Tag Archives: shot show

Shark in the Water

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I thought this was one of the nicest guns at SHOT last week.

Beretta came to Las Vegas with something that any Selachimorphaphile, single-action handgun purist, model 92 fan, or budding USPSA competitor is sure to find of interest: the 92XI Squalo.

The Squalo – “shark” in Italian – earned its name, says Beretta, due to the “sleek and formidable nature” of the animal and its namesake 9mm pistol’s inclination to “stand out in a sea of competition.”

Optics-ready with a Vertec-style frame and DLC-coated trigger internals, it has a single-action-only trigger with a manual frame-mounted safety lever. A gray overall finish and custom Hogue G10 grip panels help pull off the moniker.

It comes standard with a Toni Systems flared magwell and has superb texture on the grip, akin to that of a shark’s skin, one could say.

Meanwhile, at the show itself, Beretta had an example decked out with gold accents and a comp, the latter giving it a very “Professional” kind of vibe

I think I need one.

H&R is delivering when it comes to throwback ARs

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The reformed Harrington & Richardson Arms, now with a very NoDakSpud flavor, is chugging right along to bring black rifle collectors all the things.

As I covered last year from SHOT ’23, the modern H&R with NoDakSpud founder Mike Wetteland as CEO is back and ready to make some extremely sweet guns that just ooze old-school cool.

Growing from three throwback models last year– a basic M16A1 clone, the H&R 635 9mm, and H&R 723 carbine– the company has in the meantime added a gray or black XM16E1 complete with triangular handguards and 3-prong flash hider with options for either a trap or no-trap stock, an A2 rifle with a 20-inch barrel and round handguards, an A2 pencil profile carbine with a CAR stock, an XM177E2 clone, and an Air Force 604 model with a 1:12 twist barrel– and they are only getting warmed up.

I stopped by the booth at SHOT ’24 last week and spent some quality time with Wetteland where he gave us the rundown on the entire current and planned (possible) future H&R collection.

It includes:

An “Aberdeen Brown” maple wood stock A1 variant, which is man cave-worthy. These will be available within the next month both as complete rifles and furniture sets. There will also be a distressed walnut version.

Reminiscent of the early 1980s DMRs, check out this resto-mod flat top. Wetteland says this is inbound shortly, scope not included, and advised to ignore the RRA mount.

An early 1990s Delta-style JSOC tube gun, Wetteland said this is a throwback to the days before the arrival of the quad rail mafia and was an armorer-level hack that high-speed guys did to allow them to mount lights and lasers. He stressed that, while H&R may not make this as an all-up gun, uppers, and parts are likely to be made to allow home builders and collectors to steal this look.

And this…

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

Want to know the coolest thing I saw at SHOT Show?

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Probably the coolest story coming out of SHOT Show involves one of the largest state-owned firearms plants in the world spooling up to send pallets of iconic guns to anxious consumers in the U.S.
 
PT Pindad (Persero) dates to 1808 and since 1950 has been the primary domestic arsenal for the Indonesian military. Back in the mid-1960s, with the Pacific Rim country’s shift to embrace the West, Pindad began to acquire a series of licenses to make firearms locally in Java. These included two from Beretta to manufacture the PM12 9mm submachine gun and the BM-59 battle rifle in 7.62 NATO. In 1984, Pindad secured the same sort of technical package and license to produce the FN FNC 5.56 rifle. Of note, Indonesia was the first country to adopt the FNC, even before Sweden and Belgium. 
 
Now, commercial variants are headed to American shores. 

 
I interviewed Pindad reps, along with their importer, Nevada-based Terratek USA, at the SHOT Show last week to get the details. Terratek, a Type 08 FFL, has signed an MOU with Pindad for joint marketing, manufacturing, and assembly of Pindad’s products in the U.S.
 
“We hope to leverage Pindad’s long history and expertise in this industry to create jobs and diversify the economic footprint in the Las Vegas Valley,” said James Ferguson, General Manager of Terratek USA. “What Pindad brings to the table extends beyond the defense industry as their portfolio spans across heavy machinery manufacturing, electronics, and a plethora of commercial applications.”

Kate Ferguson, Director of Terratek USA, Samuel with Pindad with a PM-1 9mm, Yayat Ruyat (VP of Marketing, Sales, Business Development) with a PM-3 9mm, and Tom Saras with Pindad with an SS1-C. (Photo: Chris Eger/Guns.com)

More in my column at Guns.com.

