Glock 17 Review from 1985

Another find from the digital copies of vintage American Handgunner.  On page 40 of the September/October 1985 issue is a review of the Glock 17 by Anthony Carlyle.  Although the writer states a preference for blued steel and walnut, he was pretty open-minded about it, and praised most of the same aspects of the design that many have throughout the decades.

Worst. Gun Review. Ever.

Beretta's New Super Rifle, by Douglas MacIntyre, was posted to Yahoo! Finance.

Gun company Beretta is tone deaf when it comes to calls for restrictions on powerful guns sold in the United States. It must be the chance to make money.

Now, this is a short article on the Beretta ARX100, which isn't terribly powerful, no matter how you configure it.  And yes, they make money selling guns.  Duh.

And maybe most important of all, the ARX100 is reasonably priced at $1,950, which does not include bullets.

Oh, my!  Only $1950!  I think I have that stuck between the seat cushions in my car.

Most of the rest of the article is regurgitated from Beretta's press release.

Forgotten Weapons YouTube Channel

Forgotten Weapons YouTube Channel

Ian McCollum has been posting videos of obscure firearms, and explaining how they work for a couple of years.  He's also done video reviews on military and civilian firearm books, if that's more your speed.

Here's an example.  Halloway Arms HAC-7 .308 Winchester semi-automatic rifle.  There may be about 300 of these rifles.  The design is a kind of a strange conglomeration of elements from the FN FAL, Kalashnikov rifle trigger and operating system, AR-15 bolt and gas tube.  The rifle didn't work very well, and a piece had fallen off of it, but I think it's still an interesting design.  I've been absorbing all that I can about military-style rifles for decades, and I've never seen or even heard of these Halloway Arms rifles.

Starting at the start, it seems that "Ian" is a bit of a gunsmith, engineer, and fabricator.  I'm very jealous of the shop.  Many many thousands of dollars worth of machinery, tools, and components there.

Hat-tip to Samuel Suggs for posting a link to the HK roller-delayed P9S pistol video.

I'm buying a UTAS UTS-15 Shotgun

No.  No, I'm definitely not.

The magazine that's pretty much completely open to the elements is pretty stupid, in full Chauchat style.

Bad.  Very, very bad.  There are other UTAS shotgun videos on YouTube that are kind of similar.  I haven't paid much attention, because I haven't actually seen one of the damn things in person yet.

It actually gets a bit worse.  Some rusting after the shotgun got dumped into the snow in frustration.  Discussion of bad ergonomics, and lack of instructions on how to actually operate the shotgun from UTAS.

Bushmaster ACR Review on AR15.com

Link to thread, ACR Observations.

Some new information and detail photos.  Interesting.


Another thread, by Ghetto.  Link is to page 5, where he actually gets the rifle, the first 5 pages are pretty worthless.


This is Post #250!!

UPDATE, 9/18/2010: ShooterReview comparison tests of Bushmaser ACR Basic, Robinson Arms XCR, and an Rock River Arms M4

Best. . . Para TTR. . . Article. . . Ever 8P

I was trying to get a subscription to American Rifleman online, but there doesn't seem to be a way to do it.  I did however discover a couple NRA publications that I didn't know existed.  One of them is Shooting Illustrated.

Getting to the point, Shooting Illustrated has an online article discussing the Para USA's TTR (Tactical Target Rifle).  You may remember, essentially the same rifle, being marketed as the Z-M Weapons LR-300.

The Shooting Illustrated article talks about the Delayed Gas Impingement action of the TTR, something I've never heard described.  There is a long gas block with a U-shaped channel.  The channel increases the distance for the propellant gasses to travel before having an effect on the bolt.  This increases the time between the firing pin hitting the primer, and the moment that the recoil impulse of the cycling action has any effect on the shooter.

Also news to me, is some discussion of the beefed up charging handle, and taller upper receiver.

Although I've read this part before, I'll repeat it for you, in case you haven't heard it before.  The Z-M Weapons/Para TTR bolt carriers have a much longer bolt carrier key than that of an AR-15.  The gas tube makes contact with the gas key out under the handguard, rather than inside the action, which keeps the action cleaner and cooler.

I'd really like to get my hands on a PARA TTR upper.  Although I'm not sure that this is the greatest thing ever, it's certainly an interesting path to take with the AR-15 platform.

