Table of contents for May/June 2015 in Recoil

After six decades of development, it’s safe to say that the AR-15 is one of the most tinkered-with firearms designs ever. It’s available in more favors than can be found in a supermarket soup aisle, but due to Stoner’s original being developed around the .223 Remington cartridge, there are very clear limits as to how far the recipe can be pushed. The key parameters are those of magazine length and width, and bolt head diameter — go outside of these boundaries and you wind up with either a single-shot rife or a face full of steel and brass. The armed forces are not going to give up the 5.56mm round any time soon; despite its shortcomings in range and lethality, there’s an entire logistics chain built around it. As they…

Navy SEAL Chief Chris Kyle is now a household name. He served this great country with distinction, having earned two Silver Stars, five Bronze Stars with Valor, two Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medals, and one Navy and Marine Corps Commendation for his bravery over four combat tours. He’s renowned for being the most lethal sniper in U.S. military history, with 160 official confirmed kills. But that alone doesn’t and shouldn’t define him and his legacy. Indeed, Oscar-winning director and all-around badass Clint Eastwood’s film American Sniper — and actor Bradley Cooper — pay tribute to Kyle…not just for his service, dedication, and bravery, but for his and his family’s sacrifices. And the film shines a bright light on the brotherhood of warriors and what all service members, veterans, and…

The beginning of the New Year starts off differently for many folks. Some make resolutions, perhaps some find a higher meaning to life, and some may just treat the New Year as the start of another month. If you are in the firearms, outdoor, hunting, or shooting industry you finalize your plans to attend the Shooting, Hunting, Outdoor Trade (SHOT) Show in Las Vegas. It’s a Mecca of sorts in Sin City that brings many parts of the industry together under one roof, and the people who attend usually look for the newest unveilings from their favorite companies. Meetings from sun-up to sun-down and beyond are the norm, with people scurrying from meeting to meeting. A lot of business is conducted at this show — introductions are made that can…

One of the most daunting tasks facing anyone who wants to enter the world of NFA goodies is picking that all-important first suppressor. While there’s an excellent case to be made that one should bust one’s cherry on a decent .22 rimfire can, the Mystic X is one of the most versatile silencers currently available — just about any caliber you can run through an AR-15 can be suppressed by this unit. Although it’s quite a step up in terms of purchase price, the ability to be employed on centerfire rifles, handguns — and yes, .22 LR guns — makes it worthy of your consideration. CONSTRUCTION Employing a stainless-steel monocore baffle stack, the Mystic X can be fairly easily disassembled for cleaning. While this is no real advantage in a…

If you’ve ever wondered just what to get that hard-to-buy-for gun nut for a gift-giving occasion, might we humbly suggest you consider this particular bit of moonbattery. One day, someone woke up and said, “You know what? I want to hurl a soda can the length of a football field, and all I have is an AR-15 and a short length of sewer pipe,” then spent the next five minutes scratching themselves and muttering darkly about burst pressures and projectile weights. The fruits of their (possibly frosty-beverage fueled) cogitation burst forth like a scampering critter from John Hurt’s chest cavity and behold! The Can Cannon. Powered by a Mil-spec, blank 5.56mm cartridge, the device consists of a smoothbore outer tube, within which lurks a short length of barrel blank that…

The skull has been a symbol used to strike fear into the hearts of enemies for centuries. Still to this day, its various depictions continue to find their way into military usage, as well as just about everything else you can think of that’s meant to take on a sinister appearance. Now we’re giving you a chance to view some of the various patch iterations we’ve seen so your clothing can be emblazoned with a menacing look. Whether you’re a Texas native looking to be patriotic, an Edgar Allen Poe fan, or a comic book reader, we’ve got you covered. Plus there’s even a company anniversary patch that’s using a skull to celebrate a decade of service and the good ol’ Jolly Roger symbol that never seems to get old.…