A Tale Told in 8 SHOT Shows

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For the record, this was not a factory option from Hudson (Photos: Chris Eger)

I was on the scene when the H9 had its first debut back at SHOT ’17 as well for the introduction of the updated H9A the following year. Sadly, I also covered the pistol’s demise along with its parent company in early 2019 – a short but spectacular run. This downfall came immediately after Hudson failed to appear at SHOT that year.
 
Shortly after came a federal bankruptcy sale, with several Billie Hudson’s patents acquired by Daniel Defense, followed by market research pointing at the Georgia-based black rifle maker seriously looking to reboot the pistol.

Fast-forward to SHOT ’24, and the new Daniel Defense H9 has made its return to the market.

More in my column at Guns.com.

If you want a cheap MP5 clone, they keep getting cheaper…

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The Cold War-themed Tennessee-based subsidiary of SDS Imports has gone MP5 and plans to hit the market with two very affordable 9mm roller locks.

“While we take our inspiration from the days of caterpillar mustaches, Thomas Magnum and Sonny Crockett, our contemporary products represent the cutting edge of technology in design and manufacturing for government and commercial clients,” notes MAC as part of its company ethos.

And what could be more 1980s cool guy vibe than an MP5, right? 

The new MAC-5 series are both 9mm pistols that use a very well-known style of roller-locked blowback actions and are compatible with HK and most other aftermarket products designed for MP5 variants. Both models have a 1/2x28TPI muzzle thread under a tri-lug, adjustable rear sights, use a paddle-style mag release, and sport a SEF pattern trigger with a 4.25-pound pull. They are HK claw mount compatible and have button-rifled barrels with fluted chambers.

The series introduction includes two models, the short MAC-5 and the shorter MAC-5K.

The Military Armament Corporation MAC-5 is 17.9 inches long with an 8.9-inch barrel and is 5.5 pounds unloaded. (Photos: MAC)

Meanwhile, the MAC-5K is 13.7 inches overall with a 5.8-inch barrel and weighs 4.6 pounds.

While it is not clear who the manufacturer of these semi-auto MP5 clones is, MAC says they are “Built on modern tooling based on original HK specs and decades of expertise,” which would seem to point to MKE in Turkey, who has been in the MP5 biz for generations. That would track as SDS gets most of their other stuff (Tisas, etc) from Turkey.

Similarly, Century has been importing its AP5 line from MKE as of late while Virginia-based Zenith had long been an importer for MKE before striking out to make guns domestically.

The MAC-5 Series pistols have an MSRP of $1,099– which could be lower at dealers– and ship with a premium case, sling, two 30-round magazines, cleaning kit, tri-lug flash-hider, trigger lock, and instruction manual. That undercuts all but the most fire-sale sub-MAP AP5s, is roughly half the ask of an American-made PTR-9, and is about a third the price of a German-made HK SP5.

I’ll bring you more on these from this year’s SHOT Show.

In 1972, a crack commando unit was sent to prison…

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The 1980s-1990s stainless Mini-14 GB-F is an enduring work of beauty that hails from an age of VHS tapes and when MTV played music. (Photo: Chris Eger)

The original .223 caliber Ruger Mini-14 “180” series as debuted in 1974 had all-wood furniture – even atop the handguard – and was only sold to the public with five-shot magazines.

A few years later, it was offered with 20-round mags, the option for a factory folding stock, and a select-fire variant (the AC556) for government (military and LE) contracts. These guns were also offered with what Ruger described as a “Government Barrel,” which included a flash hider and bayonet lug. These appeared in as far-off places as the Bermuda Defense Forces and Royal Ulster Constabulary.

Then, starting in the second season of the “A-Team” in 1984, in which the factory-outfitted folding stocked stainless commercial Mini-14 with aftermarket flash hiders made a regular appearance, the gun marched into everlasting pop culture status.

Eventually, the stainless Ruger Mini-14 Government Barrel, Folding Stock, or GB-F, was added to Ruger’s commercial catalog, at least until the mid-1990s when it was killed off by the Federal “Assault Weapon” Ban. After the controversial AWB expired in 2004, the original Mini-14 and Ranch Rifle were discontinued in favor of an improved variant that allowed the easy mounting of optics and had an improved barrel profile and twist rate that improved accuracy and decreased heat sensitivity.

