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In front of us this month are three of the black rifles, AR-15s by Rock River Arms, ArmaLite, and Bushmaster. There are - or were - many types of this rifle available, and there are also many aftermarket accessories available. In addition to the three guns, we were provided with some clever accessories to try on them. These include triggers by Timney and Geissele, some alternative stocks by Magpul, some iron-type sights by the same company, a very fine 20-round magazine that we used in all our testing, and one of the rapid-fire Slide-Fire stocks. We will give a detailed report on these rifles using some of these accessories in a separate later report. For this report, we take a look at the rifles pretty much as they came to us.The specific guns were the Rock River Arms LAR-15 Tactical CAR A4 AR1201X ($1065), ArmaLite M15A4 Carbine No. 15A4CBA2K ($1031), and the Bushmaster Carbon 15 SuperLight ORC No. 90689 ($845), all in caliber 5.56 NATO. None had a top handle. All had the numbered-notch Picatinny rail. The Rock River and ArmaLite had front sights, but no rear. The Bushmaster Carbon 15 had no sights whatsoever, but came with a Chinese-made electronic red-dot sight. All three had the collapsible M4-type stock, and all three had 1:9-inch twist, 16-inch barrels.We decided to first shoot all three rifles with a 36x Weaver CT36 Micro-Trac target scope with central dot, and then see if each rifle needed, say, a better trigger or a tighter stock. The Weaver scope was mounted in a proprietary base that was adapted to Picatinny rails and secured by two hefty screws to which we could put adequate torque. We shot the rifles at 100 yards using just two types of ammo. This was Black Hills 68-grain Heavy Match HP, and Russian TCW ball (55-grain FMJ) ammo, representing some of the finest and some of the least costly 5.56 ammo (formerly) available for these rifles. All other types of 5.56 or 223 ammo would, we thought, fall between these two extremes. Some might be better and some worse, but with todays limited supplies, we thought these two ammo types would give a good look at what you can expect from these three rifles. Along the way, we found good reasons to try one of the replacement triggers, and were glad to have had it on hand. Heres what we found on the rifles.

Starting in 2001, the IDF (Israel Defense Force) began testing the Tavor TAR-21 (Tavor Assault Rifle, 21st Century). In 2003 it had a larger roll out, and most Israeli soldiers were receiving at least minimal training on the platform. By 2009, the Tavor had officially replaced M16-style rifles in the tiny countrys defense armory. Now the Tavor, as a semi-auto civilian rifle, is available for sale in the USA. The manufacturer, Israel Weapon Industries (IWI), has opened up a U.S. branch (IWI US) and is manufacturing and assembling the gun in this country. We were able to get our hands on the popular new IWI Tavor SAR-21 in 5.56 NATO. It will accept any standard AR-15/M16 magazine, and the Tavor is available in black or flat dark earth with an MSRP of $1999. The owner of our loaner test gun paid $1850 for his in April 2013.The Tavor had a 16.5-inch barrel and an overall length of 26.2 inches, which gives the operator the ability to maneuver quickly and shoot with the accuracy of a longer rifle. It weighed just 10.2 pounds with a 30-round magazine and an EOTech XPS2-2 Holographic Weapon Sight aboard. Along with the gun, IWI included a belt pouch that contained four cleaning-rod extensions, a squeeze bottle for gun lube, a bore brush, a chamber brush, a general cleaning brush, a large brush for cleaning the inside of the receiver, and a windage/elevation adjustment tool for the front sight. Also, there were a pair of QD swivel studs, a IWI branded magazine, and the owners manual.The Tavor was ripe with awesome features, starting with the design of the gun. Every piece of polymer on the gun was ergonomically designed and felt great, our shooters said. There are optional conversion kits that would allow the gun to shoot either 9mm Luger or 5.45x39mm. It is 100% ambidextrous with a separate kit, which contains optional left-handed bolts. Sights include built-in back up irons with a tritium-tipped front post.The barrel on our test gun was chrome-lined and fitted with a standard flash suppressor. The hammer-forged CrMoV (chrome-moly-vanadium) tube had six grooves and a 1:7 right-hand twist. The charging handle was non-reciprocating. A Picatinny rail ran along the top of the gun, which was great for mounting optics. It also comes with an rail on the right side of the gun. The body of the gun was completely made of one solid piece of polymer. The safety was mounted right on the pistol grip. The magazine release was ambidextrous and a little on the large side, we thought. When we first started testing, we were pretty sure that the location and size were going to cause a problem for some shooters, but, ultimately, we did not have a single issue loading or unloading magazines from the gun.The take-apart process was surprisingly easy. Depress a pin on the back side of the gun near the buttstock, and the stock folds down 90 degrees, whereafter you can remove the bolt assembly from the gun.

