Rifles

Joshua Stevens was born in Massachusetts in 1814, when the flintlock was still the 'King of the Hill' among guns. The 'King' ruled until 1830, when the percussion cap dethroned it. In those days, it was customary to learn a trade by serving an extensive apprenticeship, so Stevens worked for a number of years as a machinist's helper before being hired by Cyrus Allen, a gunmaker operating out of Springfield. There, Stevens' machinist skills were…

There will always be a need to identify chamberings of firearms that have been inherited or bought at yard sales. The lure of buying for bottom dollar and discovering a real jewel is ingrained in most of us, so a little thing like no chambering marks on a rifle or handgun is no deterrent to a gun fancier.

The SLR-106FR is a U.S.-made AK-74 variant that comes with a magazine, cleaning rod, accessory case, drift pin cleaning jag, bore brush, combination tool, oil bottle, cleaning rod, and a web sling.The SLR-106FR is 922(r) compliant, meaning it contains 10 or fewer foreign-made parts, according to Arsenal documents. Those parts include the major Bulgarian-made items, such as the barrel, receiver, and bolt. To make the gun U.S.-compliant, Arsenal takes a Bulgarian gun and adds six U.S.-made parts: the hammer, trigger, disconnector, buttstock, pistol grip, and handguards.

Varmint X, the new line of predator and varmint ammunition from Winchester, is being touted as a super-accurate lineup of the most popular centerfire rifle calibers for predator hunting: .204 Ruger, .223 Rem, .22-250 Rem and .243 Win.

ArmaLite’s new AR-10 Law Enforcement Carbine takes the durability and performance of the company’s LE carbines chambered in .223/5.56X45mm NATO and mixes in the stopping power of the .308 cartridge.

USA-based Magnum Research, Inc. (MRI) has re-engineered the Magnum Lite MLR22 Win Mag rifle series in a semi-auto configuration.

The Delaware State Police Special Operations Response Team (SORT) has chosen SIG Sauer’s SIG516 as its new duty long arm.

Visit a public shooting range and it becomes apparent that the M16 platform has successfully made the transition from military weapon to serving the public as a means of recreation as well as home defense in the form of the AR-15 semi-automatic. Accordingly, model development for this platform continues apace, so in this article well consider three new carbine-length AR-15s in 5.56mm NATO and 300 Whisper. Our first two AR-15s were chambered for 223 Remington or 5.56mm ammunition, by far the most popular calibers for the AR.They were the Mossberg MMR Tactical Rifle (w/sights) and the Olympic Arms K3B-M4-TC-M4 Tactical Carbine, which Oly calls the alphabet gun for obvious reasons. Our third test gun is Smith & Wessons M&P15 300 Whisper, which stands out because it uses magazines interchangeable with the 223/5.56mm models but fires 30-caliber bullets. Our previous test of a 300 Whisper AR-15 featured a carbine directly from SSK Industries, the home of 300 Whispers inventor, J.D. Jones, (SSKIndustries.com). The Smith & Wesson M&P15 300 Whisper is, to our knowledge, the first production model of this chambering from a high-volume major manufacturer. Mossberg is another volume manufacturer, but the MMR is the companys first production-model AR-15.To establish accuracy data, we visited the 100-yard range at Houstons American Shooting Centers, (AMshootcenters.com). To determine muzzle energy, we utilized an Oehler chronograph to measure velocity so we could enter it into the appropriate equation: Does computation of muzzle energy truly measure stopping power? Not necessarily, but it does provide a reliable indicator of the amount of force the projectile starts out with, just like MSRP (Manufacturers Suggested Retail Price) indicates possible retail pricing.Test ammunition for our 223/5.56mm guns featured the three most popular bullet weights. We fired Sellier & Bellot 55-grain FMJ rounds, and two selections manufactured in Rapid City, South Dakota, by Black Hills Ammunition. They were the 60-grain V-Max and the 69-grain OTM. The Black Hills OTM (Open Tipped Match) rounds were marked 5.56mm NATO while the other rounds were designated 223 Remington. To test our Smith & Wesson rifle, we chose 208-grain Hornady A-Max and Hornady 110-grain V-Max 300 Whisper ammunition. Plus, we shot Remington 125-grain Accu-Tip rounds marked 300 AAC Blackout.We should note that the use of names other than 300 Whisper was reportedly an attempt to avoid the expense of paying royalties to its inventor. This practice appears to be fading out. That Smith & Wesson lists 300 AAC Blackout only as a co-chambering but chose to designate this rifle as the M&P15 300 Whisper tells us that the Whisper name will win out.Optics for our bench session consisted of the same Burris Xtreme Tactical 6-24X50mm with Mil-Dot reticle on each rifle (previously tested in our May 2011 issue). We also tried the new Brownells CQB T-Dot holographic sight by EOTech for offhand shots ($549, from Brownells.com). This scope provided a hologram-style projection that offered a large circle surrounding a central dot for zero and a second dot for hold over to extend aim to additional points of elevation. The CQB T-Dot can be used as a standalone sight or in co-witness with iron sights. An outer shell provided impact protection and a quick-release mounting system. This type of sight is a popular add-on, and we wanted to know how our test guns would accommodate this system. Our team of test shooters included a highly ranked High Power competitor and a third generation United States Marine recently discharged and now serving in law enforcement. Lets see how each of our AR-15s performed.

Advanced Armament Corp. has announced an economical option for 300 AAC BLK enthusiasts – the AAC Handi-Rifle chambered in 300 AAC BLK.

Bill Hicks & Co., Ltd., has released a fully-anodized Colt M4 Carbine. Chambering is in 5.56mm/.223 Rem with a chrome-lined M4 profile barrel, A2 flash hider, bayonette lug and folding front sight.

Readers can legitimately question the wisdom of buying a $650 AR and spending $700 more on it. Such is the case with the Modern Sporting Rifle. It is a hole into which you can just keep pouring money.

Our recent report on firelapping in the June 2012 edition ended with a note that the process can also be applied to 22 rimfires, but we had not yet tried that. Soon after publication of our report, reader John B. sent us an email wondering if we were interested in firelapping his old 22 rifle. John had an ancient Marlin lever-action 22 that no longer shot well, he said. He offered to send it to our Idaho office to see if we could resurrect its bore. We had just experienced a disaster testing a modern Marlin 39A (August 2012). We thought this would be a good opportunity to examine an old Marlin to see what they used to be, and maybe we could even help its bad old bore. We were having fits trying to get publishable results firelapping any of the 22 firearms we had on hand. They were in excellent condition, and we were stymied trying to make excellent guns shoot even better. We decided to give Johns questionable 22 a shot, so to speak, and asked him to send it along.