1 We all love SureFire torches, but not everyone has the bank account to afford them. Fortunately, there are other manufacturers making solid illumination tools for those who hope to satiate their seared ahi appetites with Chicken of the Sea budgets. LA Police Gear is one such company. For a reasonable $60, its Operator L1 Flashlight delivers up to 800 lumens at 200 meters, thanks to its Cree XM-L2 LED. It has four modes, including strobe, and is waterproof up to 3 meters. It comes with two CR123 batteries and a nylon holster. MAKE: LA Police Gear MODEL: Operator L1 Flashlight MSRP: $60 URL: www.lapolicegear.com 2 We’ve said it before, and we’ll say it again — the AR-15 platform is the best LEGO set ever invented. Strike Industries takes that…

Since we know there's no one-size-fits-all tactical vehicle out there, this month we bring you another "category" to further jostle your imagination as to what exactly you might need. Whether you call it a UTV, ATV, or side-by-side, this type of four-wheeled off-roader is definitely gaining in popularity, and as described in previous articals, they can go places that a fully loaded four-wheel-drive truck just can't. In many states, these vehicles can be outfitted with horns, turn signals, mirrors, and other accessories to make them street legal-furthering their level of practically. And since quite a few of them boast four-stroke motors, you can run straight off pump gas. How wild can you really get with these? Well your vocabulary. As owner of HMP Racing, a builder of aftermarket race components…

Here at RECOIL, we’re often accused of only reviewing expensive kit. Not true. We try to review good kit — and in most cases, there’s a direct correlation between the price you pay and the quality you get. Yes, the law of diminishing returns applies, but anyone who stands at the bar and loudly proclaims that his Hi-Point is just as good as one of them there Yuropeen guns probably hasn’t had that much exposure to decent hardware. As the guy responsible for editorial direction and whose balls are on the line if anything goes wrong, I get to splurge a little on equipment that’s a few steps above entry level. I figure I’ve paid my dues, at one time supporting a shooting habit on a $10-an-hour construction job, and…

The AR versus the AK. Just seeing that phrase conjures images of 1,000-pagelong forum threads and backyard YouTube videos, as each party tries to prove why their chosen rife is the one gun to rule them all. Luckily for us, and despite what your elected officials may try to tell you, America is still a nation of compromise. For those die-hard AR fans who are willing to try a mile in the other guy’s shoes, two companies now offer black rifles that not only fire the 7.62x39mm cartridge, but run it out of traditional AK-pattern magazines. Before we get down to the brass tacks, it’s worth considering one question…why? “Because.” In our opinion, this is a perfectly legitimate answer when it comes to guns. It’s popular these days to demand…

Are you looking for a carbine that can be both proudly displayed on your wall in a glass case as well as taken to war? Mark Owen and USM4 have you covered. Owen, a former member of SEAL Team 6, wrote about his experiences in his bestselling book, No Easy Day. (Check out his interview on page 80.) He spec’ed out the No Easy Day Special Missions Carbine (SMC) based on his 14 years of service, combat deployments, and hundreds of missions. The rife is designed for hard use, with top-of-the-line components throughout. The heart of the weapon is a complete Colt Mil-spec upper assembly with a 14.5-inch SOCOM profile chrome-lined barrel, pinned low-profile gas block, HPT/MPI bolt carrier group, Centurion Arms CMR 12-inch lightweight handguard and rail covers, Magpul…

If you’ve had the chance to pick up one of the latest tactical tomahawks, your reaction was probably something like, “Whoa, that’s really cool…now how do I use it?” There’s been a resurgence in the popularity of these weapons in recent years, and for good reason. Not many tools can match the tomahawk for sheer versatility of function — and effectiveness in close-quarters combat. The basic design is nothing new, with variations a favorite among warriors of many cultures throughout history. Shortly after the introduction of metal tools to North America, Native Americans quickly adapted them to axe heads, previously fashioned with stone or deer antler. Thus was the development of what we now call the tomahawk, a staple tool of frontiersmen. My ancestors, the native Maori warriors of New…

