Table of contents for Issue - UN12 #12 in UN12

Welcome to another edition of UN12. In this, our 12th issue, we are proud to button up another year of this one-of-a-kind firearms publication. When we started UN12 three years ago, we didn’t fully anticipate how a magazine of this type would be received. In the early days, every issue could have been our last, but demand for UN12 has steadily grown and it has generated a devoted readership. For that, we thank you. We took on this project with the express goal of bringing our readers the highest possible quality print publication in the firearms world. Our focus is on guns, gear, the artistry of customization, and the craft, innovation, imagination, and inventive spirit of the people behind it all. With articles designed to be as informational as they…

UN12 and industry innovators go hand in hand; that’s why we are proud to say that this issue’s morale patch was created in collaboration with not one but two industry leaders: Mesa Tactical and Mossberg. Mesa Tactical has been outfitting shotguns with modernized upgrades for close to two decades now. Scattergun shooters can always count on the specialists at Mesa to spearhead innovative and practical accessory advancement for a wide variety of shotguns. And Mossberg probably needs no introduction. As a leader in shotgun development and manufacturing, the company’s products are known, used, and loved the world over. One of its latest creations, the 14-inch-barreled 590 Shockwave, is the centerpiece of this issue’s included morale patch. UN12 Issue 012’s morale patch features the Mossberg 590 Shockwave outfitted with Mesa Tactical’s…

The second that Mossberg’s 590 Shockwave hit the market, we knew the company had a hit on its hands. The diminutive 14-inch-barreled 12-gauge shotgun has a capacity of 5 plus 1 and measures just a hair over 26 inches long overall. It’s about as compact as you can get and still dishes out quite a wallop. The Shockwave’s “bird’s head” pistol grip is shaped to minimize felt recoil. Like other 590s, it features an ambidextrous safety, dual extractors, positive steel-to-steel lockup, twin action bars, and a smooth-operating, anti-jam elevator. What else would you need in a 12-gauge? It didn’t take long for the shotgun specialists at Mesa Tactical to heed the call and zero in on just what they thought could improve on the already-impressive Shockwave. Mesa Tactical is well-known…

For many, the Pelican brand has become synonymous with peace-of-mind protection. The company’s collection of protective cases can be found just about anywhere, from the firing range to the insides of first-responder vehicles and on professional photo and video shoots protecting valuable equipment and gear. With many Pelican customers using these cases for vehicle storage and travel, it was a natural transition for the brand to create a dedicated assortment of cases designed to mount in the beds of trucks, on roof racks, and inside the cargo areas of cars and SUVs. Pelican Cargo products were built with adventure in mind. With more people looking to travel and hit the open road in their personal vehicles and with the rising popularity of overlanding, the timing for the product could not…

NATO militaries around the globe have embraced information technology with open arms. As the information battlefield evolves, warfighters are being provided with more smart technology controllable by smart devices like iPhones and iPads. The only difference between a soldier’s iPhone and the one in your pocket is the encrypted military network it runs on. And while all this technology helps increase the lethality and safety of our warfighters, it still needs to be immediately accessible to make a difference. Juggernaut Case offers a full range of smartphone and tablet cases designed to provide maximum protection and ease of use in battlefield environments. The cases are compatible with a whole suite of mounting options for vehicles and personnel. They are also compatible with popular third-party rugged mount systems like RAM mounts.…

The Curtiss P-40 Warhawk was probably the airplane that made the “shark’s mouth” or “shark’s face” combat marking famous, but it wasn’t the only airplane to use the motif. Or even the first. The earliest known example of the stylized maw applied to the nose of an airplane, another combat aircraft no less, is a WWI-era German Roland C.II. The Luftwaffe brought the shark’s mouth into WWII, where it reappeared on ZG 76 ME 110s flying out of Norway during the Battle of Britain. After encountering these airplanes, the Royal Air Force copied the motif and applied it to the Curtiss P-40, whose pronounced, open-air-intake nose design was particularly suited to it. Shark-faced P-40s first saw action over North Africa in the war’s Western Theater as part of the RAF’s…

Some people love them, some people not so much (count us among the lovers). But whatever your feeling on the subject, it can’t really be said that Glock pistols don’t make for an eminently versatile handheld shooting platform. In addition to a wide variety of frame sizes for different people and different applications, Glock pistols support most popular handgun cartridges. Not just the ubiquitous 9mm, but everything from .22 to .380 to 10mm and more. And each of those platforms offers the simplicity, functionality, affordability, and reliability that the brand has become known and loved for. This is a customized Glock 21 Gen3, and as such is chambered for what some may consider the king of handgun loads—.45 ACP. Its owner is a man named Don Wanorek, and he’s one…