Oh, and by the way, the Para TTR was the winner of the Golden Bullseye Award in the rifle category by Shooting Illustrated.

Para Ordnance Official Website
Direct Link To TTR Page on Para Ordnance Website

Lancer L5 AR-15 Mags. Thumbs Down.

I found some for about $16 each at the Valley Forge Gun Show, and bought three. When I got them home and took them apart for inspection, I realized that was a mistake.

The plastic body of the mag is rather thin, and can be bent inward in the middle noticeably.

The follower is a variation on the green G.I. follower, and it will tilt if you push on either the front or the back.

Green G.I. follower on left, Lancer follower on right.

Green G.I. follower on top, Lancer follower bottom

Getting them apart for cleaning is not particularly easy. The floor-plate (which has a rubber bumper) locks onto the mag body with three tabs. To remove it, you need to push in on one of the side tabs with a cartridge or a pen or a similar pointy tool, and pull the floor-plate, and hold it so that it doesn't reengage. Then you need to press in the tab on the other side. At this point the mag spring will probably push the floor-plate out, and you can disengage the rear tab. There is a tool, sold separately, that pushes in both side tabs at once.

For comparison, I'll explain how to disassemble a PMag. Press in the center of the lockplate with the locking tab of the magazine cover (or the tip of a bullet or a pen), and slide off the floor-plate. With the floor-plate off, you can easily pull the guts out of the mag body. It takes longer to explain it than it does to do it.


I'm going to get rid of these mags one way or another. I don't think they're as good as PMags or plain old metal mags. One will probably go with the OA-96 pistol when I get another pistol upper. Hopefully, I'll sell one or two more along with the Colt M-16 BCG that I need to sell.

A Lancer representative on the AR15.com forums has said that Magpul anti-tilt followers won't work well with the magazine body. They aren't compatible with any aftermarket floor plates with pull tabs either.

UPDATE, 1/16/11:  I've run one of my Lancer magazines through a couple of rifles, with no issues.  I haven't really heard anything bad about them from anyone else either.  Some of the guys that run carbine courses are recommending these.  I'm afraid I've got my foot in my mouth on this one.

First Ruger LCP Review is out at GunBlast

Ruger LCP .380 Pocket Pistol Review at GunBlast

Although I can't recommend one myself, because it's practically a carbon copy of the Kel-Tec P-3AT that I had trouble with, the review is favorable.

1911s for Duty. Eeek!

I happened to come upon this article on the 10-8 Performance website: 'Choosing a 1911 for Duty Use'

My experience with 1911 type pistols is pretty limited. I owned an STI 2011, a double-stack pistol, for a few months. It ran okay for a while, and then I started to have feed failures. I didn't like the way the grip felt anyway, so I sold it off (at a substantial loss).

Dad's Colt Defender ran okay for a little while, and then started to choke about once per magazine. Several different recoil springs and magazines were tried, but it still continued to puke. It was traded for a Kimber, which I can't vouch for one way or the other.

After reading this article, I think I am now completely scared of trying to keep a 1911-pattern pistol running, and I'll probably just stick to more modern designs.

Be sure to check it out. I had no idea that there was so much involved in keeping a 1911 running properly.

Weapon Lights and Pistol+Light Holster Review

I stumbled upon an article on PoliceOne.com about weapons lights and brief reviews of holsters for pistols with mounted lights.

Click Here to jump to the article.

Weird! Another Colt Official Police Review.

I just found another review of a Colt Official Police revolver at The Gun Zone. Less than a year ago, Guns magazine ran a review of the Official Police. A few months later I found another review on the Shooting Times website.

Why is that weird? The Official Police was first introduced in the late 20's.

I've got one of these that was my Dad's, and probably served as a Police duty pistol before that. It was probably his first centerfire, and as best as I can remember, it was the first centerfire that I ever shot. Dad fitted Pachmayer grips, and I fitted a nickel plated Python trigger*. The one that I've got is more accurate than the one fired in the The Gun Zone review. I take it out now and then when I get the itch to shoot something different. . . or I'm running low on 9mm ammo. I guess it's another pistol that I need to take a picture of.

* - The Python trigger is more comfortable than the full serrated Official Police trigger.