The S&W Bodyguard is a DAO (Double Action Only) semi-auto pistol that is familiar to our readers and testers. As we did with the Ruger LCP-LM, SIG Sauer P238 Tactical Laser, and Walther PK380 with Laser in the February 2013 issue, we tested the Bodyguard for accuracy at 15 yards with open sights but were more focused on using the laser. We tested each concealable pistols ability to quickly activate its supplied laser and allow the shooter fire the pistol using only the laser as the aiming device. Similar to the last test, we used the same ammo and D-1 tombstone-style targets. We also need to note again that there is a reason for the laser warning label on the Bodyguard. It employs a red Class IIIa laser that should not be pointed in eyes, as permanent eye damage can result. Also laser beams reflect off surfaces like TV/computer screens, mirrors, glass, etc. Make sure you test the laser of an unloaded weapon to experience how the laser reacts on certain surfaces.

With all of the political focus on guns, and specifically semiauto AR-style rifles, shooting enthusiasts have been trying to get their hands on products that are durable enough to last through any of the troubles that might be coming. For this task, the AK-47 platform may be the best place to start. Known for durability and reliability, the AK-47 has been tagged "the rifle of the revolution." If you have ever seen a movie that has bad guys in it, you have probably seen them carrying a AK-47. There are videos all over the internet of people doing crazy things with their AKs, such as shooting them in pools, firing so many rounds through them at a fast enough pace to set the front end on fire, burying them and pulling them out of the ground and firing them, and the list goes on and on.

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We picked out two vastly different AK-style rifles for a head-to-head Gun Tests showdown: The WASR-10 imported by Century International Arms and the 556 Russian (556R) made by Sig Sauer. At first glance, the Century International Arms WASR-10 7.62x39mm, $900 (online pricing from GanderMountain.com), looks like a classic AK design, but it has some refinements American shooters will prefer. The WASR-10 is a post-ban version of the AKM rifle. WASR stands for Wassenaar Arrangement Semiautomatic Rifle. The name comes from a Dutch town where the international agreement on exportation of small arms was born. As manufactured in Romania, the 7.62x39 mm GP WASR-10 accepts single-column 10-round magazines. At the Century International Arms factory, the rifles are modified to conform with Title 18, Chapter 44, Section 922(r) of the United States Code. After arriving in the U.S., the rifles are disassembled, the magazine wells are machined out to accept double-stack magazines, and the requisite number of U.S.-made parts are installed for BATF compliance. With enough domestic parts included to make it "officially" U.S. made, the rifle can have a pistol grip and accept high-capacity magazines. The added U.S. parts are: 1) gas piston, 2) trigger, 3) hammer, 4) disconnector, 5) buttstock, and 6) pistol grip. Some units also have Tapco plastic folding or collapsible stocks. Beginning in 2007, Century International Arms has installed the Tapco Intrafuse AK G2 trigger group to eliminate trigger slap. These rifles come supplied with two 30-round magazines and a bayonet lug.

In contrast, the mostly polymer 556R looks like something out of a science-fiction movie. The Sig 556R is a revised version of the original rifle chambered in 7.62x39mm, most commonly referred to as the Gen 1. While there was never an official recall announced by Sig, the company will stand by the Gen 1 gun and make the corrections needed to get the gun up to par. One of the ways that you know whether you have a Gen 1 or a Gen 2 is that the Gen 2 has a steel-reinforced magazine shelf. One of the Gen 1's problems was that metal magazines commonly used with AK-47s would wear down this shelf over time and cause the magazine not to sit correctly, or in some cases not even stay seated in the magazine well. Another issue that a lot of users reported were failures to eject. If you compare the size of the ejection port on the Gen 1 next to a Gen 2, you will notice that the Gen 2 has a much wider opening, allowing shells to eject without catching and causing a problem. The final issue on Gen 1s that owners reported were failures to fire. To solve this in the Gen 2s, Sig apparently increased the hammer-spring strength to make sure the harder primers in Russian ammo would ignite.

