Table of contents for January/February 2014 in Recoil

01 RIFLE MAKE: Surgeon Rifes MODEL: CSR MSRP: $7,200 URL: www.surgeonrifes.com 02 OPTIC Brand: Leupold MODEL: Mark 6 3-18x44mm MSRP: $3,190 URL: www.leupold.com 03 PISTOL Brand: Para USA MODEL: Black Ops Recon MSRP: $1,299 URL: www.para-usa.com 04 BELT Brand: BLACKHAWK! MODEL: Patrol Belt MSRP: $38 URL: www.blackhawk.com 05 MAG POUCH Brand: U.S. PALM MODEL: Single Mag Pouch MSRP: TBA at press time URL: www.uspalm.com 06 HOLSTER Brand: Safariland MODEL: 5189 MSRP: $34 URL: www.safariland.com 07 JACKET Brand: First Spear MODEL: The Other Guy MSRP: $220 URL: www.frst-spear.com 08 SHIRT Brand: Kuhl MODEL: Infnite Shirt MSRP: $75 URL: www.kuhl.com OFF CAMERA 09 KILT Brand: Sport Kilt MODEL: Commando Kilt MSRP: $163 URL: www.sportkilt.com 10 WATCH Brand: MTM MODEL: Silver Warrior $600 URL: www.specialopswatch.com 11 KNIFE Brand: Emerson Knives MODEL: Bullnose Karambit…

We may as well get this out of the way, right off the bat. The irony of having a 36,000-piece collection of predominantly full-auto frearms in a country with some of the most restrictive gun laws in the world will not be lost on most RECOIL readers. Despite Britain’s long and storied gun-making history — with names like BSA, Enfeld, Holland and Holland, and Vickers — there is currently no signifcant frearms industry here in England to speak of, having been utterly decimated by a combination of incompetent management, greedy unions, and governmental hostility. The National Firearms Centre in Leeds, England, was almost stillborn and its contents destroyed or dispersed. The collection was founded in the early part of the 19th century as a repository for “sealed patterns” — the…

Any time you can pick up a brand-new rife and whack a 6-inch square piece of steel fve football felds away with every shot out of your frst magazine, you know you’ve got something just a little bit special. Surgeon’s CSR belies the notion that you need a long barrel to achieve long-range performance — with an overall length of just 28 inches with the stock folded, it’s shorter than a collapsed M4 and can be tucked inside a tool bag for discrete deployment. I frst saw an example of this weapon this past July, and my initial reaction was along the lines of, “Aww, cute. It’s just like a real rife.” I was then informed that it had originally been developed for the U.S. Special Forces as a complete…

On my 13th birthday, i was fortunate enough to spend the day in the presence of a frearms legend. eugene stoner hosted me in his home offce and spent several hours with me discussing and demonstrating various elements of frearm design, as well as the advantages and disadvantages of many common rifes and handguns. besides the many rare frearms he allowed me to fondle (including a least three prototypes), i remember with great detail the rife that he literally had on the drawing board that day in 1990. He was co-developing it with a manufacturer a few miles up the road in Vero beach, Florida, and spent much time explaining the advantages of the rife and its accessory rail system. That rife was the sR-25, and the manufacturer was c.…

At age 52, Rob Leatham should be coasting. He has seen and done it all in the past three-and-a-half decades within the sport of competitive shooting, and his accomplishments are nothing less than legendary. They have to be if people call you “The Great One.” His rise to becoming “TGO” among the shooting elite would appear to be by design, but Leatham insists that couldn’t be less true. “Success, for me, was about stripping down the theology of technique,” he explains. “There is no ‘have to do.’ All you have to do is control the gun as well as you can. Now, there will be mechanical attributes that a good shooter will generally have, but the overall concept is to keep the gun stable, keep it aligned at the target,…

We’ve heard your concerns, and we feel ya. The economy is kicking all of us in the naughty bits. While it’s great fun to read about guns that cost as much as a Yaris, most frearm enthusiasts can’t afford all those shiny new toys. How can you protect yourself and your loved ones if it means choosing between a home-defense weapon and your next mortgage payment? That question is not hyperbole, but rather the truth for many folks today. So, in this issue of RECOIL, we introduce more modestly priced frearms. Say hello to Project Cheapbore, RECOIL’s home-defense shotgun budget build. Follow along as we show you a relatively inexpensive way to give a used smoothbore a tactical facelift — and all for about the cost of a new iPad.…

