Table of contents for September/October 2023 #68 in Recoil

Overlanding, as we know it these days, combines elements of long-distance travel, off-roading, exploration, and camping. The joys of the journey are just as important as the destinations, both known and unknown. However, it’s become so popular and building rugged — or at least rugged-looking — overlanding vehicles so common that they’re often the butt of jokes, especially when their owners only use them for commutes and Starbucks runs. That, however, isn’t the case for this 2014 Toyota Tundra SR5. Brian Sollom used to see and admire the truck around town; its original owner had installed some distinctive upgrades. Then, in 2017, Sollom stumbled across that same truck for sale at the local Toyota dealership and immediately bought it. Thus began his descent into the rabbit hole of off-roading and…

Back in the Stone Age, you had two choices when it came to a .30-caliber AR. DPMS and Armalite battled for supremacy in the civilian market, while Knight’s Armament did their thing in support of our military, largely ignoring the American public. When you have a limited production capacity and a rich uncle in Washington, business decisions come a little easier. For a while, the two civvy companies were neck-and-neck in the marketplace, despite using different magazines. Then, the SR-25 was adopted by the Army, and the decision as to which mag pattern would win out became a no-brainer, with Armalite belatedly forced to join the party and abandon their M14-based bullet box. After the dust settled, consumers were still faced with a decision regarding upper and lower receiver geometry.…

Hollywood is notorious for flubbing details on firearms. We’ve all seen suppressed revolvers, repeated “hammer falls” on Glocks, handguns being aimed with the slide to the rear, and magazines that never need swapping. It’s enough to make any semi-knowledgeable firearm aficionado want to throw up their hands and say, “Can’t they ever get it right?” Every now and then, they actually do. Especially when you have an armorer like Rock Galotti working on the film, and guys like Taran Butler building guns and training actors for it. To be fair, most errors are caused by poor editing, inexperienced artists or sound people, or firearms randomly chosen because they look cool to the director. However, when they do get it right, we tend to notice. This is especially true when the…

Manufacturing in the United States has been suffering a death of a thousand cuts, with workers in many previously booming industries finding their jobs evaporating, and others waking to find their careers exported overseas. The COVID-19 pandemic and the lockdown that followed froze supply chains, and the fatal flaw of just-in-time production and global logistics waiting in the wings reared its ugly head. Seemingly overnight, the river of products, parts, and pieces manufactured in mainland China dried up. Facilities that relied on foreign materials didn’t have resources, and those “American” companies that simply relabel foreign products suddenly had no product at all. This hit every industry, everywhere. Firearms manufacturing faced the unique problem of higher-than-ever demand combined with harder-than-ever logistics. “We can’t make things here — it’s too expensive” is…

At the conclusion of our first-ever CANCON suppressor shoot near Savannah, Georgia, last fall, we had a number of inquiries about the possibility of doing one further west. After not-so-much thought, we decided to pitch the CANCON tent at Ben Avery Shooting Facility in Phoenix, Arizona. Founded in 1957, Ben Avery is one of the oldest publicly owned and operated shooting ranges in the United States. The Arizona Game & Fish Department administers and operates the range, offering a wide variety of ranges including a 1,000-yard range to stretch your legs. With such an extensive facility and such history in the shooting community, we knew this would be an ideal place to hold our second-ever and first-in-the-West CANCON event over the last weekend in April. Presented in partnership with Silencer…

01 MIDWEST INDUSTRIES UNIVERSAL SHELL HOLDER MSRP: $18 URL: midwestindustriesinc.com Giddy up, modern-day cowboy, because the lever-action gun has made a comeback and it’s looking like it’s here to stay. That’s why companies are producing accessories for this 19th-century rifle with modern materials and state-of-the-art manufacturing. One such example is Midwest Industries’ Universal Shell Holder. Because this little component is M-LOK compatible, you can place it almost anywhere along an M-LOK handguard. Made of high-strength polymer, it can hold most lever cartridges — ranging from .38 Special to .45-70 — so you have a convenient place to stow extra ammo while also giving you quick access to a fresh round. It’s made in the USA and comes with a lifetime warranty. 02 GERBER DUAL-FORCE MSRP: $83 URL: www.gerbergear.com When a…

At first glance, the drop-point blade may not seem very special. In fact, it borders on the ordinary. This type of blade has a slope along the spine that runs from the handle to the tip. Because of the drop of the point, it’s aligned with the center axis of the handle and makes for a tool that’s very effective at stabbing. A drop point is distinctive from other knife designs in that the top curve of the tip is always in a convex shape. This allows for a good hunting or camping knife in the field. The late custom knifemaker, Bob Loveless, popularized the hollow-ground drop-point blade to a degree that these types of knives are often referred to as Loveless style. Yet, Loveless took his designs slightly further…

Retro AR-15s are all the rage, but at the end of the day most of them are simply ARs wearing different dresses. Foreign military weapons fall into a seemingly magical category where they’re believed to be ideal by those who haven’t used them, but actually come with some traps and shortfalls. Like the upgraded AUG in RECOIL Issue 65, today we take on the challenge of updating a foreign mini monster, the HK G3k. The G3 has been used by many countries as their primary service rifle, yet to pop culture, its smaller roller-locked brother, the MP5, is better known, at least here in the United States. The precursor to the G3, the Spanish CETME rifle, was based around the roller-delayed blowback system of the German StG 45(M) and French…

