Innholdsfortegnelse for Volume 76, Issue 14 i Firearms News

With the growing number of states passing or proposing red-flag laws (also called Extreme Risk Protection Orders or ERPOs), one company that provides insurance coverage for armed self-defense incidents is reminding its members that it also provides legal coverage for fighting red-flag law confiscations. Texas-based U.S. LawShield has more than 700,000 members across the country and, according to USLS president Kirk Evans, his firm provides protection for those targeted by wrongful confiscation without due process. “One of my main gripes about those laws is who do you let exercise them,” Evans said in an exclusive interview with Firearms News. “In some of the states, it’s not only a family member, but it can be a dating relationship or a former dating relationship. So, an ex-girlfriend gets mad at you and…

Legacy Sports Howa HS Carbon Fiber is a good-looking rifle with both traditional and non-traditional features. The first thing which catches your eye on this new model is obviously the carbon wrapped barrel. This gives it a distinctive look. A stainless steel thread protector is a nice touch, indicating you can easily mount a muzzle brake or sound suppressor, depending upon your needs. The barreled action sits in a HS Precision stock, so it has classic lines while being very practical. The stock features a web textured camouflage finish, adding to its distinctive look. The foundation for this rifle is the Howa Model 1500 standard-length receiver. This is machined from forged steel. The Model 1500 is readily available in three popular action lengths, standard, short and miniature. The standard-length Howa…

Uberti’s 1860 Richards Type II Conversion replicates one of the scarcer Colt conversions of the 1860 percussion revolver to cartridge. These are large belt pistols with an eight-inch barrel, overall length of 14 inches, a hefty weight of 43 ounces unloaded, and the long, Army-size grip. Originally only in .44 Colt caliber, the U.S. importer, Cimarron, offers them in many modern “cowboy” cartridges including .38 Special, .44 Special and .45 Colt. The modernized version of the .44 Colt is just a tad shorter than the Special but uses a modern .429/.430 of an inch bullet common with today’s .44 Special and Russian. This one—a .44 Special—was my choice because the Special case allows closer duplication of the original .44 Colt black powder load. A handier 5½-inch-barreled version is offered, too,…

The Ghost Gunner is undeniably cool, but it is also undeniably expensive. If you are patient and enjoy a little mechanical aptitude, then Stealth Arms and www.1911builders.com will let you finish out an aluminum 1911 frame at home with nothing more than elbow grease and a little patience. The key to this project is the Phantom Jig. The Phantom Jig affixes to a raw 80% 1911 frame and guides a manually driven carbide cutter to cut the slide rails and barrel seat perfectly. You still have to drill a couple of holes, but the jig ensures that is done perfectly as well. The only thing you need in addition to a proper drill or drill press is a standard shop vise. A sliding shuttle holds the cutter blade. An adjustment…

“In an email to CNBC, [Elon] Musk blamed the media for giving murderers the attention he believes they crave by covering mass shootings,” the basic cable business news channel reports. “He said he supports ‘tight’ background checks for all gun purchases and special licenses for assault weapons.” The tech billionaire/entrepreneur was reacting to the Uvalde school massacre, and as with all people who are rich and famous, special attention is given to their pronouncements on the issues of the day, whether they know what they’re talking about or not. Their qualifications to weigh in on anything outside their fields of expertise is always conveniently not mentioned. In Musk’s case, he’s been making headlines over his presumptive purchase of the Twitter microblogging/social networking platform, ostensibly to protect against censorship and leftist…

Top-quality AR maker Adams Arms and several industry partners have worked together over the past few months to get much-needed arms into the hands of Ukrainian citizens to fight off the Russian invasion. Adams Arms President Jason East said the ongoing effort, which began in March, has included six other influential industry companies in an effort to help the besieged country fight for its existence in the face of the continued attacks from Russian forces. “We asked our contacts in Ukraine what was needed, and the answer was sniper rifles,” East said. “We worked with some of our most trusted industry partners to put together a package that would meet the immediate need. In conjunction with the NSSF and other industry contacts we learned that the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense…

The Howa series of rifles is an interesting line of push-feed bolt-action rifles built to tackle everything from hunting to competition shooting. The American Flag Chassis series, seen here, is perhaps their most distinctive looking model thanks to its red, white and blue finish. It’s an eye-catching rifle a bit different than the rest of their offerings. The heart of the American Flag Chassis model is the popular Howa Model 1500 short-action receiver. This is machined from forged steel. The Howa features a rotating bolt with dual front locking lugs. Bolt length is 6.9 inches. Examining it you’ll note the bolt face sports a plunger type ejector, claw extractor and the design cocks on opening. The forged steel receiver features an integral recoil lug. The bolt features a single-piece steel…

I have long been intrigued by the possibilities of a lightweight and compact bolt gun chambered in 7.62x39mm. This cartridge would allow for a very short action and make for economical shooting. In recent years a number of options have become available, with the one seen here from Legacy Sports. Their Howa Model 1500 Mini series features a scaled down action machined from forged steel. To put the exact size in perspective a standard-length Howa features a bolt length of 7.4 inches while a short action features a 6.9-inch bolt. The miniature action used here measures just six inches. Due to its small size, it is perfectly suited for use with the 7.62x39mm cartridge. The good-looking miniature action and Soviet Avtomat cartridge seem like they were made for each other.…

Arms technology exploded during the American Civil War and once again the world changed forever. Just about every conceivable method of preparing ammunition was tried, and the mechanisms to launch the payloads varied just as greatly. Many of the best mechanisms (the Ballard, Remington Rolling Block and Sharps to name a few) patiently awaited the centerfire metallic cartridge, something yet to be discovered. The rimfire was already quite successful, but had a power threshold that could not be breeched. Handgun technology was fairly settled and only kept from progressing by Messrs. Smith and Wesson, who had cleverly patented the concept of the bored-through cylinder for a handgun (something LeFau-cheaux, maker of the pinfire revolvers, had neglected to do in America, but had in Europe). All through the Civil War handguns…

