Tag Archives: shot show 2023

Just Ruger giving the folks what they want

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Bill Ruger, for all his faults, wasn’t stupid. He started his company from his garage in the late 1940s by making a simple and affordable .22LR pistol. Fast forward almost 75 years later, and the publicly-traded giant that has a $130 million cash reserve even after buying Marlin is still playing the classics.

In 2019, their simple and affordable .22LR single-action revolver, dubbed the Wrangler, was launched and, at a $269 entry point, has been extremely successful. Now for 2023, they have expanded it to include a “Sheriff” version which is chopped down from a 4.62-inch barrel to a 3.75-inch format, and have gone even longer with 6.5- and 7.5-inchers.

Overall length is 13 inches on the Ruger Wrangler with the 7.5-inch barrel, seen at the top, compared to 8.62 inches on 3.75-inch barreled “Birdshead” Wranglers, 10.25 inches on standard-sized models with 4.62-inch barrels, and 12 inches on 6.5-inch models. (Photo: Ruger)

The new long-format guns mimic the old Ruger Single-Six Buntlines, which have been in and out of production with 9.5-inch barrels, and the New Model Single-Six, which has a 6.5-inch barrel – but costs much more than any Wrangler.

The Ruger New Model Single-Six, with a 6.5-inch barreled offering, is a much nicer .22 but costs about twice as much as a Wrangler, when you can find them.

The price is still $269, asking, which translates to $199 at the gun counter.

Bill Ruger would recognize the game.

Savage Goes Big…on 1911s?

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Firearms icon Savage Arms is expanding its new pistol line with a full dozen new 1911 offerings including rail guns.

Announced this week on the countdown to SHOT Show 2023, the new Savage 1911 line will be available in both 9mm and .45 calibers, three assorted color options– black Melonite, stainless, and two-tone– and either a standard or railed frame.

Nice to see more rail gun 1911s on the market…

Across the line, the Savage 1911s all use a forged stainless steel frame and slide, adjustable Novak Lo-Mount sights, Nitride-coated titanium firing pins, ambidextrous slide lock/safety levers, and a host of other features. All are full-sized, single-action Government-style pistols with 5-inch barrels and VZ G10 grip panels.

Between the three color options, two caliber choices, and the option for either a standard or railed frame, Savage will have a full dozen different 1911s to choose from. (Photo: Savage)

I’m gonna have to check these out at SHOT…

Eagerly Anticipated, Indeed

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A few years ago, I did a “Select Fire” factory tour over at FN’s South Carolina plant, which was cool, but I stumbled across something in their showroom that was even cooler– the just-released FN SCAR SC.

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

Designed for mobility and flexibility while still using the SCAR format, the downsized SC (subcompact) model runs just a 7.5-inch barrel for an overall length of 21-to-25 inches depending on how far you extend the collapsible stock. Select fire with a 550-650 rounds per minute cyclic rate in 5.56 NATO, it still uses a short-stroke gas piston system with a rotating locking bolt and was created with special operation types in mind, specifically adapted for security missions.

Sadly, it isn’t commercially viable due outside of military channels due to that whole NFA and Hughes Act thing, both of which should be repealed (just saying).

The FN SCAR SC is just pure awesome, and always gets lots of attention at the company’s booth during industry shows. (Photo: Chris Eger/Guns.com)

Anyway, we asked FN back in 2019 why they didn’t just deliver a semi-auto-only stock-less variant of the SCAR SC to the hungry masses as a large format pistol and kept asking that question every time we ran into them. The answer? A sort of a smile and a shrug, saying, in effect, “we can neither confirm nor deny such a thing may be on the drawing board.”

Well, it turns out that it was.

Meet the new FN SCAR 15P, a semi-auto-only stock-less variant of the SCAR SC:

And in the release for the gun, FN included this, which I am not saying is a personal ha-ha to me, but feels like a personal ha-ha to me, emphasis mine:

“This long-anticipated release carries the DNA of SCAR throughout from its short-stroke gas piston operating system, NRCH capabilities, cold hammer-forged and chrome-lined barrel, and so much more. We’re happy to deliver the FN SCAR 15P to our consumers who have eagerly anticipated this release.”

Anyway, more on FN’s new large-format pistol is in my column at Guns.com.

Sig Sauer Has 2 New (but very different) M400 Rifles

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The New Hampshire-based small arms giant has turned its eyes to its direct impingement 5.56 NATO AR-15 beanstalk and shook out a pair of new M400 series rifles. This gives us the new M400 Tread Predator 2.0 and M400 SDI X-SERIES.

M400 Tread Predator 2.0, top, and M400 SDI X-SERIES, bottom

The M400 Tread Predator 2.0, as the name would imply, is the second generation of the M400 Tread Predator hunting carbine that now has the same flat-blade 2-stage trigger as seen on the new SDI X-SERIES rifle, and a Magpul Lite PRS stock. It also comes with a kind of eye-catching Cerakote Jungle coating. As it doesn’t have a flash hider and runs a 5-round mag, odds are it can probably be sold in at least some states that frown on “black rifles.”

Meanwhile, If the “X-SERIES” sound familiar, Sig uses that name for its optimized P320 pistols that include lightening cuts and high-speed features. To live up to that, the M400 SDI X-SERIES includes a flat-blade 2-stage trigger, lightened receivers, and a 16-inch 1:7 barrel.

Anywho, more in my column over at Guns.com.

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