Tag Archives: NRA 2022

The Coil Accelerator over the mantle…

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While browsing the exhibitors at the NRA Annual Meeting in Houston last month on the lookout for new guns, I saw a glimpse into a potential future of projectile arms with the Coil Accelerator.

The 7-pound CA-09 isn’t a firearm according to current ATF regs, and after a one-hour charge can run single shots, five-round bursts, or full-auto out to a maximum range of about 40 feet, all without that annoying and NFA red tape.

Marketed out of the North Shore Sports Club in Illinois of all places, the CA-09 is in low-rate production. In a nutshell, the makers claim it is the first-ever commercially viable electric-powered Coil Accelerator. The basic overview is that it uses onboard electromagnetic coils– kind of like a rail gun but without a sliding armature– to quietly pull nickel-plated iron disks at an adjustable rate of fire.

It is fed from 50-round magazines and can fire about 700 times on a single charge.

When the tech matures in a couple of years to drop that price and raise that velocity, things could get super interesting, especially when you toss in concepts like 3-D printing and file sharing.

More in my column at Guns.com.

Is an Inexpensive MP5 clone on the Horizon?

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I love MP5s! And there is no shortage of them. For instance, check out this awesome PTR 9CT I saw in Houston last week.

With the old-school “jungle” handguards and three-lug barrel, this thing almost screams, “You son of a…”

The thing is, even that no-frills PTR is $1800.

Well, I stopped by ATI’s booth and talked to Jaime, then he showed me this:

The above 9mm pistol is made by German Sports Guns GmbH, who has long made .22LR lookalikes of the MP5 and a 9mm replica of the “Schmeisser” MP40 so it is nice to see them pull the trigger on this format, and good on ATI for snagging it for import.

I’ll let you know more as I get it.

Colt brings back a Baby Snake

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Colt had a new revolver at NRAAM last weekend. A “King Cobra” Target model that looks and feels a lot like a .38/.357 but is actually a 10-shot 22LR.

The King Cobra Target 22 LR is crafted from forged stainless steel construction with a one-piece barrel topped with an adjustable target rear sight and fiber optic front sight. It comes standard with Hogue overmolded rubber grips and is available with 4-inch and 6-inch barrel lengths, both featuring a 1:16RH twist.

Of course, it could have just been called the Diamondback.

While the current King Cobra series, reincarnated in 2019, hit the market as a 6-Shot .357 Magnum big brother of the new line of Cobra wheel guns, the new King Cobra Target .22LR is a return to the company offering double-action rimfire revolvers. Not the first rimfire “snake” gun– Colt marketed the original circa 1950s first issue Cobra in .22LR and made a .22LR Diamondback into the early 1990s– the new Baby Snake fills a hole the company had in its catalog, and by extension is a first for CZ as well.

This 1985-production Diamondback is a 6-inch .22LR model. Surely, it would have been easier and better for Colt to reboot this name than to call the new model a King Cobra of all things…

MSRP on the new King Cobra Target .22LR models is $999. When compared to other DA/SA rimfire revolvers, this is on par with the S&W 63 and 617.