The good news is this: when Sig fixes a problem, they really fix it. The Sig 556R that we used in this test has all of the modifications already made, and it is just as reliable as every other AK out there, we believe. With its hefty price tag (going for nearly $3000 in some listings early in 2013), we wanted to see if the Sig was worth the money, or if the handy shooter is better off buying a less expensive model like the WASR-10 and making his own adjustments as time and necessity require and money allows. Here's what we thought of the two rifles compared point by point:

We were able to get our hands on two mighty popular guns for this test, a couple of the potent 40-caliber mid-size pistols that we also compare to the two forties we tested in the March 2013 issue. This time we look at the Glock 23 Gen 4 (MSRP $650) and the Taurus 24/7 G2C (MSRP $555). We tested with the same ammo types, Remington 155-grain JHP, Black Hills 165-grain JHP, and American Eagle 180-grain FMC with its truncated-cone design.Both of these guns came with loading helpers. We didnt need one with the Glock unless we wanted to fully load the magazines. Commonly in our practice sessions, we load only five or ten for safety reasons, and these were easy to get into the Glocks 13-round magazine using only our fingers. The Taurus needed the mag loaders help for nearly all its rounds, having a magazine spring that was about twice as stout as that of the Glock. Of course, there were many other areas of comparison we considered, which we relate below:

In our ongoing look at many of the smaller 9mm handguns out there, we occasionally come across some that are a bit easier to handle than the micro-nines weve looked at during the past year or so. They are generally easier to shoot, though far harder to conceal, and have their place in the scheme of things. In this report we look at the Sig Sauer P239 SAS ($1125) and the H&K USP Compact ($992), two midsize pistols with external hammers but with different approaches to the problem of building a good self-defense handgun.For example, the Sig always goes to DA mode when you put on its safety, which is not a safety but a hammer dropper. The H&K had one of those too, but in this case its actually a thumb safety which enables cocked-and-locked carry. But if you want to drop the H&Ks hammer, just press down harder on the lever and it drops the hammer in a safe, if sudden, manner. Essentially, the Sig didnt have an external safety, only the hammer-drop lever, or decocker.We tested with WPA 115-grain FMJ, Winchester BEB 115-grain FMJ, and with Independent 115-grain FMJ. We have found it difficult to buy any JHP ammunition, or that of heavier weights locally, thanks to the ongoing national ammo shortage.

The subject of the 223 Remington-chambered rifle for personal defense comes up often, and is now the subject of heated political maneuvering to get these semi-auto long guns banned in some states, or at least reduced in capacity. What is overlooked in almost all of these discussions are the reasons for the rifles popularity: The AR-15 rifle offers good handling, excellent accuracy, ease of control, and a good reserve of firepower when fitted with standard-capacity 20- or 30-round magazines. Another item thats overlooked is what are the best loads for personal defense.We took a hard look at almost two dozen 223 Remington loads and found that many are not well suited for personal defense because they dont offer adequate penetration. Other loads, however, are practically ideal for personal defense. Also, the loads must be reliable in every AR-style firearm or other design chambered for the round, from a Colt HBAR the excellent Ruger Mini-14 rifles. For our test, we used a Bushmaster 16-inch-barrel carbine with Trijicon iron sights. It was a stock set up except for a red receiver plug that tightened things up.The major areas of downrange performance many people wonder about are: Which load is the most frangible?, and which load offers the best combination of downrange public safety, stopping power, and a lack of ricochet? The only means of arriving at the truth is to conduct a test program that is both repeatable and verifiable. To start, we agreed that reliability is more important than anything else. We fired a minimum of 20 rounds - a magazine full - of each load to gauge reliability. It isnt a given that all cartridges run well all of the time. Also, we noted any other malfunctions that occurred during the rest of the test as part of the reliability numbers.Next, we measured both penetration and expansion in our standard gallon-water-jug testing program. In self-defense situations, we cant expect to have a perfect scenario for a low-penetrating round to do its job. Ideally, we wanted somewhere between 15 and 18 inches of water penetration.We also conducted an accuracy test using our defense-length carbine, but you may be able to get better results with longer barrels. Still, using an ATN scope mounted on top of the carry handle, we fired some tiny three-shot groups at 25 yards, which is a long range for personal defense. (For hunting coyotes or predators, this is almost point-blank range.) Just the same, one of our raters noted that some of the loads that were acceptable in the AR-15 for personal defense would also cut a half-inch grip on demand in his heavy-barrel Howa rifle with Nikon scope at 100 yards. So, the accuracy results, while uniformly pretty good, may not reflect the true potential of a load.We shot a number of loads in as many different weights as possible. While bullets of different designs behave differently in the same weight, we felt that the test criteria showed the performance of various classes of loads well. The lightest bullet tested was less than half the weight of the heaviest load, with the weight of the rounds tested ranging from 35 to 77 grains. The ammunition samples tested were in 20-round boxes unless otherwise specified. In the Black Hills lines, each load came from blue box, or remanufactured, products with mismatched cases in 50-round boxes. Heres what we found:

