Tag Archives: Pistols

Weapons

Remington R51 Do-Over

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I was asked what I thought about the Remington R51 Re-Release.

Look… I wanted to like the R51.  I really did.  I think it looks cool, and I like the idea of an all metal single stacked 9mm, that’s not a 1911, Kahr, or SIG P225… just for the sake of variety.  I really wanted to like it.  But a couple things gave me pause.  One, is the Pederson Hesitation Lock system it uses… which is… just not that good.  Then Remington made a very limited invitation only special pre-release introduction for certain Gun Media guys with a history of liking everything that comes their way.    Okay, that’s fine… They wanted good impressions to get out there.  Sure.  Every Gun Company wants that.   But the warning lights started flashing when shortly there after at the Media Day at the Range, the day before SHOT SHOW that year – The Remington R51 was suspiciously absent.

Warning Klaxons sounded in my head when at the Remington Booth, Remington Employees were physically blocking people from getting to where the R51 was on display.   They stood around the display like defensive Musk Ox surrounding their young.

Remington Reps protecting the R51 at SHOT SHOW.
Remington Reps protecting the R51 at SHOT SHOW.

They wanted Dealers to order them… they just didn’t want anyone to actually touch it.  But I did.  I went around behind them, went behind a counter, and got in to where it was hanging on the wall, behind the Remington People.  I could tell from the expressions on their faces when they saw me – that they were pissed.

When I handled the gun… I liked the size and weight just fine.  But the action felt like it was broken inside.  That hesitation lock felt like it was going to be a Jam Maker.  The Grip Safety was awkward as it pivoted backwards from normal, it had sharp edges of the frame exposed when the safety was depressed.
I warned people to avoid being an early adopter of the R51.
Turns out I was right, and all the pistols I had warned people about – all got recalled.  The gun was a bigger pile of crap than I had expected it to be.

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Now, fast forward and Big Green is releasing the gun again.  All the work to rebuild the gun, all the new engineering and testing… should have been done before it was released to begin with.   It should have been tested – thoroughly – before it was released.    This was Remington’s fault, resting squarely on the shoulders of Remington.  But Remington pointed their fingers at Para USA, in Charlotte, NC…. where the R51 was being produced.   This wasn’t a quality control issue… this was a DESIGN ISSUE.   And guys at Para were saying “This isn’t right”.  Turns out that the guys at Para were right as well.  Because to fix the gun, Remington didn’t have to tight QC on the production line… they had to re-engineer  the bloody handgun.  Proving that it was indeed, a design issue.

Maybe the gun is now “fixed”.  But the first people to test it and say it’s fine – are some of the first people that said it was good to go the first time.   I have a bit of a problem with that.   When asked by a friend what my initial thoughts were about the new again R51… my knee-jerk reaction was “I’d rather have a Bersa.”

So my advice is the same as before.  Avoid being an Early Adopter of these R51 2.0’s.

Weapons

Carolina Arms Group’s new Privateer 1911

18 Comments

Carolina Arms Group is located not very far away from me at all.  About 45 minutes up I-77 and I’m pulling into their parking lot.  So I’ve come to know the owner and I’ve met most everyone working at CAG.    CAG has made some very nice 1911’s… and some of the the best 1911’s I’ve ever handled.  That was the Trenton Series, a family of 1911’s named after the Battle of Trenton.      But now CAG has a new series of pistols.  Meet the PRIVATEER.

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I’m going to say this… and I don’t say this lightly.  In fact, I’ve considered this for some time and I keep coming back to the same conclusion.  This is the best 1911 I’ve ever seen.  Let me say this again…
THIS IS THE BEST 1911 I HAVE EVER SEEN.

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I’ve been into 1911’s since I was 16 and the father of a girlfriend introduced me to them.  His name was Dave and he was awesome.  I don’t even remember his daughter anymore… but I remember Dave.  Dave taught me the Tao of Browning.   He taught me how the gun works, inside and out, and how to shoot it.

Dave literally saved my life because of this… because the Army gave me Zero training when they issued me a 1911 and it was a 1911 that I used to save my life when someone was intent on ending it.   I’ve always loved the 1911 since those rather exciting days.  And I’ve always taken them seriously because of it.

I’ve tested and reviewed some of the best 1911’s on the planet, and have owned 1911’s from the likes of Terry Tussy and other high end custom gunsmiths…  And let me tell you… The CAG PRIVATEER 1911 is the finest example of the 1911 Pistol.   Period.  Saint John Moses Browning himself smiles upon the CAG Privateer and is well pleased.

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Differences from the Trenton series have the Privateer using a regular, fine, checkering on the frame and the inclusion of an accessory rail.  Up top it’s wearing Tritium Night Sights instead of fiber optics.  As all serious use handguns should.  The grips are a slim profile, which makes the gun more narrower in the hand, which is great when wearing gloves… and even better when the gun is tight against your side when it’s riding in a holster.