When is a knife considered customized? Is it when an off-the-shelf blade is taken apart, re-coated, and reassembled with aftermarket scales and hardware? Or is it only when a knife has been completely hand-made from bar stock? What if a knife has been worked-over and totally re-contoured? Just about everybody will have his or her own opinion about what constitutes a customized knife. We’re content to say that we consider the pictured knives to be customized to our satisfaction. Skyraider Knives offers its blades as complete custom builds that are configurable by the customer. The SRK-1 is available in two blade choices, a swept-point version called the Skinner and a Tanto-bladed model called the Banshee. Both blades feature hollow grinds with convex edges. They are made of nitride-coated A2 steel…

Midland ER10VP E+READY COMPACT EMERGENCY ALERT RADIO Don’t be caught off guard when you’re off the grid—be prepared at all times with the ER10VP AM/FM weather radio. As what may prove to be an essential piece of equipment when you’re hiking, fishing, hunting, overlanding, or camping with the family, the ER10VP will immediately alert you to incoming inclement weather. This versatile radio doubles as a flashlight with high, low, and SOS strobe output options to suit your needs. $20 midlandusa.com Reptilia TORCH 3.7V/18350 M-LOK LIGHT BODY Machined from aircraft-grade billet aluminum with a Mil-Spec Type III hardcoat anodized finish, the Torch is optimized for use with the ATPIAL/PEQ 15, NGAL, and other top-mounted laser aiming devices. Featuring an integral unibody M-lok interface, it’s not only low-profile but provides one of…

No matter how you spend your time outdoors, the gear you bring with you impacts the experience. Quality gear goes a long way in ensuring your time spent is enjoyable and worry-free. Whether you’re camping, on a hunt, or out for a day hike, EDC items bring comfort, convenience, and overall enjoyment to the activity. For this edition of EDC, we’ve chosen a few items that can prove versatile no matter which activity you have planned, along with a few products that will aid you in enjoying a proper cup of coffee while away from home. In terms of material, carbon fiber is one of our favorites for its strength and light weight, but also for its attractive carbon weave. In terms of appearance, the color black is sleek, minimalist,…

After building multiple AR-15s and dabbling in AKMs for a time, Rob M. decided he wanted to venture off the main highway and take a detour to a road less traveled. He was looking for a rifle-caliber carbine that could fill a multipurpose role centered primarily on short- to mid-range plinking, but one that could also be used for occasional tactical classes. If need be, he wanted to be able to rely on it as a defensive weapon as well. The road led him to consider rifles such as the SIG MCX, FN SCAR, HK91, FN FAL, CZ Bren 2, and others as his next long gun. One thing Rob knew was that he wanted hands-on experience with something other than an AR or AK, which up until then constituted…

When you really take a deep dive into it, you’ll quickly realize that high-level competitive shooting is like no other form of shooting that you’ve encountered before. It is a high-pressure sport that runs on plenty of adrenaline and the utmost attention to detail. Speed and accuracy are everything. In certain circumstances, even a hundredth of a second or a quarter of an inch can spell the difference between a triumphant win and a heartbreaking loss. It might be said that competition shooting is all the crew at Titan Ballistics knows. It seems as if every fiber of their being is dedicated to shooting sports. They are so competitive that they can spend days, if not weeks, working up the perfect ammunition recipe for one of their customer’s guns. Yes,…

Like you, we were greatly disappointed by the cancellation of this year’s SHOT Show. In less unusual times, we would have been eagerly pacing the halls of the firearms industry’s largest annual trade show early this past January to examine and geek out on all the incredible new gear. We’re always excited about new firearms and accessories. In lieu of attending and reporting on the show, we’ve included this expanded new products department, where we unveil and even debut some of the latest gear that we’ve learned we can look forward to getting our hands on this year. All because the big show didn’t happen doesn’t mean that a whole load of new gear isn’t being released—in fact, far from it. Just about every company in the industry is releasing…

“The mission always drives the gear train.”—Patrick Rogers, EAG Tactical The above quote speaks to everything concerning our community. Military, law enforcement, first responders, and armed citizens have different needs for guns, gear, and accessories. Therefore, individuals from these different categories will likely set up their kit to meet their specific mission (cloners notwithstanding). Whenever new gun owners ask me what accessories they should put on their rifles, I tell them to get a sling and either good iron sights or a good optic (or both). These will allow you to aim and retain the weapon. And they’re really the only items required for the average gun owner who just likes to go to the range and plink. But if your mission is more than a casual fun shoot, you’ll…

Most shooting exercises serve a specific purpose. Exercises like transition drills involve a common skill practiced by most dedicated students of firearms. A transition occurs for two reasons— because you “have to” or because you “want to.” The situation where you “have to” occurs when your primary weapons fails for whatever reason and you still have a relatively close and imminent threat. It is generally faster to go to another platform that you know is working than trying to fix an unknown stoppage. A situation where you would “want to” transition is related to confined spaces where the longer system not easily maneuvered or practical. Proper execution of nearly any weapon-related training is measured in two ways: time and accuracy. To truly improve at something a standard must be set,…

