The US Army is going to hold a new Carbine Competition. This weapon will be replacing the M-4 Carbine. I suspect adoption will occur in 2013 or ’14… but the question is which gun is going to take it. All the major players are gearing up for this. Colt, HK, FNH, Remington, Beretta even has one, and Robinson will throw their XCR up again…. there will undoubtedly be others as well.
The most interesting one, in my opinion is the Remington ACR. I’d love to see that one adopted in 6.8SPC. The new Beretta looks awesome, but I think it looks a bit too delicate, and I but there is an accuracy issue with it. The XCR doesn’t interest me much… the SCAR didn’t make a whole lot of friends who were actually using it in combat and got its self de-funded. The Colt is just another AR type… and the future M4A1 is essentially just an M4 with a heavier barrel and ambi controls. If SHOT Show was any indication as to where the DOD Brass was… it was all around Remington. I think they are going to take it. I don’t see anyone else really stepping up and taking this one home.
Something bad is happening… you have to go. Now. You grab one weapon… only one. What do you grab? I have a modest collection of arms, but I couldn’t grab all of them. I’d have to pick one. I suspect most of my readers are in the same boat. I’ll give you guys about 1 second to guess what my choice would be.
Back in 2006 at the SHOT Show, I saw Beretta’s new 90-Two pistol. Forgive me for saying this, but I think the name is stone cold retarded. This is a different handgun than the 92, yet they are pronounced the same. Thank you Mr. Too Clever For Your Own Good… This is about as good of a name as the FN Five-seveN pistol, but at least the FN isn’t being confused with any other handgun. Brilliant move, Beretta.
Shooting those .44 Mags again today… really put the Wheel Gun itch back into me. Sure, revolvers have a limited supply of ammo on board. Sure, for most people, revolvers are slower to reload.
However, Revolvers have some other qualities that are big bonuses… They are not Ammo Sensitive like an Auto. An Auto has to fire ammo that is within a certain power range or they wont cycle. Revolvers don’t. You can shoot super light target loads, you can shoot super hot magnum hunting loads… all through the same cylinder without changing anything.
When friends come out from Hill AFB and say they want to do some shooting – we go shooting. So Mike and Tony came out yesterday, and Tony picked up a nice Savage 10 FCP topped it with a 6.5-20×44 Vortex Viper. Mike brought out the finished Crusader Broadsword. Both guns needed to be zeroed, so today, we went to the range, including WTA’s Khorne.
Mike, going prone... Nailing the 400 yard plate - every shot.
We got in a demo display from Crimson Trace. Dummy guns with the laser grip on them. Just to see if they fit, I pulled the 1911 grips of the dummy gun and put them on my ATI Commander. They fit perfectly and the all black grips certainly looked a lot better than the strange wood grips. We came to the decision that they are made of Peckerwood. But we can’t confirm that. The all black look worked. I had been thinking of going with a nice redish colored wood, but now I’m thinking of doing the blackout routine with this gun. Plain, simple, all black… I like it.
But do I want to do the Crimson Trace grips? I know Crimson Trace laser grips have some distinct advantages. Anything that can help you get on target – advantage. Anything that could keep you from having to drop the hammer in a stress situation – advantage. $250 tariff, not such an advantage. That’s a heavy price tag. I don’t know if I want to spend that much on this gun. This is not my defensive gun… it’s a project gun. A tinker gun. I might just do those cheap Ergo Grips plastic things. After all, I have a set of those on my SIG TacOps, and it actually does very well. The Sig deserves better, but still… the grips work.
I remain impressed with the overall quality of the gun. It’s so far proven to be a great buy. At the time of purchase, and even since I had first seen them, I had only one complaint. The wood grips look like they are cheap plastic. Now I have another complaint.
ATI is bringing in some really well made 1911’s. I’ve been eyeballing this Commander for almost 5 months now. Had to do it… I… can’t… help… myself.
A Commander 1911 .45... My biggest weakness.
I’m an addict… I know. I have a problem. I admit it. I LOVE guns.
Crusader Weaponry list of soon to be done upgrades: Full ST-1 Treatment. Trigger Job, Action Job, and an OD Green Duracoat on the grip frame. Then those nasty wood grips are getting replaced with something else… I don’t care what.
You’ve all heard the news about the 2 soldiers that were killed in Germany. I’m not going to go into all that… save for one small little detail. Our soldiers were unarmed.
Once again, “Policy” has killed our troops. Our Policy is that all US Forces are unarmed almost all the time. This Policy allowed for more deaths at Ft. Hood as well.
Nikon has a great scope for a .223 rifle, such as your AR-15. They call it the “M-223”. It’s slick and easy to use. It’s actually one of my favorite optics for any longer barreled AR build (Think Crusader Templar) or Varminter configuration.
What does Nikon have for AR-10/SR-25/Broadsword? Nothing so much… Right now for a Broadsword I’m thinking a PFI RR800.
What Nikon needs to do is a .308 specific scope, much like the M-223… but with an illuminated reticle.