Tabla de contenidos para May/June 2018 en Recoil

1 SHOTGUN MAKE: SDS Imports MODEL: Lynx 12 MSRP: $550 URL: sdsimports.com 2 RED DOT MAKE: Vortex MODEL: SPARC II MSRP: $259 URL: www.vortexoptics.com 3 CERAKOTE MAKE: We Plead The 2nd MODEL: Custom MSRP: $250 URL: wepleadthe2nd.com 4 JACKET MAKE: Sportsman Guide MODEL: Chinese Military Surplus Sherpa Trench Coat MSRP: $140 URL: www.sportsmansguide.com 5 HAT MAKE: Sportsman Guide MODEL: Russian Military Surplus Ushanka Hat MSRP: $15 URL: www.sportsmansguide.com 6 MAGAZINE MAKE: AGP Arms Saiga-12 MODEL: 10-round mag MSRP: $35 URL: agparms.com…

Nine megatons, for most of us, might as well be an imaginary number. Without context or technical understanding, it’s simply a numerical word that, admittedly, does sound a little intimidating even on the surface. But its full scope and meaning is lost without more concrete understanding. So let us assist in that endeavor — nine megatons is approximately 600 times more powerful than the atomic bombs dropped on Japan during World War II. Now that we’ve established the degree of potency, let’s talk about the value of time. These nine megatons can be launched from a fully hardened underground bunker in 58 seconds. That might be less time than it took you to browse the table of contents, notice this article, decide you wanted to read it, and flip to…

The U.S. Army Special Operations Command, commonly referred to as USASOC, is the largest single component of the inter-service U.S. Special Operations Command (USSOCOM) and the controlling element for all Army Special Operations Forces. Headquartered at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, USASOC is responsible for units like the 75th Ranger Regiment, 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment, 1st Special Forces Command, and the John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center and School. In short, USASOC is responsible for training and leading soldiers who are extremely proficient at putting boot to ass for freedom. Part of what makes these units so capable is the immense amount of time and effort they put into their training. They attend laundry lists of schools and put in thousands of hours of unit-level training. But even professional badassery…

Law enforcement aviation units have existed for more than 60 years, but a lot has changed over the decades. In the early days, helicopters were used primarily to give police a bird’s-eye view of traffic and special events. Only a few departments used helicopters, primarily large metropolitan areas like New York City and Los Angeles. Today, there are countless missions that involve law enforcement aviation units across the country. What started as a means of traffic control has evolved into search and rescue, medivac, surveillance, support for patrol officers, and even a means to send live video to a police station or a communications center. THE MEN BEHIND THE MISSION In the United States, most police helicopters have a crew of two or, in some cases, three — the pilot,…

While the name of Keith Wood might be familiar to longtime readers of our modest tome, Jack Carr is a newcomer. We have a sneaking suspicion, however, that the pair is about to become, if not household names, at least very familiar to avid consumers of the kind of plot-driven techno-thriller popularized by Tom Clancy. Drawing on a symbiotic library of experience accumulated from 20 years in the SEALs (Carr) and a couple of decades in the firearms industry (Wood), the pair manage to assemble a cast of characters that spans the gamut from a tragically wronged, heroic protagonist to a cabal of traitorous political scumbags. Needless to say, the latter are dispatched in creatively gory ways, depicted in minute and (unusually for this type of tale) accurate detail by…

You’ve decided that you want to start building some muscle, but which time of day should your training session be to support this? Does working out after an overnight fast lead to better weight loss? There may be a few more things you haven’t thought about regarding fitness that can impact your performance and success. That’s where we come in. In this column, we discuss some interesting topics that may surprise you. WHEN IS THE BEST TIME OF DAY TO WORK OUT? The first thing that has to be said is working out is better than not working out. So before you read on, know that as long as you’re training regularly, that’s a good thing. Don’t stress that you’re not optimizing your time in the gym just because you’re…

In this issue of Brownells Gunnery, we take a close look at two cartridges. One’s been around since the dawn of the Ice Age, while the other is a brash upstart, but both have capabilities well suited to the needs of most RECOIL aficionados. Mike Searson builds a chassis rifle around the venerable 7.62x39, beloved of heathen communist scum the world over, and discovers its value as a cheap way to replicate training drills that otherwise would be expensive if performed with patriotic, upstanding American 30 cals. All joking aside, the x39 has a lot to offer rifle shooters, as it’s widely available, inexpensive, and sufficiently powerful to ring steel, bring down a deer, or defend hearth and home. It’s not regarded as a long-range round, but precisely because of…

Anyone heard the name Divco before? Do the words Grumman Olson conjure up any vehicular visions? What about an International Harvester Metro Van? What does that bring to mind? Chances are, unless you’re a serious car buff, these names probably mean about as much to you as a subscription to Hit Parader — it’s a thing of the past. There was a time when vehicles bearing these monikers were emblazoned with the name of someone’s business, and, much like mailmen, went about their daily routines delivering milk, bread, or were the work vans of your local plumber or ice cream man. If you still live in a neighborhood where the chimes of “When the Saints Go Marching in” bring the children running for a pack of candy cigarettes or Good…