I must confess: I have an addiction. The best part of this addiction is that it is now on display for all to see. With a glut of morale patches clogging up a couple of desk drawers and several boxes in the closet, it was time to get organized and finally put my patch display together. After all, the best way to fully appreciate your morale patch collection is to actually be able to see these sublime nuggets of Velcro-backed goodness. There are many ways to display a morale patch collection. Some collectors use a Velcro wall panel, sometimes called a patch flag, while others simply stick them to anything they possibly can—a jacket, backpack, or even the headliner of their car or truck. For my collection, I went with…

Premium EDC Items Pelican 14QT Personal Cooler MSRP: $100 URL: pelican.com Our 2¢: This new personal-sized cooler does more than just keep things cold. It doubles as a dry box to safeguard items like wallets, keys, and smartphones. The cooler retains ice for up to 36 hours and integrates three zones for dry, cool/dry, and cold items. A removable inner tray can keep food cold, two cupholders are built into the lid, and the integrated bottle opener is magnetized to capture spent bottle caps. Perhaps most importantly, the storage space is ample enough to hold an entire six-pack. VSSL JAVA MSRP: $145 URL: vsslgear.com Our 2¢: For coffee aficionados who want versatility and portability, the JAVA is a premium, ultra-durable, portable hand coffee grinder with high-end construction. No detail was…

It would be an understatement to say 2020 was a challenging year for all involved. Fortunately for us, the firearms industry has weathered the storm and continued to flourish in spite of all the challenges and restrictions. Being that it’s our business to keep a finger on the business’s pulse, so to speak, we’ve continually reached out to various operations to see how they move ahead with product development and, by extension, figure out what the future holds in store for the industry at large. One such enterprise, and one of the original supporters of UN12 since the early days, is Tuscon, Arizona, based TangoDown. Our POC is one of the company’s original co-founders, Jeff Cahill, who has been a constant since TangoDown’s inception and today serves as its president…

Historical military markings are certainly nothing new in the custom firearms world. What better way to infuse your range weapon with a little instantaneous street cred—or, at the very least, a little bit of nostalgia that pays homage to Grandpa’s service overseas, or one that can get your shooting compatriots talking when the live-fire exercises are done for the day? What’s more interesting to us is looking at the various applications and how they can be integrated into a build. It’s one thing to stencil a white Allied star on your black rifle and call it good. Others might take a more regimented, nuanced approach, which brings us to the AR pistol pictured here. Built, owned, and used by Arizona-based photographer and custom firearms consultant Jay Canter, this pistol had…

The importance of a quality weaponlight on your defensive firearm cannot be stressed enough. The preceding article, “Laser & Light Mounting Methods,” sheds plenty of light on why lights and lasers are beneficial, even essential, to your overall weapon configuration and why you don’t want to be caught unprepared without them in low-light and no-light situations. Getting your light and laser setup just right will almost certainly require accessories like aftermarket remote switches or optional tailcaps. In this guide we’ll go hands-on with some popular rifle-mounted flashlight and laser accessories, as well as a few new offerings in the category. We also look into wire management to keep rifle forends snag-free and looking tidy. Without further ado, let’s check out some of the gear that can help you get your…

With so much training emphasis on mid- to close-range work, many weaponlight manufacturers have reacted by producing a bulk of their lighting options for just those ranges. But what if you need to reach out farther than 700, or even 1,000 feet (or farther)? What are your lighting options at extended distances other than blasting targets with your truck’s auxiliary lights? Understanding that long-distance lighting can easily get lost in the shuffle, the minds at Atibal Illumination set out to produce a light head that can pierce ranges closing in on 3,000 feet. That’s right—their latest innovation, the Ai-1 Light Head, promises to light up targets over half a mile away. What’s even more eye-opening is that it does so with only 335 lumens. Although Atibal is fully versed in…

CA Evike 2801 W. Mission Rd. Alhambra, CA 91803 Tel: (626) 407-0561 URL: evike.com Evike 1400 W. 4th St. #2 Antioch, CA 94509 Tel: (925) 237-2560 URL: evike.com Kings River Coatings 2491 Avenue 400 Kingsburg, CA 93631 Tel: (559) 246-6426 URL: yooying.com/kingsrivercoatings Tactical Pro Shop 3503 W. Burbank Blvd. Burbank, CA 91505 Tel: (818) 468-7837 URL: tacticalproshop.com CO Danger Close Armament 6801 S. Emporia St. #102 Greenwood Village, CO 80112 Tel: (720) 638-6572 URL: dangerclosearmament.com LA Iron Sights Weaponry Woodland Trace Ct. Sorrento, LA 70778 Tel: (833) 476-6486 URL: ironsightsweaponry.com MI FiringLine Guns 33000 Ford Road Westland, MI 48185 Tel: (734) 326-7320 URL: firinglineguns.com ND Spartan Firearms 7101 Hwy 2 & 52 W. Minot, ND 58703 Tel: (701) 838-GUNS URL: spartanfirearms.us NV New Frontier Armory 150 E. Centennial Pkwy, Suite…