Tag Archives: new guns

The Gun Glock Should Have Made

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For the neat 30-year span between 1988, when the Glock 19 was introduced, and 2018 when the SIG P365 appeared, the 7.36-inch long, 4-inch barreled, 15+1 shot, 24-ounce unloaded G19 was the magic box of dimensions that every pistol maker chased.

Today, we have the new Springfield Armory Echelon 4.0C, which is 7.25 inches long with a 4-inch barrel, uses 15+1/18+1 magazines, and is 24 ounces, unloaded.

Unlike Glock, the Echelon has a chassis system that can be swapped around multiple grip modules of varying size and color and has a far better and more adaptable optics mounting system than Glock’s MOS plates.

Plus, it’s reliable, has ambi controls, a decent trigger, and much better sights.

The Echelon 4.0C could offer a good multi-purpose pistol for either home defense, especially with a good weapon-mounted light, or carry.

Full review in my column over at Guns.com.

Stop Holding Your Breath on the Palmetto StG 44 Clone

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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.

FN Finally Making the ‘Baby SCAR’ in .300 Blackout

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The SCAR-SC. I mean, will you just look at it? How is this thing not in 150 different movies? (Photo: Chris Eger/Guns.com)

The FN 15P debuted at last year’s SHOT Show as an NFA-compliant ode to the SCAR SC, which is on the no-no list due to the Hughes Amendment (which for the record should be repealed, thanks, Ronnie). The semi-auto 5.56 chambered large format pistol is the smallest SCAR in production, going even shorter, at under 20 inches long, than the 21-to-25-inch SCAR SC.

Now, the pistol-length FN 15P is available in .300 BLK, a caliber that is much more ballistically suited to a platform with a 7.5-inch barrel.

Being fully aware that Blackout shines in suppressed platforms, FN has updated the 15P in .300 to include gas regulator settings for subsonic and supersonic ammunition, a .30-caliber flash hider, and a dedicated 30-round magazine optimized for the stubby cartridge’s geometry. Plus, replacement barrel assemblies are on the menu for those who have the 5.56 variant and want to swap out to the BLK. 

The FN SCAR 15P in .300 will be offered in both a tactical peanut butter (FDE) with black accents as well as good old-fashioned black on black.

More in my column at Guns.com.

The Many Colors of…Celik?

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While wandering around the IWA Outdoor Classic Show in Germany recently, we came across a company making Hi-Power clones and had to find out more.

Celik Arms, located in Beyşehir, Turkey, has been in the gun business since 2005 and makes pistols, rifles, and shotguns, with most of its production headed to the U.S. under a variety of importer’s banners. Odds are, you have probably seen them already and may already have one or two in the gun safe.

One of the company’s newest lines is the FP-14, which is a decent-looking BHP clone in several variants.

They look to be fairly straight-up Mark III-style clones with ambi safety levers, external extractors, and ring-style hammers, but all the models we tested did not have that gun’s dreaded magazine safety.

Further, talking to the reps at the Celik booth, they have just signed a deal with a Nevada-based importer to start shipping the FP-14 to America, so you can be sure to see these in our neck of the woods starting in the next few months.

When FN/Browning closed the O.G. Hi-Power line in 2018, the pang of regret from the gun community was real enough for Springfield Armory, EAA, and SDS Imports to all start rolling their own or having them made in Turkey.

Have we reached max BHP cloneage? Only time will tell, but signs point to “no.”

A Peek at the Creapeiron Elysien Hatchery

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One of the more head-turning debuts I saw at the recent IWA Outdoor Classics show in Germany recently came from a new Czech gunmaker who has a story eight years in the making.

We caught up with inventor and gunmaker Jan Lysak, who spent almost a decade of blood, sweat, and tears crafting something a bit different. Lysak’s company, Brno-based Creapeiron, introduced its first product at IWA: the Elysien pistol.

The Elysien looks very Laugo Alien and CZ75-ish from the get-go, sharing an extremely low bore axis, grip angle, and internal slide rails with those two pistols. Lysak admits the design borrows from the CZ75, a traditional Czech design, but stresses he had his gun under development before the Alien was released.

Like many classic handgun designs, the Elysien uses the so-called geometrical “Golden ratio/Golden section” in length and height to produce an aesthetically pleasing firearm offering a natural point of aim. (All photos: Chris Eger/Guns.com)

Going past the basics, the Elysien uses a hammer-forged heavy barrel with a triangular profile inside a ported slide that allows a better lockup.

Added to this is extensive use of magnets including both in the trigger regulator and screwless grip panels. When it comes to sights and optics, the pistol uses what the company calls the System Miridel, which includes the ability to use custom-made iron sights, a direct mount RMSc footprint MRD on the slide, or a fixed RMR/RMSc platform that stands independent of the slide.

More, including a 10-minute interview with Lysak, in my column at Guns.com.

Backpacking around Europe

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Sorry about the slight disruption in programming lately, especially when it comes to Warship Wednesdays. I’ve been traveling for the past couple of weeks in Europe for work. One of the cooler things I did for a few days was attend the IWA Outdoor Classics in Nuremberg.

Like Europe’s version of SHOT Show, the Internationale Waffen Ausstellung (International Weapons Exhibition), is an annual trade fair held since 1974, making this year the event’s 50th anniversary. In that half-century, over 1 million have attended an IWA show. This year’s event saw more than 40,000 visitors from 120 countries trekking through halls filled with 1,072 exhibitors.