You don’t need to be Survivorman to know that two core elements to your well-being are the ability to communicate and the ability to navigate. While modern smartphones have amazing processing power, beautiful touchscreen displays, and excellent user interfaces, they’re battery hogs, susceptible to damage, and dependent on cellular network coverage. Sometimes, purpose-built tools hit the spot. Garmin got its start in 1989 with innovative GPS navigation products for the aviation industry and has expanded since then into the outdoor, sports, and wearable segments. But navigation, whether for planes, vehicles, or boats, has always remained a constant. Their latest handheld GPS unit, the GPSMAP 67i, combines navigation and satellite communications in one rugged package. It feels like a really chunky old-school mobile phone, with a 2.5x1.5-inch color display and a…

Many moons ago, Veterans Vices was a web-only series we ran every once in a while. Since then, we’ve covered dozens of different brands, each one built by a veteran and their story. A small barbecue seasoning company in Texas called Grill Your Ass Off was one of the first companies we covered back then. Since GYAO recently entered an exciting partnership, and has never actually graced the print page, we felt like this was an ideal opportunity to follow-up with them. Following medical separation from his service as an infantryman in the 3rd U.S. Infantry Regiment, colloquially known as The Old Guard, Jason Mruff returned home to Texas. Like many veterans, his transition back to civilian life was perilous and seemingly without purpose. Also, like many, a return-to-roots was…

The Submarine Force Museum is an amazing place for all ages, with an extensive artifact collection. Nowhere else in the United States can the general public visit a nuclear-powered submarine. If you love history and visiting museums, this is a wonderful place to spend a day. The museum is located in Groton, Connecticut, and was founded on April 11, 1986, 86 years to the day of the birth of America’s submarine force. It’s fully funded and operated by the U.S. Navy and features the world’s first nuclear-powered submarine, the USS Nautilus. The museum typically receives over 100,000 visitors a year. PRESERVING THE HISTORY OF AMERICA’S SILENT SERVICE In 2021, U.S. Navy Lieutenant Commander Derek Sutton became the Officer-In-Charge (OIC) of the USS Nautilus. He also serves as the director of…

Brownells is a huge player in the AR-15 aftermarket, so it came as a bit of a surprise when they jumped full bore into the black rifle scene with Stoner’s other carbine. It’s arguable that the AR-18 is a more successful design than the AR-15, as its fingerprints can be found in the majority of military small arms of the late 20th and early 21st centuries. The entire list reads like a who’s who of desirable guns — the G36, BREN, SCAR, FN2000, AUG, T91, VHS, Daewoo K1, Howa Type 89, and GROT. Oh, and the SA80. All use a short-stroke gas piston to drive a carrier that holds a rotating, multi-lug bolt. The BRN-180 recreates Stoner’s recipe but is adapted to modern manufacturing methods, mating to an AR-15 lower…

After languishing in the “almost-made-it” doldrums for years, the 5.7x28mm is experiencing a bit of a resurgence, with a half-dozen or so new guns chambered for the pipsqueak round. Smith & Wesson is the latest to enter the fray, and they’ve taken a completely different approach from everyone else with the gas-operated M&P. In today’s world of plastic-framed, striker-fired, 9mm uniformity, the Smith 5.7 is like standing on a mountain top in baggy shorts. It’s a waft of cool, refreshing air across the sweaty gonads of an industry not known for out-of-the-box thinking. While the new pistol may look like the rest of the M&P lineup, it’s completely different under the skin, so let’s dive in and look at what makes it tick. We might as well get to the…

Whisky is simply distilled beer. Malted grain, water, and yeast combine to work fermentation’s magic. Once fermentation is complete, distillation proceeds, and the alcohol vapor is captured, condensed, and stored in oak barrels. After three years, the spirit can officially be referred to as whisky. While there are many delightful whiskies distilled around the globe, the only whisky that can legally be called scotch is whisky distilled in Scotland, where malted barley is the grain of choice. And while the word “scotch” covers all the whisky originating from Scotland, there’s a mind-boggling variety of spirits with dizzying variations in flavor. Scotch may be easy to make, but it’s tough to master. Scotland’s whisky originates from one of five geographic areas, and these whiskies are either single malts or blended whiskies.…

You’re probably looking at this and thinking, “Man, what the gun world really needs right now is a 9mm, polymer-framed, striker-fired handgun.” Because no one is making those, right? Normally, we’d tend to agree with you, but because this pistol was developed with help from one of the greatest shooters the world has seen, we’re not that jaded. Yet. We first clapped eyes on Springfield’s newest offering about two years ago at a range in Croatia. Back then, it didn’t have a name, but representatives from the company had great hopes for it, as did their local partners at HS Produkt. Springfield’s existing polymer handgun line, built around the venerable XD, was looking a bit long in the tooth, and it was way past time for a refresh. One of…

It’s been said before that the heart of a rifle is its barrel. We’ve covered Rosco Manufacturing several times before, having witnessed firsthand their fully in-house approach to producing high-performing AR barrels at affordable prices. In 2021, they launched the first product in a new line of barrels they refer to as their K9 line. The idea behind this line is to manufacture what Rosco calls a Performance Duty Barrel that blends the best features of traditional match-grade barrels with hard-use barrels intended for duty and defensive use. The K9 line starts with 416R stainless steel bar stock with a continuous taper profile, recessed target crown, finished in black nitride, and with a goldilocks gas port optimized to run reliably in both suppressed and unsuppressed setups. All K9 rifles are…