This “pre-ban” 186-serial prefix stainless Mini GB .223 in the author’s collection dates to 1994, has the original 1-in-7 twist barrel, a short rounded rear sight, and has a stainless Sampson folding stock installed, making it something of a faux GB-F. Until very recently it saw service in the Maryland State Corrections system. (Photo: Chris Eger)

Everything old is new again

With all the aesthetic of the old-school classic 1980s stainless Government Barrel Folder model, Ruger has reached into the vault to bring back an updated icon.

The new model Mini-14 Tactical variant includes a throwback style protected blade front sight with “ears” and an underbarrel bayonet lug, a factory-installed flash suppressor, and an integral stainless side-folder stock along with walnut furniture and a polymer pistol grip.

Unlike the guns that look like it from a couple of decades ago, it is chambered in 5.56 NATO, has integral scope mounts machined directly on the solid steel receiver, carries a tall ghost ring rear aperture sight, and has a threaded barrel with a 1-in-9 twist rate.

The MSRP is $1,849, which is about $500 more than other current Mini-14 models in the company’s Tactical series. But keep in mind those other models don’t come with a folding stock – which Sampson makes for $300 and are sometimes tough to get – while Ruger-branded stainless 20-round Mini-14 mags are basically unobtainium, so there’s that. Plus none have a GB-style barrel. 

Yankee Kalash Updates

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While at CANCON 2023 in Savannah, Georgia a few weeks ago, I stopped by the Kalashnikov USA booth and ran into John Cason, KUSA’s director of sales. He told me that the company wouldn’t be in Vegas for the SHOT Show later this month, but he did have several sweet new models they had queued up for 2024.

Among them is the long-promised American-made 7.62x39mm AK101 sporter (KR101), a 5.56 NATO AK102 sporter (KR102), side folding wood-stocked (not a misprint) KR103s, and a tiny Vityaz.

KUSA’s “Micro 9” Vityaz, made for an Indonesian military contract but soon to come to the U.S. consumer market

Developed for an overseas military contract, KUSA had what is tentatively just called the “Micro 9” at the show. Now don’t confuse that term with a micro compact 9mm pistol such as a P365 or Hellcat. This is a 5-inch barreled semi-auto KP-9 Vityaz clone rather than the standard 9.25-incher that the company intends to market as both a pistol (that can either use a triangle brace or be Form 1’d later should the user want) and as a factory SBR.

PSA Krinkov (no, really, they say)

Palmetto State Armory has been teasing the public for years that they have an American-made Krink headed to market while not delivering.

Well, Cameron surfaced over the weekend on social media and said the company is in their final testing phase for the gun, expecting to launch it in February (yes, of 2024).

They intend to have five variants at launch– all in 5.56 with included side rails.

These will include a plum gloss, a Vudu version, a JMac railed option, a redwood version, and an SBR-ready variant. PSA says that they will work on 5.45, .300 BLK, and 7.62×39 variants after the 5.56s have been released. No pricing is available.

Color me excited.

A Rost What?

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If you have followed this blog for more than five minutes, you’ll get that I like new guns, which come around almost every day.

Something rarer are new gun companies, and I always take an interest in those and they can sometimes prove a bigger and more complex story.

The first new gun company of the year this year appears to be Texas-based Rost Martin, who has what at first appears to be a G19-sized vanilla striker-fired polymer-framed 9mm pistol, but at closer look seems to be a little better (and for a better price).

Their flagship RM1C pistol is a compact-sized double-stack 9mm, that sports a 4-inch hammer-forged barrel, 7.1-inch overall length, and a 21.1-ounce unloaded weight with a 15+1 round magazine. This puts it a hair smaller than the Glock 19 Gen 5. It is optics-ready on all models, shipping with an RMR footprint, while plates for “all other popular optic footprints” will be available.

Other features include aggressive front and rear slide serrations, ambidextrous surface controls including slide catch and mag release, and what is described as “a smooth, light 5-pound trigger pull with a clean break and a short reset.” Added to this are non-glare top slide serrations similar to what is seen on S&W and Walther pistols, an inherent low bore axis, and a Tenifer-treated nitrocarburized slide. It has interchangeable rear grip inserts.

The Texas-made RM1C will be offered in black, gray, and FDE, and has a very AREX Delta Gen 2 vibe.

Don’t worry about support, as it uses CZ P10 pattern mags that are free, and accept XD pattern sights.

Of note, it has a Glock-style takedown albeit with arguably better ergos.