The whole gun, including the barrel, is finished with a gorgeous DLC finish.  Diamond Like Coating.  The DLC Finish is incredibly strong, resistant, and smooth.   The gun looks amazing.  The laser engraving really pops and looks clean unlike anything coated in Cerakote or other finishes.  The Fit and Finish are – FLAWLESS – to the point that no photo will ever do these guns justice.   You have to see these guns in person.  You have to feel them in your hands.  You have to feel the slide’s action.  You have to feel the trigger.  You have to feel the difference between these guns and every other 1911 out there.

One day, I’m going to own a CAG Privateer in a Commander length.

Hit Carolina Arms Group on Facebook, and tell them I sent you.
If you want a Carolina Arms Group pistol… See them at Point Blank Range.  Or contact PBR and order one.

UPDATE:

I paid a visit to Carolina Arms Group today… The makers of very desirable things. I got a peek at a new model, the Veteran Carry… which is an insanely smooth Bobtail Commander. It’s fantastic. Save your Pennies. And they are going to be rolling out some knives with carbon fiber scales, and matching carbon fiber grips for the pistol. VERY nice. Impressive. Mark threw some laser engraving on my knife… Thanks, Mark! If you guys need anything lasered – contact CAG and talk to them about it. Their laser system is fast and precise… sharpest looking laser work out there.
The new Veteran Carry – that’s the one to get!
‪#‎feelthedifference‬.

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Sneak Peek at the new Veteran Carry pistol.  It’s not even finished and it’s gorgeous as hell.  The Want is strong with this one.

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Taking the time to fit it right.  By hand.

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The little details are the important ones.   It has to be perfect.

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What goes good with a high quality gun?  A high quality blade.

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You’ll be able to order a Carolina Arms Group accessory kit with your pistol… Which includes the holster, knife, and matching grips.

Weapons

SIG P220 Combat

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The P220 Combat is designed to meet, and exceed, rigorous military standards. The P220 Combat performs like no other .45ACP available. Each pistol features the military’s Flat Dark Earth finish on its alloy frame and SIG’s Nitron® over a stainless slide. Internal parts and controls are phosphated for extreme corrosion resistance and reduced friction while the threaded barrel is hard chromed and finished in Nitron® which easily passes the military’s accuracy requirements – even after 20,000 rounds. The P220 Combat also passes the military’s 240-hour salt spray corrosion test. Outfitted with a true M1913 Picatinny rail, vertical front strap serrations and SIGLITE® night sights.

Continue reading SIG P220 Combat →

Weapons

I’m going to have to swing back to SIG after today.

10 Comments

I don’t know why I left SIG in the first place.  Pretty much I left SIG for Glock because sometimes I go into Retard Mode or something.   I should never have left.  I love SIG’s and I love .45’s and flirting with smaller guns that don’t even have hammers – a mistake I shall never make again.

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We’ve had this lightly used SIG 227 sitting in the gun counter for about 6 months now… I had 15 rounds of .45 Auto PMC Bronze on my desk for about that same period of time.
Well, today I put them to work.  HOLY CRAP!  The 227 is absolutely one of the nicest shooting .45’s I’ve ever fired.   It’s smooth, super soft recoil, and dang is it accurate.   That is 15 rounds at 25 feet.  No… seriously… 15 rounds.  I put 10 rounds in the mag, ran the target to 25 feet, fired 10 rounds, reloaded with the last 5, fired them and brought the target back in.  HOLE-LEE-CRAP.
I’m an okay shot – but not this good!  That’s the GUN.  The only other gun that’s on par with this is the CZ 97B… or $1800+ 1911’s.

This made me just fall in love with SIG’s all over again.  So much…  There’s a used SIG 220 Carry that I’ve been very tempted about.  This might be pushing me over the edge.

Weapons

Bond Arms Derringers

14 Comments

I was driving to work yesterday, sitting in a traffic jam on I-77 really… and listing to Glenn Beck on the Patriot XM.  And I heard an advertisement for Bond Arms Derringers.

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Then last night I was with my wife at Cabela’s and she pointed out the Bond Arms and was basically “Oh look, Shiny!”
Here’s the thing about Bond Arms.  They do make the best Derringers on the market.   They are built with high quality standards, good materials, and with an excellent fit and finish.  I’ve never seen a bad one.

But I’ve also never seen one I’d actually carry for Self Defense.  They are thick and they are heavy.  They are solid chunks of steel weight with two holes drills through them.  They are as thick as a Double Whopper With Cheese.   And for all that size and weight, you only get two shots.  Now, I understand the reason for all that beef… Because you can change barrels and change calibers… tons of options for that.  But every option leaves you with just two shots.

