Tag Archives: Rifle

30 million + ‘Black Rifles’ in Circulation

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Back in 1986, the Colt AR-15A2 HBAR was where its at…

Recent firearms industry production numbers point to modern semi-auto sporting rifles, such as AR-15s and AK variants, as being extremely popular with consumers.

The figures, updated via the recent ATF Annual Firearms Manufacturing and Exportation Report– which includes data on guns made and imported in 2022– combined with past reports by federal regulators, show some 30,711,000 such rifles entering the market since 1990 and 2022.

The data, compiled by the National Shooting Sports Foundation, the trade organization for the American firearms industry, details the rise in demand and production of “black rifles” over 32 years. 

In 1990, with such guns tightly regulated by the federal “assault weapon” ban, just 74,000 were produced or imported– and those had to be made compliant via featureless stocks and 10-round magazines.

By 1994, when the ban had expired, those figures had climbed to 274,000.

They approached 500,000 in 2007 and hit 1 million in 2009– a span covering the campaign of President Obama for the White House and his first year in office.

In 2013 it hit over 2 million.

In 2021, 3.7 million. 

That’s per year, btw.

Figures don’t even count…

Detachable magazine semi-auto rifles have been a go-to for Americans for generations.

Remember that these figures don’t include privately made firearms crafted from 80 percent AR lowers or AK/G3 receiver flats, or guns that entered the marketplace before 1990.

While black rifles were not as common as they are today, Colt produced SP-1 sporter-style ARs going back to the mid-1960s, the Ruger Mini-14 entered the market in 1973, and the Springfield Armory M1A in 1974.

“If you’re a hunter, camper, or collector, you’ll want the AR-15 Sporter,” reads the circa-1963 ad copy. By 1969, something like 15,000 SP1s had been made.

Plus you have more than 250,000 M-1 Carbines that were sold as surplus through the Director of Civilian Marksmanship program during the 1960s along with warehouses of clones made specifically for consumers by companies like Universal (426,000 made), Iver Johnson (96,700 made) and Plainfield (112,000 made). 

These things were sold by the hundreds of thousands in the 1960s-80s

The Two Coolest New (Old) Rifles at SHOT Show

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Just got home after a week of SHOT Show antics and events and thought I would share my two favorite rifle stories from the event.

First, S&T Motiv Co. (formerly known as Daewoo Precision Industries) is operating in the U.S. and is importing 922-compliant rifles to include the K2S which will include a variety of OEM K2 parts and approximates the old Max I/II.

Compare to the old days:

Second, Palmetto and DSA are teaming up to craft an H&R-made T48.

As you may recall and we have covered in the past, the FAL gave the M14 a bit of competition in the early 1950s with (naturally) the Army’s Springfield Armory developed M14 getting the nod.

T48, Rifle, Caliber .30, T48 – with Gunner – Off-Hand Firing May 1955

H&R, a brand now owned by PSA and run by Mike of NoDak Spud fame, has one of the old T48s in their possession and is reverse engineering it for a limited run.

As a gun nerd, I’m super excited about both of these.

Springfield Armory Enters the Retro Carry Handle Space

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Back in 1986, the Colt AR-15A2 HBAR was where its at…

Back 20-25 years ago, fixed carry handle A2 style ARs with a 20-inch barrel were about the only thing you could find on the black rifle market, and even those were typically neutered by the Federal AWB (which ran 1994-2004) so that they didn’t have such evil features as a bayonet lug and shipped with 10-round mags. Still, they were good enough for DCM/CMP matches.

These days, with the M4 being the standard post-9/11, rifle-length fixed carry handle ARs are hard to find and only a few niche sources exist to get one– Bushmaster, Fulton, and H&R (the latter sold through PSA)– with prices starting at $1,299, and they are frequently sold out.

Talk about not being in Kansas anymore…

So, interestingly enough, Springfield Armory just introduced a very nicely done homage to the M16A2 in the form of the SA-16A2, which includes all the correct throwback features (forged 7075 T6 aluminum receivers, a 20-inch 1:7 twist government profile chrome lined barrel, round handguards with heat shields, a full-length fixed stock with rear compartment, a fixed A2 carry handle with adjustable/dual aperture sight, A2 F-height front sight post/gas block, rifle length gas system, a full-auto profile BCG with a phosphate exterior with a hard chrome-lined interior, mil-spec trigger, and a hollow GI grip) you expect.