For some shooters, Hollywood seems to have become a prime factor in choosing the style and type of firearm finding favor on the range and in the field. This truism seems to be particularly prevalent when dealing with lever-action rifles. In the old days, Westerns ruled the movie screens and a true-blue cowboy had three good companions - "my rifle, my pony and me" - as sung by Dean Martin in the classic western Rio Bravo.

One of those good companions for quite a few cowboys and hunters of that time period was the Winchester Model 1895. The Model 1895 was the first Winchester rifle to feature a box magazine located underneath the action instead of the tubular magazine design, allowing for the use of military and hunting cartridges with pointed bullets, and was the last lever-action rifle to be designed by legendary gunsmith and inventor John M. Browning. For our test, we were able to obtain a vintage Model 1985 in 30-40 Krag that dates back to the early 1900s, when it sold for a mere $25. The specific firearm we used in the test had spent countless hours in a rifle scabbard on horseback or on the side of a truck bouncing through the South Texas brush near Laredo and has accounted for more jack rabbits, coyotes and whitetail deer than can easily be counted.

On the more modern side of the Hollywood depiction of a lever-action shooter is the recently introduced Mossberg Model 464 ZMB 30-30 Win., offering a variety of high-tech features to handle the highly promoted zombie apocalypse. Short and quick with the ability to add all kinds of optics and lights for effective firepower to stop the undead — if they ever make their appearance — or varmints and deer-sized big game, the Mossberg has upgraded the lever-action rifle to a space-age weapon.

Although the calibers are identical — the 30-40 Krag is also known as the 30 U.S. — the Krag provides a little more punch with a larger bullet than the 30-30 Win. Both cartridges are considered prime brush guns for handling small game up to animals the size of a whitetail deer at ranges of 100 yards or less.

It should be noted that while quite a few rifle cartridges are hard to find with the ongoing high ammo demand, the 30-30 rounds are generally easier to obtain than the veteran 30-40 Krag. We were able to obtain three varieties of 30-30 (including the specially marketed Hornady Zombie Max designed for use on the undead) and two brands of 30-40 Krag for our tests. Here's our report:

Many people still shoot the S&W/Mossberg Model 1000, but it may require your attention. Here are the basics of getting this autoloader operational again.