Two from a gun with horrible sights and a horrible trigger, that has to be manually cocked.  How you get a terrible trigger pull from a Single Action Trigger is beyond me.    Combine bad sights and a bad trigger with only 2 shoots and you get something that’s very much Less than Ideal for actual self defense use.    Put that in a package that’s so thick and heavy – you will not be carrying it very often.

Bond Arms looks Old School Cool.  And they are.  Just don’t be buying them for actual self defense use.

Weapons

CZ Scorpion EVO 3

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12088322_10206672771871363_6133863789900828887_n   Having a chance to play with a number of these new SMG type pistols… I keep coming back to the Scorpion.

It’s a simple firearm.  A good looking firearm.  And one that feels good and runs better.  It’s not perfect… but it’s close.  There are some things I’d change about it.  Such as that grip.  And I’d make the rail sections removable on the sides.    But really those are just Nit-Pick items.  The gun is solid.  The gun is good to go.  It begs to be SBR’d and if you want an EVO, just factor in that 200 dollar tax stamp.  Because you are going to want it. 12096135_10206672771551355_4257334043752774689_n

It’s just cool looking.  It looks like a modern SMG, and not a 1950’s hold over.  It looks like something that would make the head honchos at HK slam fists into tables.  I need one of these.  The next gun I’m going to get is probably going to be a KSG… But after the KSG, it’s going to be an EVO 3.  12106887_10206672771991366_2362461247993396905_n

The ergos on the CZ are not as nice as the SIG MPX, but are very good for an SMG if you are used to SMG’s.  The HK Slap works well here, and is a welcome feature.  As is the mag release.

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I know a lot of guys are digging the Kriss or the SIG… and both are great.  Both have strong reasons to consider them.  The SIG because of the familiarity.  If you can run an AR – you can run an MPX.  The Kriss, as weird as it is – and it is really weird – is running common Glock 21 magazines.   That’s an advantage.    But the CZ, for me, just nails it… Hitting all the points I want in this type of firearm.  And it’s the least expensive of the three.

Weapons

XD MOD.2 SERVICE

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20151005_142305The XD MOD.2 Service.  A new XD I could actually own.

This is the best rework of the XD series Springfield has.  I like this better than the XDM.  The new MOD.2 is shaped right.  It fills the hand without being too large and is just grippy enough to be be grippy without being abrasive.  The regular XD’s and XDM’s feel slick in my hands… .and for that reason I just don’t take to them.   20151005_142251Had this been the design back before I got my Glock 23 – I think I could have been very likely to have selected one of these.  Now look at the Slide and Frame contours… You know what?  The XD isn’t ugly anymore.  It’s grown into quite the handsome figure.  I like the slide serrations.  They did a great job.
There’s just one problem.
20151005_142243“GRIP ZONE”?  Seriously?  Where’s the “SLIDE ZONE” markings?  Captain Obvious needs to stay out of the Design Room at Springfield and maybe take a holiday to eastern Syria.  GRIP ZONE… Who approved that?  Who did that?  Who is responsible for GRIP ZONE?  If you know who that guy is… Mark his face with a Sharpie “SLAP ZONE”.  Please.
Other than that… Home Run, Springfield.  Home Run!  I’ll be waiting for and 3.8 Compact Mod.2 in the XDM series…  But this is tempting. as it is.  Very well done, Springfield… Bravo!

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Weapons

Armchair Quarterbacking: FNH Part 1.

15 Comments

This is a long time coming.  I’ve wanted to Armchair Quarterback FNH for a good long time – but have always put it off because I knew this was going to be a massive AQB Session.   Because I’ve got a lot of notes to go through here.  Buckle Up.

The only question here is how do we go about this one?  Let’s make it easy for you guys to follow along.  Go grab a 2015 FNH Catalog from your stack/file of manufacturer’s catalogs… or stop by your local dealer to get one.   Let’s just go through this page by page.

3-0252060Page 13… Notice that it takes you 13 pages in their product catalog to get to their catalog.   The prior 12 pages establish that, yes, FNH is awesome.  They’ve take the Banner of the Builders of Badass away from Colt and away from HK.  Impressive feat.  You should change your logo now.  Gloss Black background with gold lettering.  Where was I?  Ah – Page 13.  We see a great photo of an FNS-9C.    That’s an outstanding pistol.   Recently there came the addition of the .40 caliber version – which is outstanding.   But where is the FNS-45C?  That’s a hole right in the middle of the lineup.  There are a lot of shooters that still like .45 Auto.  I myself would rather a .45 than a 9mm.
Another hole in this line up of Compacts – is a compact FNX.  A hammer fired version.  I know Strikers are all the Rage, and coming out with a Striker compact first was a good move, yes.  However I’m waiting on the X version.  I want a hammer.  Not only that, I want that compact hammer-fired pistol in .45.  I’m a traditionalist… I have gray in my beard… I’ve earned my opinion.
Now let’s talk about the FNS-C pistols specifically.  Making them a straight up chopped version of the full sized guns is good – but you kind of missed the point on this.  Compacts like these are meant for covert carry.  Concealed carry.  Under Cover, close to the body, under the shirt and inside the waistband carry.   The problem is that the FNS-C’s have some bloody sharp edges on it where there shouldn’t be.
Give the “Little C” pistols a melt job.  Just have a guy hit them with a belt sander a little bit before sending the slide to get finished.  Hit some of that grip frame as well.  In fact, if you could… Take that grip frame and just sand that frame rail right off the bottom.   No rails.