The SA-16A2. (Photo: Chris Eger/Guns.com)

The SA-16A2 has some upgrades to enhance performance that the 1980s M16A2 never did, including an Accu-Tite tensioning system to cut down on the slop between the upper and lower receivers and M4 feed ramps.

The lower receiver features “Government Property” rollmarks as well as a non-functional “Burst” selector marking in an ode to the M16A2. (Photo: Chris Eger/Guns.com)

A full look in my column at Guns.com.

Steyr, Now Czech Owned

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Legendary Austrian firearms maker Steyr Arms has been purchased by the Czech Republic-based RSBC Investment Group.

RSBC, with its corporate headquarters in Prague, has been in the small arms business for almost a decade, having previously acquired Slovenian gunmaker AREX Defense in 2017. The group announced last week that it had assumed a 100-percent stake in Steyr from the German-based SMH Holding group.

Steyr, between its Austrian operation and Steyr USA subsidiary, employs over 200 and includes the legacy Mannlicher brand. It dates to at least 1864 when it was founded by gunmakers Josef and Franz Werndl.

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The Werndls had fast success in their innovative 11mm M1867 Werndl–Holub breechloading rifle, of which some 600,000 were ordered by the Austrian military and police. Changing the company’s name to OWG (Osterreichische Waffenfabriksgesellschaft = Austrian arms factory company), it followed up with Ferdinand Mannlicher’s bolt-action magazine-fed rifle platform in 1886, of which over 3 million were built before 1918.

And who can forget the Steyr 1912?

Remaining foremost a firearms company, it branched out over the years into bicycles, trucks, and automobiles and evolved first into Steyr-Werke AG in 1924 and then to Steyr-Daimler-Puch in 1934.

Following World War II, Steyr made the FN FAL under license for the Austrian military as the StG58, then found international success with the SSG precision rifle and MPi 69/81 submachine gun.

The Austrian Bundesheer’s MG 74 is an MG42/59 variant licensed from Beretta and manufactured by Steyr Mannlicher used since 1974

In 1977, Steyr introduced the revolutionary AUG bullpup rifle, adopted by the Austrian military as the StG 77, followed by the pioneering GB and M series pistols, and the Steyr Scout bolt-action rifle.

A Royal Oman Army soldier with an Austrian-made Steyr AUG, standard issue not only in Austria and Oman but also in Australia Bolivia, Ecuador, Ireland, Luxembourg, Malaysia, New Zealand, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, and Pakistan

By 1989, with the breakup of the Steyr-Daimler-Puch conglomerate, the firearms and air gun business spun off into the firm of Steyr Mannlicher before morphing into Steyr Arms in 2019. It was purchased by SMH Holding in 2007.

RSBC plans to fold Steyr and AREX into a division headed by current AREX CEO, Tim Castagne, to “enable both companies to offer an all-encompassing portfolio in the future.”

Sig’s CROSS gains weight for PRS

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Sig’s newest addition to its CROSS bolt-action precision rifle family picks up some weight to clock in on the PRS circuit. 

On the rifle range at Sig’s Freedom Days event at the Ben Avery Shooting Center outside of Phoenix last week was an interesting new CROSS model that only went “live” with Sig on Thursday.  

The new PRS model rifle differs from the standard CROSS as it has a bull barrel, a redesigned stainless steel buttstock, a straighter pistol grip, and a full-length steel Arca rail on the bottom for bipod and tripod action. This takes the rifle up to 14.5-pounds, which is quite a weight gain from the CROSS’s typical 6.5-pound range, but the original series is meant for hunting and tactical use in the field whereas the new CROSS PRS is more for Precision Rifle Series matches where extra heft isn’t a bad thing– so long as it helps with accuracy. 

Even at 14.5 pounds and fitted with a can and some decent glass, the CROSS PRS has a good balance to it. (Photo: Chris Eger/Guns.com)

More in my column at Guns.com.

Keeping Maggie in shape

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A simple step that is often missed in the act of care and maintaining semi-automatic firearms, such as the AR-15, is to spend a minute keeping the magazines up to snuff. With that in mind, I put together a quick and dirty guide to cleaning both the most common polymer (Magpul PMAG) and aluminum (STANAG) mags along with some tips and tricks.