AKs are no longer the pragmatic choice they were 15 years ago. Even bottom-barrel AKs can cost significantly more than the equivalent AR. Quality magazines cost more now than ever, especially if you want new production, and defensive loads are few and far between relative to a 5.56 AR-15. Despite this, AKs can still be fun — and this Build Sheet is absolutely all about fun. We started with the ugly stepbrother, the Mini Draco chambered in 7.62x39. This Romanian “pistol” has a 7.5-inch barrel and a bit of a reputation for being problematic at times. Though shoulder-firing pistol braces are now quasi-legal again, from the outset the intention with this one was to register it as an SBR. After the Mini Draco arrived, we ensured it was at least…

There was time in my life when I didn’t even want to try sushi. Dude, could you at least throw it on the grill for a minute? There are plenty of things to eat in this world without resorting to uncooked seafood. But lots of people love it and trumpet how healthy and delicious it is. Eventually, I couldn’t bear the looks of shock and disgust from people who found out I was a sushi virgin. Succumbing to peer pressure, I took the plunge. It was good — not life changing — but I enjoyed it. Now, when I’m in the mood for sushi I have my favorite spot, but honestly I wouldn’t mind going the rest of my life without eating another piece of raw fish. Bait is for…

When EOTech initially decided to push into the variable-power scope market, we figured they’d fall in line with everyone else and have scopes in familiar configurations. But then we got hands-on with the new Vudu 5-25x50mm Super Short for the better part of a month and were left wondering how they put so much into such a small package. After long discussions, we were left stumped as to where they made compromises to make this optic. We finally accepted that there’s no catch — EOTech didn’t compromise on this scope, instead creating an optic in a class of its own. TECHNICAL RUNDOWN The Vudu 5-25x Super Short is currently the smallest first focal plane scope of its kind. With an overall length of a mere 11.2 inches, the Vudu delivers…

RECOIL’s inaugural live event, Summit in the Sand, was a training-focused event held at CowTown Range in Phoenix, Arizona. It provided an excellent venue to work knife-gun transitions. The weapons of choice were the Microtech SOCOM Alpha and the Walther Arms PPQ M2 semi-auto pistol. Attendees worked on transitioning to the fixed-blade Alpha, in defense of their holstered PPQ. We’ve reviewed several versions of the PPQ in previous issues and liked it so much that we asked Walther to work with us for Summit in the Sand. The PPQ M2 is competitively priced, concealable, and offers a couple of good out-of-the-box advantages, including metal magazines, a smooth trigger with an impressively short reset, and OEM grip texturing that’s actually worth a damn. This was particularly important at Summit, where temps…

There’s something comforting about familiarity. While many might think that new is synonymous with better, we all know deep down why we still hang onto that favorite pair of jeans. They fit us perfectly, they’ve lasted a long time, and there’s no sense in getting rid of something that you know you can depend on. The same can be said about firearms. We’ve all had at least one at some point in our lives that just sort of became an extension of ourselves. And we undoubtedly wish we’d hung onto some, or could have at least tracked down a few that passed through our possession at some point. For anyone who served in the military, and especially those who saw combat, we’re sure that you felt a connection to your…

When you flip over an ammo box, you’ll likely see a small chart listing numbers that relate to distances. These numbers are the manufacturer’s ballistic data for how much the projectile will drop at the distances listed. This is a rough guide meant to get shooters in the ballpark when it comes to calculating bullet drop. Shooters used to have no choice but to trust the ballistic data found on the back of ammo boxes. Thanks to affordable technology, gathering data specific to the rifle being shot is almost trivial. Data collection that is rifle-specific is the most reliable way to know where your rounds will hit. The numbers on the back of the box are much different than what we see when we measure muzzle velocities of our own…

1 Zermatt Arms, the maker of custom Remington 700 compatible actions, just released a streamlined version of its popular Bighorn action called the Origin. The new action has many, if not most, of the features of the Bighorn line, but keeps the price down by limiting the number of available options. The Origin is only available in short-action length with options for right- or left-hand, a choice of three bolt head sizes, and a handful of bolt handle choices. Standard features include a new, swept bolt handle, controlled round feed, mechanical ejector, interchangeable bolt head, AICS compatible magazine interface, pinned 20 MOA optic rail, pinned recoil lug, chromoly steel construction, and a nitrided receiver and bolt body. The whole shebang drops into a Rem700 action inlet, accepts Savage small shank…

