Tag Archives: shooting

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.

Ukraine Drawdowns Top 200 Million Rounds of Small Arms Ammo

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The Pentagon on Wednesday announced the latest security assistance package for Ukraine provided by the Biden Administration, including a lot more small arms ammunition, which is everything short of 12.7mm (.50 cal).

The latest package, valued at up to $300 million, marks the 37th White House-authorized drawdown from the Department of Defense’s equipment stockpiled for Ukraine since August 2021. Besides additional 155mm tube artillery and shells, assorted anti-armor weapon systems, HIMARS rockets, TOW missiles and mortar rounds, the latest transfer also transfers more “small arms and small arms ammunition” to Ukraine. 

With a total of over $36.4 billion in security assistance to Ukraine since the beginning of the Biden Administration, a fact sheet provided by the Pentagon this week puts the running tally of small arms ammunition at “over” 200 million rounds. This is up from the 150 million rounds listed in a similar tally made public just six weeks ago. 

DOD officials in late November listed the cumulative amount of small arms ammo drawdown for Ukraine as 104 million rounds, a figure that has seemingly doubled in the past six months. 

Besides lots of 7.62 NATO for M240s transferred with light armored vehicles, Ukrainian regulars have increasingly been spotted with 5.56-caliber M4A1 Carbines and M16A4 rifles, complete with Trijicon ACOG optics and M203 40mm under-barrel grenade launchers, so you can bet a lot of the recently transferred stockpiles will be 5.56.

Soldiers of the Ukrainian Army’s 47th OMBr (separate mechanized brigade) “Magura” train with M16A4 rifles. The newly created unit is armed with much U.S.-supplied equipment including repainted M2A2 Bradley vehicles. (Photo: Ukraine Ministry of Defense)

In related news, with over 10,000 Javelin systems transferred to Ukraine, a figure that represents something like 13 years of standard production, this contract just hit DOD’s list yesterday (emphasis mine):

Raytheon/Lockheed Martin Javelin JV, Tucson, Arizona, was awarded a $1,024,355,817 cost-plus-fixed-fee, firm-fixed-price contract for the Javelin Weapon System and associated support equipment. Bids were solicited via the internet with one received. Work locations and funding will be determined with each order, with an estimated completion date of May 2, 2027. U.S. Army Contracting Command, Redstone Arsenal, Alabama, is the contracting activity (W31P4Q-23-D-0014). (Awarded May 3, 2023)

The ceiling on the Javelin contract, running through 2027, is actually $7.2B, with a B, or almost the cost of five new Flight IIA Arleigh Burke-class destroyers.

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.

Some people really like this “mid-sized deer round”

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Designed in 1955 by Winchester as their answer to the vaunted .257 Roberts and .244 Remington, the .243 Winchester is fundamentally a necked down .308 cartridge case topped with a lighter (70-100 grain) bullet. It has since become one of the most popular of rounds for medium game and just about every rifle maker produces multiple offerings in the chambering– the same cannot be said of .244 and .257 today.

However, besides its use for whitetails from thin-barreled budget guns from the big box store, the .243 has a crowd of die-hard users who like it for serious target shooting to 1,000-yards and beyond.

Five-time NRA High Power Long Range National Champion John Widden only uses the .243, preferring a hand-load that hits the sweet spot.

“My .243 Win. shoots inside a 6.5 mm-284 Norma with 142-grainers,” says Widden. “Nothing out there is really ahead of the .243 Win. in 1000-yard ballistics unless you get into the short magnums or .284s—and those carry a very significant recoil penalty … I went to the .243 Win. because it had similar ballistics but had much less recoil. It doesn’t beat me up as much and is not as fatiguing.”

The guys at Long Range Shooters of Utah have an open challenge to those who can peg a milk jug with a precision rifle at extreme distances, and Chad Kinyon just pulled it off.

Rules for the challenge at LRSU are that each shooter has a maximum of 10 shots within 10 minutes and can attempt it three times in 24 hours. The distance is verified by laser rangefinder and GPS and is witnessed and officiated by LSRU.