More in my column at Guns.com.

Guns of the U.S. Army, 1775-2020

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While you may know of today’s standard U.S. Army infantry rifles, and those of the 20th Century, how about those present at Lexington and Concord or the line of Springfield muskets from 1795 through 1865? What came after?

For all this and more, check out the easy 2,000-word primer I did for this last weekend at Guns.com.

Colt: Back on the Consumer AR Market

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While Remington has quietly ditched traditional black rifle brands Bushmaster and DPMS in the past several months– perhaps in a bid to get bought by the Navajo Nation — Colt exited the AR market late last year, much to the applause of anti-gun groups and politicians.

However, I spoke to Colt at the time and they made clear the departure was only temporary, due to having landed a multi-million FMS contract for overseas allies.

With that being said, Colt says they are now back to the business of shipping ARs for the consumer market again. Everything old is new again, it would appear.

Colt first began marketing the semi-auto AR-15 Sporter to consumers in 1963 and continued to sell the SP-1 (R6000) series with few changes until 1984, since moving on to other AR-style rifles.

More in my column at Guns.com.

Welcome (back), M16A4

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The humble original M16 was originally Armalite’s AR-15, and was first ordered for military service with a contract issued to Colt Firearms in May 1962 for the purchase of early Model 01 rifles to be used by Air Force Security Police.

Note, these guns had waffle-pattern 20-round mags, no forward assist, a thin 1:14 twist barrel, and the early three-prong flash hider.

Fast forward to the XM16E1, which became the M16A1 in 1967, and you started to come closer to the standard Army/Marine rifle used in Vietnam and throughout the 1970s and early 1980s. It used a forward assist and a 1:12 twist barrel.

By 1983, the M16A2 came about, it had a thicker barrel in front of the front sight, a modified flash suppressor (closed on bottom), a new polymer buttstock (lighter and stronger), faster barrel twist (from 1:12 to 1:7), and a spent case deflector for left-hand users. Considered downright vintage by the Army and Marines, the Navy still sports them these days.

M16A2- check
M9 in drop leg holster- check
Body armor- um, about that……

By 1998, the M16A4 was in play, primarily for the Marines, which had a removable carry handle, a Picatinny top rail to allow for optics, short rails on the handguard for accessories, and a 20-inch barrel with a 1:7 RH twist rate.

Note the size difference between the compact M4 Carbine, top, and the full-length M16A4 rifle, bottom. (Photos: Department of Defense)

Since the GWOT kicked off in 2002, the big shift over the years has been to move from the full-length M16 family to the more compact M4/M4A1 carbine, with its collapsible rear stock and stubby 14-inch barrel, leaving the increasingly old-school style rifle as something of a relic today. Heck, the Army for the past couple years has been very actively working on replacing their 5.56 NATO rifles and SAWs with a new 6.8mm weapon. 

Now jump to 2020, and the M16A4 is now apparently the Army’s designated rifle for Foreign Military Sales to equip overseas allies in places like Afghanistan, Iraq, Lebanon, and Nepal.

Colt and FN are competing in a contract to supply as much as $383 million smackers worth of M16A4s by 2025.

More in my column at Guns.com. 

European rifle makers resurgent

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One of the interesting things I came across in my travels around SHOT Show last month was that some classic Central European arms makers are still in the business of making classic European arms.

Over at Mauser’s booth, besides offerings in their classic M98 line for $10K+ safari rifles (!) there was the new M18, a $699 bolt-action billed as the “People’s rifle” (Volkswaffe) or “People’s repeater” (Volksrepetierer) by the German rifle maker. It’s a pretty sweet design, complete with a detachable mag, hidden cleaning kit in the butt (hey, it’s a Mauser) and a wide offering of calibers.

More about that over in my column at Guns.com

As for Steyr, which of course continues to market modern polymer framed pistols, precision rifles to include the giant HS-50 and their iconic AUG line of bullpups, they are bringing back the Zephyr. Now I had a chance to get my hands on a Zephyr .22 that belonged to my great-uncle as a kid and absolutely loved it. The reboot includes a traditional Bavarian cheek piece and fish scale checkering on a walnut stock, and an action so smooth it will make you cry.

More on that after the jump.

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