Lost in the current frenzy to hoard any and all Modern Sporting Rifles are fresh innovations being applied to bolt-action rifles. Not only are new manufacturing techniques making minute-of-angle bolt guns less expensive but more versatile, too. In this test we will evaluate two bolt action rifles chambered for 243 Winchester that offer something extra. The $641 Howa/Hogue Youth 2N1 rifles come with two different stocks so that the same Howa M1500 action will accommodate more than one shooter. Both stocks are manufactured by Hogue, using the OverMolded technique.Thompson Center Armss $679 Dimension rifle offers the ability to accept different-caliber barrels so that the same rifle, or as the manufacturer prefers platform, can be used to hunt a wider variety of game. The Dimension bolt-action platform can be fit with any one of four groups of Locking Optimized Components (LOC) listed as series A, B, C, and D. The A series accommodates 223 Remington and 204 Ruger ammunition. Series C Dimension rifles can swap barrels for 270 Winchester and 30-06 Springfield, while the Series D includes 7mm Remington Magnum and 300 Winchester Magnum. Our Series B Dimension rifle offered the most versatility, able to accept alternate barrels for 22-250 Remington, 7mm-08 Remington, and 308 Winchester as well 243 Win. Thompson Center claims a 1-minute-of-angle accuracy guarantee no matter which caliber is chosen.To test each rifle, we applied a simple accuracy test consisting of shooting from the 100-yard line at American Shooting Centers in Houston using a Caldwell Tack Driver rest for support. The days leading up to our tests were sunny and mild. But our tests days were rainy. Afraid that using paper targets would make archiving difficult, we acquired a supply of Caldwell Tip Top plastic-coated targets with 8-inch Bulls Eye. Impervious to water, they produced razor-sharp definition of each bullet hole. The targets measured 8- by 10- inches overall, and our shots matched the size of the holes that were pre-cut for saving in a three-ring binder. Velocities were recorded by an Oehler 35P Chronograph, which is back in production (Oehler-Research.com).Our test ammunition consisted of three choices featuring three different types of bullets. First, we tried Winchesters 80-grain Jacketed Soft Point, which despite new packaging is the same round used in the February 2013 test of 243 Winchester bolt-action rifles. In addition, we tried a second 80-grain round, this time from Black Hills Ammunition topped with Hornadys GMX bullet. Gilding Metal eXpanding bullets are expanding monolithic bullets fashioned from the same material Hornady uses to jacket its bullet. The maker claims less fouling than solid copper and the GMX bullet features a grooved bearing surface. With so much luck in our last test firing lighter-weight bullets, we also tested with Black Hills 58-grain V-Max ammunition. Hornady V-Max bullets are lead-core jacketed bullets that feature a polymer tip.For optics we decided to continue shooting with the 4-16x50mm Steiner Predator Extreme scope we enjoyed so much in our previous tests. Its clarity helped us cut through the somewhat dim, overcast light. From the 100-yard line, 8x was all the magnification we needed. The Howa rifle made no such claim, but Thompson Center guaranteed minute-of-angle accuracy. We wondered if either manufacturer was being modest.

If you have a handgun for what some consider to be a sub-caliber round, it might be comforting to have lots of shots on hand, because you just might need them. Taking our tongues out of our cheeks now, the 380 can be an effective self-defense handgun cartridge, particularly with todays hotter JHP loads - if you can find any. There are zillions of good used 380s out there, though in todays market you might have the devil of a time finding one. We managed to acquire two, both slightly used, just like what you might have to consider in todays super-tight gun market.Our test pistols were a Beretta Model 84 ($600-$650) and a CZ Model 83 ($550 on up). Both were DA/SA pistols. Their size was about that of the two 40-cal pistols we tested recently here in Idaho, the S&W M&P 40 Compact and the Kahr CW40 (March 2013). Most of the small nines weve been testing are considerably smaller than these two 380s. We wouldnt call either of them pocket guns. Theyd fit a purse or a decent holster nicely, though. They both had fat grips, so theyll bulge the concealment clothing somewhat more than a 45 auto.These two guns were uncannily alike in some ways, though of completely different designs by two proud old makers. Although both were DA/SA guns, they could be carried cocked and locked. They had ambidextrous safeties and external hammers. They had staggered magazines that held 12 or 13 rounds. Their two-quick-shot, DA/SA feels were so much alike we could not tell a difference. Both were simple blowback actions, with enough mass to their slides that they didnt require barrel-locking mechanisms. The slides simply reciprocate after each shot and the barrels never move. Both had metal frames, a breath of fresh air, we thought, in todays plastic-dominated market.Like the rest of the world, we currently have a shortage of common ammunition here in Idaho, so we had to test this pair of 380s with just one type of ammo, 95-grain FMJ, in two persuasions. Most of that fodder has about the same ballistics, so what we got is about what youd expect from anything you might find of a similar nature. Cor-Bon makes hotter 380 JHP ammo, as does Federal and a few others, but none was available to our test team at this writing. Heres what we found.

The long-range hunter or seeker of varmints in windy conditions often chooses a 25-caliber rifle, and the Weatherby 257 cartridge is about the hottest of those easily available. Weatherby is happy to sell you one off the rack, or they can whip one up to your own specifications, if you have long pockets. Weatherby makes quite a few versions of rifles in this caliber, and we chose to test the vaunted Mark V Deluxe ($2400) against the Vanguard Series 2 Deluxe ($1149) to see what you might get for the extra money needed to buy the Mark V.No matter how you cut it, theres no denying the aura of the Weatherby name, and we must admit we enjoyed using two fabulous 30mm Leupold scopes on these very precise and good-looking Weatherby rifles. Maybe thats enough reason to buy one. Still, we should note that we had the devil of a time finding ammo, and finally bought some from a local user of the cartridge in two persuasions, 87-grain Spire Point and 120-grain Nosler Partition. Here are our findings.