Kinyon pulled it down on the 6th shot (who doesn’t need correction at 1,200-yards) using a Ruger Precision Rifle topped with an Athlon Argos 6-24 x 50mm scope. The round was a 115gr DTAC going 2963 FPS.

The prize? A sticker and a $100 gift cert.

But it’s a hard sticker to get.

Don’t miss those gun registration windows…

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A Soldier serving overseas while his home state of record updated their regulations on owning certain firearms says he was left inadvertently in violation of the law.

“I recently returned to Connecticut and contacted the state police because I thought there must be some legal provision that allowed a returning veteran to register their weapon and legally exercise their constitutional right,” he told me, when he went to register the AR-15 he bought in the state in 2011, but had been banned in 2014 while he was in Korea.

“I found out that there was no such provision.”

More in my column at Guns.com.

Good news is: there were 11.4 million hunters in 2016. Bad news is: there were 12.5 in 2006

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A report compiled twice per decade by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service shows increases nationally in wildlife watching and fishing, but declines in the number of hunters.

The survey, the 13th conducted by the USFWS since 1955, showed marked increases in the numbers of Americans engaged in observing and photographing wildlife and in fishing when compared to the 2011 data, but over the past decade, the number of hunters has dropped by more than 1 million– even as the general population is on the rise.

More in my column at Guns.com.

End of the line for VEPR?

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A classic Molot VEPR in .308 with the long 22-inch barrel and Counter Sniper Mil-Dot 4-16x44mm optic with illuminated reticle. Now more expensive than ever!

Back in January, I spoke at length with people over at Molot who were working hard on extending their exports of VEPR rifles and shotguns to the U.S. They were hopeful that the new Trump administration would be friendly to lifting some sanctions on Russian-based companies. Russian-made firearms were popular export items to the states until the conflict in the Ukraine and the resulting international backlash triggered a host of official embargos.

Per figures from the International Trade Commission, 204,788 firearms of all kinds were imported from Russia in 2013.

This figure plunged to just 9,556 in 2015 — mainly from Molot, the only large firearms maker not named in sanctions.

Well, it looks like that figure is going to be a lot lower in 2018…

Will Russian AKs and Korean war surplus M1s come ashore post-Trump?

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Some are hopeful the new management in Washington will be able to lift barriers to overseas firearm imports erected over the years, though the going could be slow.

President Donald Trump on Friday said it was “very early” to tell if the United States should lift sanctions on Russia, but that he seeks a “great relationship” with Putin and Russia.

On the campaign trail, Trump’s platform on trade concentrated on American jobs while floating the possibility of a tariff on all imported goods to help ease the current trade deficit. However, the Republican’s position on gun rights promised to curtail federal gun bans and limits. The two concepts, when balanced against one another, leaves open the possibility of action on foreign-made guns currently off-limits to buyers in the U.S.

I talked to industry insiders on both sides of the pond, the ATF, and the International Trade Commission to get the scoop on if bans going back to the 1960s could be reshaped.

More in my column at Guns.com

And you thought Godzilla was bad…

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The “most adaptable animals that you’ll ever find” are running rampant across parts of rural Japan in the wake of the 2011 nuclear catastrophe and strict gun laws aren’t helping.

The Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster, in which a boiling water reactor nuclear power plant largely went Chernobyl after a tsunami knocked it offline has left Japan with a host of problems to include radiation-induced health impacts, some 200,000 displaced locals and possible exposure of groundwater to melted down nuclear fuel for decades to come.

Oh yeah, and the wild hogs.

Wild, radioactive boars? Check! 0.6 guns per every 100 Japanese? Check! (Photo: Kyodo/AP via Outside online)

Thousands of wild, radioactive boars? Check! 0.6 guns per every 100 Japanese? Check! (Photo: Kyodo/AP via Outside online)

More in my column at Guns.com.

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