It’s almost ironic — the amount of effort, forethought, and advanced technology that goes into the construction of a weapon as rugged and simply designed as the Glock handgun. That’s perhaps the most striking takeaway from a tour of the Glock USA Inc. manufacturing facility, not to mention the comprehensive quality control measures (as much as 20 percent of the effort in each stage of the gun’s build is dedicated to Q.C.). How else do you build a million guns a year with consistent reliability and performance? The manufacturing processes, inspection procedures, and inner workings of the Smyrna, Georgia-based facility are extraordinary — of course, that could be taken as an anemic description or hyperbole depending on your background and perspective. Now that we’ve been allowed a peek behind the…

The single-stack 9mm Glock 43 has been a long time coming. No other Glock pistol to date has been quite so anticipated or talked about — nor the subject of such speculation, grumbling, and contention. Many people were dismayed, even angered, when it did not show up this year at the SHOT Show. So let’s answer the two most obvious questions: “Is it worth the wait?” and “Why now; what took so long?” We’ll get to the former question in a bit; first we’ll answer the latter. WHY NOW? Of course, part of it is the juxtaposition of import laws and Glock USA’s recently developed production capacity their facility in Smyrna, Georgia. Before, when they were assembling and distributing handguns from components built in Austria, smaller pistols like the 42…

Loud, fast, dangerous, and your mom probably wouldn’t approve. There’s always been a very strong connection between performance vehicles and guns, and anyone who says otherwise is probably mumbling apologetically through a mouthful of quiche. If you’ve ever watched the movie Dust to Glory and fantasized about hurling yourself down the length of the Baja peninsula at insane velocities, then you may want to add a little extra time to your next Vegas vacation. While your traveling companions are absorbed by the Borg-like slot machines, breathing recycled air, and having their body clocks screwed up by 24/7 lighting and cheap booze, you could be throwing someone else’s truck over 40 foot berms in the desert. Sound appealing? We thought so. This being Las Vegas, there’s no shortage of opportunities to…

We want our rifle bullets to be sleek and pointy, because everything we’ve learned by lusting after sports cars since third grade tells us that shape is the fastest and most efficient. Unfortunately, the science of fluid dynamics says that when passing through air, the center of pressure (CP) acting on a pointed projectile is in front of its center of gravity (CG). This produces instability and means the bullet wants to flip over — great if it happens inside a meat-filled target, but less than ideal if it occurs before it actually gets there. We counter this by using riffing to spin the bullet fast enough to resist the tendency to tumble, and different twist rates are needed in order to spin different length bullets. As the bullet slows…

It almost sounds like a riddle, or a really bad shooting joke: “How do you solve marksmanship problems? With marksmanship!” But it’s neither a riddle, nor a joke. The temptation is to sit there on your couch, or your toilet, and scoff. Of course, the key to good shooting is marksmanship. But people love gadgets. We’re so proud of our ingenuity and our ability to innovate that we let our equipment short-circuit our skill set. Everything from race holsters to red dots have been designed and marketed to make us “better” shooters — a faster first shot, easier target acquisition, and more shots with less trigger manipulation. Don’t get us wrong, we’re not turning our noses up at any of that stuff — we have an aftermarket trigger and sights…

Forget everything you think you know about tomahawks. Disregard those centuries-old paintings of Native Indians using them to scalp Europeans. Ignore the critics who say it’s nothing more than an ancient tool that only belongs in display cases. Tomahawks are back, and they’re more badass than ever before. If all you know about this versatile and powerful tool is what you saw in The Last of the Mohicans, find that familiar ass-groove in your couch and take the time to peruse this primer on tomahawks. We’re certain at least one of these can be a solid supplement to your kit. ’HAWK HISTORY In the United States, people are probably most familiar with tomahawks as the weapon of choice for American Indians of the Old West, thanks to their depictions in…

It’s perfectly healthy to quickly think about any dangers we might face in our ever-changing society before heading out for the day. What are the road conditions going to be? Why is that car in my neighborhood? If there is an active shooter at my kid’s school today, what is the fastest route there? We don’t dwell on it, but we consider it. Sometimes, in a healthy way, we even play a SHTF situation in our minds to work through the possible outcomes. The ability to consider the matrix of threats and likely responses is what makes humans so adept at survival. While stationed in Alaska with the Air Force, I loved to mountain-bike through the beautiful wilderness trails — but always contemplated the thing that worried me the most:…