Walk softly and carry a big can. Suppressors help reduce sound signatures, prevent hearing loss, eliminate muzzle fash, and reduce recoil, among other benefts. So, in this edition we take a look at patches from some of the best players in the suppressor game. 1 MAKE: Spike’s Tactical PATCH: Spider Cutout COLORWAY: black/gray, brown/olive drab, pink/black, red/black (shown) MSRP: $5 URL: www.spikestactical.com 2 MAKE: Advanced Armament Corp. PATCH: Hear No Evil Patch COLORWAY: Brown and tan (shown) MSRP: $6 URL: www.advanced-armament.com 3 MAKE: Knight’s Armament PATCH: Text Logo Patch COLORWAY: Black, gray, green (shown), tan MSRP: $5 URL: www.kacgear.com 4 MAKE: SureFire PATCH: Logo Patch COLORWAY: Tan on olive drab green (shown), red on black MSRP: $4 URL: www.surefre.com 5 MAKE: GEMTECH PATCH: Triangle Patch COLORWAY: Black on gray, brown…

RECOIL’s evolution is driven by its readership. We’ve been called the brash upstart on the newsstand, and while we’ve got our own ideas when it comes to story ideas, humor, quality layout, and photography, it’s you, our customers, who let us know when we’re on track, when we’ve screwed up, and what you’d like to see in these pages. One of the great things about the frearms lifestyle is that there’s always something new to learn and all of us here have been humbled by our readers’ knowledge more often than we care to admit. Rob Leatham was once another brash upstart and he’s done more to upset the status quo in competitive shooting than anyone else. Here, he gives us some insight as to what makes him tick and…

The problem with bug-out vehicles is that they are, as the name implies, reserved for bugging out — retreating. There’s no shame in having this as your main strategy, but we all know that the need to remain fexible during a critical event is as important as getting your hits and keeping your gun running. In an EOTWAWKI scenario, your so-called bug-out vehicle could be called upon to conduct a frontal assault, support an ambush, evacuate casualties, set up a roadblock, or serve as a V-8-powered battering ram. The ever-fexible staff at Wilco Products realized this, and it didn’t take long for them to convince us that they could build a full-on urban attack truck that was capable of so much more than being loaded up with MOLLE gear and…

I just checked the text of the Second Amendment. Sure enough, there’s nothing about duck hunting, nor is there anything about $5,000 1911s. The Second Amendment is a fundamental human right. So, what if you need a handgun for personal or home defense, but your current fnances won’t stretch to more than a couple of C notes? Should 2A rights only extend to those with fat bank accounts or who are willing to go into debt if they need a weapon RFN? Is there a gun that won’t break the bank, yet will still offer reasonable accuracy and reliability? Hi-Point Firearms has been making low-budget handguns and carbines for almost two decades now, so we decided to see if their C9 pistol would ft the bill for an affordable house…

Who remembers when cell phones were the size of a briefcase and could barely hold a conversation? Now, you have an iPhone that you forget is in your pocket, and it’s smarter than your Uncle Stuart. The same with all manner of gadgets and technology…they just keep getting smaller and better. So why should it be any different with red-dot sights? They’re smaller, tougher, and more capable than ever. These mini red-dot optics are more specifcally known as refex sights, with an LED that projects the reticle which is in turn refected off the lens. Unlike tubular sights, such as the ubiquitous Aimpoint, these have a single lens assembly. Like the Aimpoint, though, these sights have unlimited eye relief — keep both eyes open, point and shoot. Just place the…

imagine, if you will, living in a major metropolitan area. everything seems fne, but then initial reports of a looming disaster start fltering in. in order to minimize potential casualties, the civil authorities order a mass evacuation of the area, leaving you with just a few hours’ notice to grab your gear and get out of Dodge. Now let your imagination wander to just what that might look like on major highways. better yet, Google some images from the days just before Hurricane Katrina. Go ahead, i can wait. This isn’t idle speculation — it actually happened look carefully at all the cars and trucks jamming the roadway, bumper to bumper. see that empty shoulder to the side, or the uncluttered median? How about the gaps between each lane? what…