My favorite thing about IWA: I got to catch up with Dan Shea for an hour or so which felt like a minute or so.

I had an extended visit with Czech firearms designer Jan Lysak and got the details and history behind his Creapeiron company, which has spent the past eight years developing the Elysium and System pistols.

Some of the cooler things I saw, including more on the Elysium, after the jump. 

Henry Gunfighter?

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Henry continues to add interesting new pages to its catalog with the new Big Boy series of double-action revolvers, chambered in the profoundly serious .357 Magnum caliber.

The Henry Big Boy .357 revolver came out of nowhere and was likely not on anyone’s bingo card when it was introduced earlier this year. Few companies these days elect to get into the medium-framed .357 Magnum caliber double-action revolver market, and some (looking at you, Colt and Rossi) have even tried to exit that space in recent memory.

Still, Henry is doing a lot of things right with its inaugural wheel gun. It is accurate, has a decent trigger, and borrows enough things from proven legacy designs to seem familiar while having a very “Henry-ness” about it at the same time. You just don’t see lots of brass-accented revolvers in a double-action format, but Henry has pulled it off while still delivering a very solid-feeling and capable handgun to the market.

Chambered in .357 Magnum, the Big Boy also runs the slightly shorter .38 Special and is meant as an easy complement to the company’s popular Big Boy Brass Side Gate rifle in the same caliber. The Side Gate has an octagonal 20-inch blued steel barrel, American walnut furniture, and a polished hardened brass receiver. It has a 10-round capacity via its underbarrel tube magazine and feels like shooting a .22 Magnum.

One use I could see for the Henry Big Boy revolver is as a sidearm for outdoorsmen – particularly bow hunters in states that allow it – headed into the backwoods where interactions with black bears, feral hogs, or hostile bipeds can occur.

I’ve been putting one of these medium-framed wheel guns through its paces for the past few months and have a full breakdown of this new gem in Henry’s crown over in my column at Guns.com.

500 Rounds with the Reflex (x2)

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FN over the past few years has been trying to shrink down its 9mm carry offerings as an answer to market demands sparked by guns like the SIG P365 and Springfield Armory Hellcat. While the 6+1-shot FN 503 was small and dependable, people seem to have that double-stack micro 9 itch and, to scratch it, FN has debuted the Reflex.

With a 3.3-inch barrel that gives it a 6.2-inch overall length, the FN Reflex falls into the increasingly familiar micro 9 subcompact category blazed by some rivals in the past few years. (All Photos: Chris Eger/Guns.com)

Hitting the scales at just 18.4 ounces right out of the box, it runs a flush-fit 11+1 round mag with a pinky extension for better grip support and ships with an extended 15+1 round mag.

FN sent me a pair of the guns– one a plain black standard model, the second an optics-ready MRD in FDE– and I’ve put 500 rounds through each.

More in my column at Guns.com.

The revolver is dead, right?

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Just 20 years ago, revolvers were dead. Colt and Dan Wesson had stopped making revolvers altogether. Taurus had just bought Rossi and was closing their revolver lines. Smith was trimming down their wheelgun offerings as was Ruger. Anyone forecasting what was to come would have surely pegged the downward spiral as one that would continue.

Well, a funny thing happened. Turned out, folks liked revolvers.

Colt is back making more than ever before. So is Smith. Two of Ruger’s top-selling product lines are the Wrangler .22 and the LCR, announced in 2017 and 2009, respectively. The biggest splash at SHOT Show 2016 was that Kimber was making revolvers. Rossi came back to the wheelgun world at this past SHOT Show.

Now, Henry, who has been a stalwart rifle and shotgun maker since they were re-booted in 1996, is making a .357 magnum revolver– and you know that I had to get one to try out.

The Big Boy is very S&W K-frame but with a brass backstrap/trigger guard.

A six-shot double-action/single-action medium-frame six-shooter, the Big Boy revolver is meant as a complementary wheel gun to the company’s popular Big Boy Brass Side Gate rifle, which carries an octagonal 20-inch blued steel barrel, American walnut furniture, and a polished hardened brass receiver. Likewise offered in .357/.38, it has a 10-round capacity via its underbarrel tube magazine.

More on what I have found out about the Big Boy in my column at Guns.com.

Hammer-Fired Micro 9: First Looks at the New FN Reflex

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Setting itself apart from the rest of the itty bitty 9mm double-stack pack, FN’s new Reflex 9mm is a hammer-fired micro-compact with a great trigger.

Debuted just before the NRA’s Annual Meetings in April, I’ve been taking a closer look at the Reflex series as part of an extended test and evaluation that will push this little palm-sized parabellum past the 2,000-round mark.

The Reflex ships in a cardboard box with a plastic tray and comes with two magazines. For most states, this means a 15+1 round extended mag and a flush-fit 11+1 round mag with a pinky extension for better grip support. (All photos: Chris Eger)

The unloaded weight is 18.4 ounces with an empty mag. We found the Reflex in its most svelte form, with 12 rounds of Federal’s Punch JHP 124-grain self-defense loads and no optic, to hit the scales at 23.4 ounces. Shown with a DeSantis Inside Heat which, although made for the single stack FN 503, fits it like a glove.

More in my column at Guns.com.

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