NO RAILS!!!
NO RAILS!!!

The idea here is to keep the FNS-9C as small as possible and as comfortable as possible for concealed carry.  Don’t think that would work?  Look at the SIG M-11, it has no rails and SIG is selling the hell out of them.  Oh, would you look at that – it also has a hammer. Just sayin.

Pages 15-17.  The FNS and FNX series as shown.  Solid guns.  I really like them.  But turn real quick to page 18.  What do you see?  The FNX-45 Tactical.
Are you following me here?   Yeah… I’m going to say it.  Where are the FNX-9 Tacticals?  And the FNX-40 Tacticals?  With the extended threaded barrels, suppressor sights, and slides cut for Micro-Red Dots?   S&W has this with the CORE pistols – hugely popular.  In fact, when I was with a certain tactical holster company – that was one of the #1 questions about the M&P holsters – would they fit the CORE.  Glock has the MOS series of pistols out now – all pre-cut for RMR sights.  What – does FNH think only guys wanting that are shooting .45 Autos?
While we are talking Tactical editions… Where is an FNS Tactical?  Because the CORE and the MOS pistols just happen to be strikers.  FNH, you need to bring balance to these forces.

Let’s talk colors.  Page 18 and page 19, I’m seeing Tan frames.  Where are the Tan frames on the other pistols?  I mean, obviously, you guys have the capability to do tan frames… but you’ve chosen not to.   Let me tell ya something.  Glock pistols in the alternate Tan color – always sell out before the regular black pistols do.   And a Tan gun in the Compact lines actually make a lot more sense as they will be less noticeable than a black gun.  That and folks just like different color options.  I’m not saying pull out a rainbow… But FDE and ODG would not go amiss here.

Speaking of a miss here… The long slide guns… Some factory installed adjustable sights with a high-vis front sight post would be ideal.

Know what would also be idea?  An FNX Tactical in 10mm.  Yes, I’m suggesting that.  Interest in 10mm is on the upswing and more options in 10mm would really help.  Working with dealers who sell FNH – I have heard many many times “If this was in 10mm…”
Come on – just a special edition run of them at least.  That would be legendary.

309920dfb0Page 19.  The Five-Seven.  You know what else I’ve heard a lot of wishes about?  A Compact version of the Five-Seven for concealed carry.  Guys that are into it wish they could pack these concealed.
Shorter mags down to 20 rounds – chop the barrel a 3/4 an inch, melt job, and no rails.   The 57C. Seriously… that would be awesome.  Also, it needs the Tactical Treatment as well.  Extended threaded, RMR cut.  Do it.  People ask for it.FNH FN57C

FNH FN57C. Compact package with a 15 round magazine. Threaded Barrel Available.

I’m not even all that much of a Five-Seven Fan – but that’s hot.  I’d buy that.  A 15 round Compact?  Hell yeah I would.  That’s awesome.

One last thing on the FN Handguns:
PLEASE BRING BACK THE HI-POWER.
Do so with modern sights, contoured controls, and without the magazine disconnect safety.  Thank you.

To Be Continued.

Weapons

Which one?

21 Comments

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The FNH FNX 45 is one of the top contenders in the debate about what the new military pistol should be.   20150708_133345 It’s big, accurate, has a high capacity, and as reliable as the sunrise.   It would be a great sidearm for any of our nation’s warriors.20150708_133404

Unless that warrior had small hands.  Even with the replaceable backstraps… it’s still a large pistol to hold on to for a lot of people. 20150708_133522  Many would not be able to operate it as efficiently as would be ideal.   20150708_133537

The HK HK45 on the other hand, is far more ergonomic and doesn’t feel as large.  It’s as accurate and reliable as the FNX, but it doesn’t have the capacity.  12 instead of 15.   So it’s a trade of.  A few less rounds, but more comfortable and more people can shoot it easier.  And… it’s a sexier looking pistol.  Given the pros and cons… it’s a touch choice.  What do you guys think?  Pick one.
(My normal response of “Both” is of course already noted.  But if you had to pick just one… pick one.)  20150708_133623