In an age when we might own a safe full of Austrian handguns, see our baseball heroes driving Italian supercars, and order Bolivian takeout on our Chinese-made smartphones, the mystique of foreign-made products isn’t so, well, foreign anymore. But every once in a while, something unusual catches our eye. That’s why we’re collecting a lineup of exotic blades in this edition of “Unusual Suspects.” In some cases, they’re modern takes on ethnic designs and in others they’re replicas of ancient blades with state-of-the-art materials. Whether made in distant lands or inspired by other cultures, the knives here bring a fresh flavor to the usual tactical tastes.…

The legal history of magazine-fed shotguns in the United States is, to put it lightly, kind of a mess. The Gun Control Act of 1968 defined Destructive Devices as firearms with bores over 0.5 inch, except for shotguns with sporting purposes. Shotguns that didn’t have a sporting purpose would have to be registered with the ATF, with all applicable taxes. Importation restrictions on firearms also reference “sporting purpose” language, and at the time these laws were written, sporting purposes meant hunting or traditional shooting sports like trap and skeet. At least one lawsuit related to the USAS-12 being banned from import and declared a DD tried to make the argument that they were particularly useful for action shooting sports, but the government countered that these were “combat games” and not…

Selecting your child’s first rifle should be a deliberate decision. Questions of who, what, where, and when vary based on the maturity of the youngster, as well as the dynamic of your family. We won’t tell you what age is appropriate — we’ve seen 8-year-olds conscientious enough to safely handle a weapon, while their 15-year-old siblings were still working to internalize firearm safety rules two, three, and four, not to mention matters of simple personal hygiene. There’s a category of starter rifles made specifically for children — small, single-shot, 22LR affairs produced in a variety of colors. Many of us started with such rifles, and some of us have even bought them for our own children. The main problem with these tiny rifles is how quickly a kid outgrows them…

On the evening of December 12, 2012, a Rutherfordton, North Carolina, police officer responded to a call about a 44-year-old man fleeing the emergency room at Rutherford Regional Hospital. The officer encountered the suspect walking along a nearby road and approached him. While attempting to convince the man to return to the hospital, a struggle ensued, and the officer was struck in the face. As the fight continued, the suspect began strangling the officer, then grabbed his sidearm to take it from him. Unable to escape the clutches of the madman, the police officer drew a small fixed blade knife from his belt and stabbed the suspect in the shoulder to break free. That officer survived, thanks to his effective transition to the knife he was carrying that day. THE…

Over the course of 26-plus years of service, I’ve witnessed a lot of changes to the main sighting system of the issued long-gun. The rifle has been the primary weapon for the military since the Pennsylvania Rifle (some say Kentucky, but I was born and raised in Pennsylvania and loyalty counts). The rifle then, and still today, is the modern sword and shield. It’s the inseparable tool of the soldier on the battlefield, becoming almost ubiquitous in the armory of modern-day law enforcement (LE) and a self-defense implement for the law-abiding citizen. Our optics nowadays are an integral part of that sword and shield, and, like other components such as rails and furniture, must evolve to keep pace with technology and ever-emerging threats. Change for some entails resistance and discomfort…

C. Reed Knight, Jr. grew up with one major advantage. It wasn’t wealth, though his family provided him with love and comfort. It wasn’t a towering physique, though the 73-year-old moves as confidently as any man his age, even sporting a full head of hair. It wasn’t the gift of book smarts — in fact, Knight will tell you he barely graduated high school and still hasn’t read an entire book in his life. So what helped guide Knight to a path that would see him become one of the most respected figures in the worldwide, small-arms industry? It was the fact he knew his shortcomings and refused to be defined by them. Knight tells a story of riding with his father one day when he said, “Son, you can…

The 7.62x39mm Russian round was developed almost 75 years ago in the Soviet Union by the Technical Council of the People’s Commissariat for Armaments. The round would be used in a wide range of Soviet infantry weapons from semiautomatic rifles (SKS) to light machine guns (RPD) and probably the most famous or infamous rifle in the world, the AK-47. American shooters began experimenting with it in the late 1980s and, while the general sentiment was that it was similar to the .30-30 Winchester, students of ballistics felt this was a disservice to both rounds. Legions of shooters fell in love with the dependable performance of the AK and SKS platforms and, of course, the plentiful milsurp steel-cased ammunition that went along with those rifles. Basic accuracy was never on par…

October 2017 welcomed the official release of Federal’s new 224 Valkyrie cartridge. Performance fanatics instantly celebrated the round since it addressed the shortcomings of the AR-15. Up to this point, shooters who wanted real long-range performance from the AR platform, or wanted to pursue medium game ethically, were forced into the more cumbersome .308 AR platform. The new cartridge perfectly filled in a missing piece of the caliber puzzle. Over the last few years, we have seen the development, evaluation, and adoption of commercial cartridges that maximize the ballistic effectiveness of common platforms. The long-action bolt rifle got the 28 Nosler, where you can push a 0.672 G1 BC projectile at 3,125 FPS, the short-action bolt rifle was endowed with the 6.5 PRC throwing the 0.693 G1 BC bullet at…