Table of contents for Buyer's Guide 2023 SIP #3 in Gun Digest

During the summer I turned 18 years old, I worked at a factory in town. I spent time there for a couple summers, actually. My mom worked as an engineer there, and the company was eager to hire on summertime help who came back home while college was out. Lucky for me, I was more than eager put in the hours, tallying up six 12-hour days most weeks. Make hay while the sun shines, right? It was long hours and hard work, but I enjoyed watching my bank account reap the rewards of the sweat and effort. As a birthday present to myself at the end of that first summer, I bought a Browning Gold Rifled Deer Hunter. I loved that gun—and damn was I proud of it. Together, we…

01 EOTech Betsy Ross Patriotic XPS2 If you care a wit about accurate and battle-tough aiming solutions, you’re most likely familiar with the EOTech XPS2. The holographic sight is renowned for its mission-capable performance and absolutely steadfast toughness under the harshest conditions. The sight is good enough as is—but better with the limited edition EOTech released this summer. The Betsy Ross model features a custom Cerakote aluminum hood consisting of the U.S. flag’s red and white stripes and the circular pattern of 13 stars, which represent the original U.S. colonies. It’s a nice look, unique and keeps all the good stuff you expect under the hood, including a 68 MOA ring with a 1 MOA aiming dot, waterproof housing, long battery life and 20 daylight brightness settings. And, of course,…

Merriam-Webster’s dictionary gives the following definition for the word value: (noun) a fair return or equivalent in goods, services or money for something exchanged. Simple enough, right? Too often in today’s world, value equates to inexpensive, but that’s not the case: An item can be costly and still be a good value. In the optics world, this is glaringly apparent. A riflescope can be easily affordable, yet not be a good value … meaning the scope might not give the desired image or hold zero reliably. On the flip side of that coin, the finest European lenses might not give enough of an advantage over less expensive models to warrant the additional cost. So, how do you know that you’re getting? Let’s look at what I consider to be the…

Things have certainly gotten better during the past 12 months or so. Reloading components have become much more readily available, and the press arms are once again in motion. This year, we’ve got new powders, new projectiles and all sorts of new tools … which makes it the perfect year to either bolster your current bench setup, or to start punching your own ammo for the very first time. ALLIANT Adding to the Reloder family of powders, Alliant announced Reloder TS11, a rifle powder on the faster side of the burn rate scale and engineered for temperature insensitivity. It’s perfect for short-range benchrest cartridges and varmint work, making a solid choice for those who want consistent results whether they’re in pursuit of winter foxes and coyotes or sniping woodchucks and…

FROM GUN DIGEST’S CARTRIDGES OF THE WORLD. ORDER AT GUNDIGESTSTORE.COM. HISTORICAL NOTES In 1968, the .240 Weatherby was added to round out the Weatherby proprietary magnum line. It differs from other 6mms in having a belted case with somewhat greater powder capacity. It’s very similar to the .240 Belted Rimless Nitro-Express introduced by Holland & Holland around 1923. Through its history, it has been available only in the Weatherby Mark V bolt-action rifle or through custom gunsmiths. It’s an excellent cartridge and will push the 100-grain 6mm bullet with about 200-fps greater muzzle velocity than the 6mm Remington, and around 300-fps faster than the .243 Winchester. However, a considerable portion of this ballistic advantage results from increased barrel length and loading pressure. It’s important to allow plenty of barrel cooling…

If you think about it, “tuning” can mean a whole lot of things. Back in the mechanical days of muscle cars, tuning meant getting the carburetor and the compressor in agreement. Later, in magazines like Import Tuner, it meant the right add-on chips to get extra performance. In a musical instrument, it means agreeing with the oboe, the instrument that sets the bar for the orchestra. In ARs, it means: What weight buffer are you using and how do you determine that? That used to be owning all the weights that could be had and swapping them in and out until your AR ran right. Now, Odin has a better idea: buildable AR-15 buffers, with full sets of steel and tungsten weights. They offer four buffers: AR-10, AR-15 light and…

The 1911 pistol has been around for 112 years, and it seems like it becomes more popular all the time. Shooters cannot get enough of this ageless design, but the 1911—with its 5-inch barrel—is a big handgun that’s about 8.5 inches long and weighs almost 40 ounces. If you like a 1911, there’s no denying the appeal of the more compact 3-inch versions for concealed carry, but I wanted to see just how well these modern, miniature 1911s would perform, and if they could be trusted. After all, a 6.75-inch pistol that only weighs about 26 ounces is a hell of a lot easier to carry than a full-size 1911. I requested 3-inch barreled 1911s from Kimber and Springfield Armory so that I could test them for reliability and to…

The Ruger Single Six revolver was introduced in 1953, and since then it has become the most iconic and well-known single-action rimfire revolver of all time—more than 2 million have been sold. But the little gun that let everyone channel their inner cowboy, which was so popular on the trail and that became one of the finest hunting handguns for small game, got damned expensive. Prices for a Single Six Convertible that’ll fire both .22 LR and .22 WMR ammunition start at $799. So, in 2021, Ruger introduced a less expensive version of the Single Six they called the Wrangler. Shortly before Ruger introduced the Wrangler, I was doing some work at Gunsite Academy near Ruger head-quarters, and I had the chance to give a pre-production Wrangler a bit of…

Owning a firearm is a right, spelled out clearly in our country’s Constitution. That right (and others), however, comes with a level of personal responsibility. While a firearm can save the lives of you and your loved ones, a firearm in the wrong hands can be deadly. That, and some folks simply don’t feel comfortable having a defensive handgun in their home as they raise a family. If you feel that need for an alternative option to defend your home, Biofire has presented a viable option with their new “Smart Gun.” Colorado’s Biofire has recently introduced a modern, and arguably controversial, solution to the issue of owning a handgun. I had the opportunity to have a one-on-one video tour of the new Biofire Smart Gun with the company’s CEO, so…

01 EAA Witness 2311 European American Armory (EAA) has a new Girsan, Turkish-made 1911 they’re bringing into the United States for 2023, and they’re calling it the Witness 2311. This is a wide-bodied pistol, which is exactly the opposite of an ultra-compact 1911. They’ll be offering versions with a 4.25-, 5- and 6-inch barrel. The 9mm holds 17 rounds, the .45 version holds 11 rounds, and they’re also offering a 10mm version that holds 15 rounds. All Witness 2311s come with an accessory rail, and the slide is cut to accept a miniature reflex sight. The best part about this pistol is the price, which starts at only $999. 02 Savage 1911 Savage Arms shocked everyone with the introduction of a 1911. I guess they thought everyone else is making…

Shaw Barrels, the maker of millions of gun barrels for 110 years, has entered the custom-built rifle market with their “Excursion,” a bolt-action rifle with a Remington 700 footprint. What does a barrel maker know about building guns? More than you might realize. Their 110 years dedicated to building the heart of a rifle ought to make a difference, and it has. But don’t let the gray hairs fool you, though. The family owned business in Bridgeville, Pennsylvania, about 20 miles outside of Pittsburgh, isn’t stuck in the Stone Age chiseling gun barrels—because of their experience, they’re manufacturing some of the world’s finest barrels with state-of-the-art quality. Don’t take my word for it. Shaw’s rock-steady reputation for quality and value is why many of their barrels don’t have their name.…