dat, SAS Hill, South Vietnam. 1971-04-08. Members of No.25 patrol, ‘F’ troop, 2 Squadron, Special Air Service (SAS), at Nadzab LZ (landing zone) after returning from their second patrol. The patrol of nine days was from 1971-03-30 to 1971-04-08. Left to right, back row: Corporal Ian Rasmussen, second-in-command; trooper (tpr) Don Barnby, signaller; Tpr Dennis Bird, scout; Second Lieutenant Brian Russell, patrol commander. Front row: TPR Bill Nisbett, rifleman; John Deakin, United States Navy (USN-SEAL). AWM P00966.084

“Special Air Service” by Kevin Lyles • (Patrol member, 3 Sqn SASR, 1969 • Patrol member, 2 Sqn SASR, 1971 • Corporal, 2 Sqn SASR, 1971 • Patrol member, 2 Sqn SASR, 1971)-

Sadly, while most of the Australian Enfields were sold on the commercial market in the 1990s when the L1A1 passed into reserve use and are popular with collectors, with a reputation for being meticulously maintained, it was later decided by the disarmament-minded Ozzie government post-1996 to dispose of almost all of their inventory of SLRs and parts via outright destruction (“110,000 rifles melted down at BHP, Australia’s largest steel producer”) or being tossed into the sea.

Did the SIG Fuse fizzle?

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The Fuse, SIG Sauer’s newest P365 gets its name, says the company, as it is the “fusion of capability and concealment.” This is due to still being carry-sized while featuring all the goodies one could want, including a removable magwell, nickel-plated flat-faced trigger, LXG grip module with interchangeable backstraps, optics-ready (RMSc footprint) slide, easily co-witnessing iron sights, and extended 21-round magazines.

All this for well under $800.

I put 1,000 rounds through one in the past couple of months.

Full review in my column at Guns.com.

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