Climbing up the stairs, you spot the bad guy as he loads his AK-47, its distinct cocking sound ringing in the air. Before he can get a bead on you, you raise your suppressed AR rife and extend a warm 5.56mm greeting. You step over the fallen body and pull a grenade from your MOLLE pouch. Approaching the primary target, an enemy stronghold on the lower level, you pull the pin and toss the grenade through a hole in the foor. Boom. That’s all she wrote. No, this isn’t an after-action report. It’s a scene from Call of Duty: Ghosts, a video game from Activision recently released in time for the holiday buying season. It’s also the latest entry into the popular military-themed genre — which includes long-running series like…

Nowadays, tech-savvy thieves can use a scanner to skim sensitive info off credit cards and driver’s licenses — all without touching your wallet. Enter the HuMn Wallet. Consisting of two or three plates (depending on the model) made of aluminum or carbon fber and held together with an elastic shock strap, this wallet can shield against radio-frequency-identifcation skimming while providing a slimmer design. Available in assorted colors (though Cerakote fnish is available in only olive drab and desert camel versions). Brand: HuMn Wallet MODEL: Mini, HW2, and HW3 MSRP: $76 (Mini and HW2), $114 (HW3) URL: www.humnwallet.com Some devices are so brilliantly simple that we wish we had invented them frst. Case in point: the Spool Tool. As the name implies, it allows for up to 100 feet of paracord…

Self-preservation is a subtle theme throughout this issue, so here we take a closer look at survival knives: our “SHTF” column elsewhere in this issue features two bizarre-looking survival blades, while this edition of “Unusual Suspects” focuses on the more conventional types. After our rigorous (if unscientifc) testing, we found that if a tool is marketed as a survival knife, it better meet three crucial criteria: have a stellar handle, be made of durable materials, and offer a sharp yet versatile blade. Among this bunch, there are no losers. All excel in certain aspects — the key is fguring out what aspects are most important to you and when. Once you do, no doubt one of these tools will make a home in your go bag. Turn the page to…

It’s safe to say that any industrial product that’s still going strong after 110-million units have entered circulation has something going for it. Which is not to say that it can’t be improved, but you’d better think carefully before bolting a bunch of plastic crap onto the base model and proclaiming it a great leap forward. We procured one of Century Arms’ latest offerings in its AK lineup, and while it’s not in the same league as say, an Arsenal, it ’s also less than half the price. This being RECOIL, we sought to improve the ergonomics and performance to the point where it could be a viable AR alternative at a reasonable cost. BACKGROUND One of the biggest attractions of the AK is the caliber — if 7.62x39mm wasn’t…

We sat down to discuss red dots with JJ Racaza, frearms instructor for the federal government and world champion competitive shooter, a triple grand master in the United States Pistol Shooting Association and International Practical Shooting Confederation with world records and many championships under his gun belt. RECOIL: For what applications, platforms, and end users do you recommend looking at mini red dots? JJ Racaza: Red-dot sights have a well-proven track record on rifes. As far as pistols, the years of red dots being used for mainly competition and not for concealment or combat shooting are going away with the advent of these mini red-dot sights. I remember when I frst started using red dots (such as the Tasco ProPoint and Aimpoint), but they were tubular and fairly large in…

SAFETY DISCLAIMER The tactics shown are for illustrative purposes only. Seek professional training or instruction before attempting any techniques discussed or shown in this story. it seems that almost everyone and his mother owns an AR-15 these days, and i am often asked what i do when training with my rife in terms of skill development and drills. my answer is often split into two distinct areas, and i like to teach the skills in a specifc order. First, my primary goal is to be able to shoot it accurately, yet very quickly, at distances of 25 yards and less, with the ability to place an accurate shot on targets out to 100 yards. if you are wondering why i set these particular distances as benchmarks, it is for purely…

WARNING! When handling frearms, always observe safety rules and the precautions set forth in the frearm’s owner’s guide. Be certain that your frearm is unloaded and made safe before proceeding with this DIY. One of the biggest criticisms of Glock’s handgun lineup is its backstrap profle — despite the Gen 4 models featuring replaceable inserts, the infamous “Alien Bulge” remains. However, the backstrap can be reshaped, and there’s a small cottage industry offering gripreduction services, which shouldn’t be beyond the abilities of an average DIY enthusiast. While hacking on a perfectly good Glock might seem a little scary, simply follow our step-by-step guide and you’ll be able to custom ft it to your preferences by adjusting the profle of the backstrap. TOOLS AND MATERIALS You will need the following: 1.…