When I first became interested in handguns, my tastes followed my experiences of World War II Combat or the American West as portrayed on 1950s TV and in films. I was particularly enamored of the Colt Single Action, the Remington derringer, and the German Luger. At the time I was too young to own real versions of these iconic firearms, but I did have a toy SAA and derringer. Eventually, I would own examples of all three of these handguns. My first SAA was a much-used re-nickeled example in .38-40 and my first Luger pistol was a mismatched example assembled from parts. With a little age and increased cash, I did eventually upgrade. Through college, I managed to trade around until I had a nice WWII 42 Code Luger rig…

Today the U.S. Department of Commerce Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) published a Final Rule adopting a new requirement for Congressional Notification for certain semiautomatic firearms exports under the Export Administration Regulations (EAR). The final rule will become effective on July 18, 2022. This final rule will add a new section to the EAR, 15 C.F.R. §743.6 (Prior notifications to Congress of exports of semiautomatic firearms), to adopt a congressional notification requirement for license applications having semiautomatic firearms that are (i) classified under Export Control Classification Number (ECCN) 0A501.a, and (ii) valued at $4 million or more. The dollar value threshold of $4 million will be based only on the portion of the license application for ECCN 0A501.a firearms. The congressional notification requirement will not apply in the following…

A new Colorado law that did away with the prohibition on municipalities making their own restrictive gun control regulations has led to four Boulder County cities passing sweeping reforms that will only affect law-abiding citizens, not the criminals they are supposedly targeting. Last year, Gov. Jared Polis signed a measure — Senate Bill 256 — that gutted the state’s preemption law, which had ensured that all law-abiding Coloradoans have the same rights regardless of where they reside. Since then, several liberal-run cities have passed their own restrictions or are looking to do so. Now, Boulder, Louisville, Lafayette and Superior — all municipalities located in Boulder County — have passed sweeping reforms this week. Proposals going into Tuesday night’s city council meetings of the four municipalities included banning the sale and…

The heart of the Oryx MDT chassis rifle is the well-known Howa Model 1500 short-action receiver which is machined from forged steel. The standard length Howa features a bolt length of 7.4 inches while the short-action features a 6.9 inch bolt which speeds things up a bit. Examining it you’ll note the Howa features a rotating bolt with dual front locking lugs. The bolt face sports a plunger type ejector, claw extractor and the design cocks on opening. The forged steel receiver features an integral recoil lug. Plus, the action is designed with three gas ports for pressure relief in case of a catastrophic failure. These will vent gases away from the shooter. The bolt features a single-piece steel bolt handle and the entire bolt can be easily stripped without…

Takedown of the Cimarron 1860 Richards Type II is straightforward. Pull the hammer to half cock and verify all six chambers are unloaded. With a proper fitting screwdriver (Brownells has them), turn the wedge screw until its flat spot is over the wedge (1). The wedge can now be removed. If tight, use a percussion revolver’s brass wedge driver to free it. The barrel will come off forward (2). They are usually tightly fitted from the factory and may need some jiggling to break loose. Remove the cylinder and clean (3). A good piece of kit is the Pro Shot cleaning rods, jags and patches. I like the jags because the caliber is shown on the shank and they are turned to work perfectly with Pro Shot patches. If your…

The Ghost Gunner is a hobby-sized Computer numerically-controlled milling machine designed to complete 80% receivers for AR15’s, AR10’s, Glock clones, AKM’s, and aluminum-framed 1911 pistols. If you’re handy with a computer, the Ghost Gunner will even engrave the side should you so desire. The Ghost Gunner machine has some fascinating origins. The Ghost Gunner is produced by Defense Distributed. DD is a non-profit corporation thoroughly committed to guaranteeing and perpetuating unfiltered American freedom. DD uses the income from the sales of their Ghost Gunner machines to support their ongoing legal fight to freely distribute their digital gun-related files over the Internet. Defense Distributed is forever in court. Their single-shot Liberator polymer pistol can be conjured at home using a 3-D printer. It’s not really much of a gun, but it…

In 1871, the Prussian army was the top dog among European military powers. In the previous seven years they had fought — and won — wars against Denmark (1864), the Austro-Hungarian Empire (1866) and France (1870–71). Her victories in the latter two conflicts had shocked the world as both of her antagonists’ armies were larger and/or considered superior to the polyglot forces of the various German states that Prussia welded together.2 But Prussian planning, tactics, efficiency, morale and weaponry — not size and reputation — had proven the deciding factors. The lessons of the American Civil War had shown the Prussians that their Preußische-Zündnadel-Gewehre M.41 and M.62 (the Dreyse “Needle Rifle”) — while the first successful, general issue breech loading rifle — was woefully obsolete. Plans to replace it with…

A terrible piece of anti-gun legislation that was quickly rammed through the House Judiciary Committee last week and is headed for a vote on the House floor has pro-gun advocates worried — especially since some Republican U.S. senators seem willing to consider the measure. Predictably called the "Protecting Our Kids Act," HR 7910 is a particularly bad measure that would make sweeping changes to current gun laws, all resulting in more restrictions on lawful gun owners, while violent criminals won’t follow the new laws anyway. Among other things, the proposal calls for raising the age for purchase of certain rifles, banning standard capacity magazines owned by millions of gun owners, banning so-called "ghost guns," banning certain firearms parts and even telling gun owners how they must store their firearms. The…