All right, so enough of the windup – how about the pitch? The MSRP on the new Rost Martin RM1C is set at $459 across all models, a price that will probably be a little lower at retail. That puts it on par price-wise with an optics-ready Turkish-made Stoeger STR-9C or Canik TP9SF but about a hundo more than a PSA Dagger, but then again it has a feature set better than the basic Dagger.

The folks at Rost Martin are sending me one to test and I am meeting with them at SHOT next week to get some more background info, so watch this space.

Ruger and Rabbits from Hats…

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You may not remember this, but FN coughed up the 5.7x28mm round in 1990 after nearly a decade of R&D. The Belgian gunmaker had a wrap on the cartridge and the guns– the Five-Seven pistol and P90 PDW– that used it for decades. This made it very niche and, by 2019, was close to falling out of production.

Then swooped in Ruger with their 57 pistol and it became a hit.

Soon, everyone was talking about 5.7 again.

In the past few years since, CMMG, Diamondback, KelTec, PSA, and S&W entered the 5.7 game while Ruger expanded their offerings to include carbines, forcing FN to release an updated Mk3 variant of the Five-Seven pistol. In the same period, ammo makers saw the writing on the wall and started making the rounds in quantity and variants never seen in the caliber, both increasing supply and halving the cost.

Amazing what can happen when someone takes an almost forgotten round and, through the introduction of a new gun, breathes life back into it.

Well, Ruger may be trying to do a repeat with a new chambering for an old revolver. Last week they announced a new variant of the vaunted double-action Ruger Super Redhawk in .22 Hornet.

I did not see this coming, at all

That’s an odd move for a wheel gun that was typically chambered in big hunting grade/counter bear calibers such as .44 Rem Mag and .454 Casull. Heck, Ruger created the .480 Ruger in 2003– then the largest-diameter production revolver cartridge– just for the Super Redhawk.

Further, it is the only new .22 Hornet handgun on the market anywhere. The last was the old bolt-action Savage Arms Striker bench gun that went out of production in 2005.

What’s so special about the .22 Hornet?

Developed by Townsend Whelen a full century ago, the .22 Hornet is not rimfire like the .22 Magnum and .22 LR but is instead a centerfire round that is about a half-inch shorter than a .223/5.56. The longer 35mm case of the .22 Hornet (the .22 Mag has a case length of 26mm) allows it to carry a heavier bullet at a faster speed, typically twice the velocity of a .22 Mag, while generating almost three times the energy downrange. In short, the .22 Hornet is a blistering fast little round (Hornady’s 35-grain VMax load has a released spec of 3,060 feet per second) and is ideal for use by varmint hunters and in survival guns– a use the military had for it for years.

The old M6 Aircrew survival weapon, which was a .22 Hornet over a 410 shotgun

However, today, the .22 Hornet is still around but should be listed as being on life support.

As far as I can tell, the only production guns in the .22 Hornet these days are bolt action rifles: the Savage 25 in several different finishes and barrel lengths, and the Ruger 77/22. Browning-owned Winchester still markets a Japanese-made Model 1885 Low Wall Hunter in the caliber, but production can’t be very brisk, and odds are they just pulling from a batch made years ago that is sitting in a warehouse somewhere.

Keeping these new guns and legacy models fed is likewise slim-picking but not impossible. The round is still in commercial production both in the U.S. by Federal, Hornady, and Winchester, and overseas by PPU and Sellier & Bellot.

Has Ruger been reading the tea leaves on this one and seen an opportunity to pull another rabbit out of the hat, caliber speaking, when it comes to the fading .22 Hornet? We’ll see.

B&T Makes it First to the Folding Chassis Market?

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The Swiss-American compact gun experts at B&T are promising a folding personal defense chassis that hides in plain sight.

The planned BWC9 in its 11.7-inch folded form has an integrated carry handle and looks sort of like a nondescript old-school boom box or…well…something other than a pistol. Then, with a flick of the wrist, it unfolds and locks into place as a 22-inch rifle if needed, an Aimpoint ACRO P-2 micro red dot providing sights.

In other words, going from this:

B&T BWC9 chassis, closed (Image: B&T)

To this:

B&T BWC9 chassis, open (Image: B&T)

The chassis is being sold as an accessory – no FFL required – and users simply add their SIG P320 fire control unit and compatible slide assembly (Sub-Compact through X-Five length, including threaded barrels) to have an all-up firearm.

More in my column at Guns.com.

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