Tactical Life September/October 2022

If you’re a Dallas Cowboys fan, when you see the number 22 you think of Hall Of Fame running back Emmitt Smith. If you’re a firearms enthusiast, you think of fun and functional times at the shooting range or popping critters in the woods. With many kinds of ammunition still very hard to find, available ammo quite expensive and runaway inflation making expendable income for range visits increasingly harder to come by, it’s a good thing that manufacturers have—whether intentionally or not—made 2022 the year of the .22. With a good .22 pistol or rifle and a couple of bricks of ammo, you can shoot all day for what just a few hours of shooting centerfire rounds would cost you. Fortunately, more and more firearms manufacturers are offering full-size .22 pistols much…

Earlier this year, I received the sad news that acclaimed artist and illustrator Dick Kramer, one of our favorite contributors to The Armory Life, had passed away at the age of 83. While I was fully aware of his work over my more than two decades in this industry, I had not had the pleasure of working with him until relatively recently. Upon taking the reins of TAL in late 2019, you can imagine my surprise when I learned the father of the VP of Marketing for Springfield Armory was the very man we are discussing here. “Wait a second, your father is the Dick Kramer, the guy that has done just about every iconic illustration for the gun industry as long as I have been working in it?”, I asked him.…

BERETTA APX A1 Based upon Beretta’s original APX that passed MHS testing for the U.S. Army, the new APX A1 combines form, function and fortitude to create a pistol with a competitive feature set. These include a best-in-class trigger, optics-ready slide, tritium front sight, and ambidextrous slide release and mag release. Ergonomics shine with the inclusion of three different sized backstraps, while the extended beavertail and high undercut triggerguard give a higher-tang grip for a natural shooting position and recoil control. The pistol is available with 10-, 15- and 17-round magazines. (beretta.com) F.A.B. DEFENSE ULTIMAG Glock magazine users can now squeeze one more available 9mm round in their Glock 19 and 17 pistols with F.A.B. Defense’s Ultimag. Constructed of heavy-duty materials for years of use, the magazines come with a blue follower for quick status…

For years, I avoided the world of suppressors. I did so mainly out of laziness because I didn’t want to deal with the NFA paperwork, and I was totally against paying a $200 tax just to own a device that is quite literally a muffler for your gun. I loved shooting suppressed but just couldn’t bring myself to make the leap. Well, in late 2020 when the world was shut down and I was bored out of my mind, I decided it was time to dive headfirst into the land of sound suppression. I know most of you probably have tried to forget about that time in our history, but I honestly have grown to kind of embrace it. One of the worst problems for gun owners during those crazy times…

In August of 2021, former VP sleepy Joe Biden banned the importation of Russian ammunition with nothing more than the swipe of a pen…mind you, this was months before the Russian army ever set foot into Ukraine. With that move, the 7.62x39 market is now tracking for utter disaster sometime around 2023. It’s hard to believe, but there will soon be a time when steel-cased AK fodder will cease to exist, at least on this side of the pond. Unfortunately, as that is the situation, this issue’s “Ammo Match” is devoted to the exploration of alternative 7.62x39 options that can keep your guns running and leave you with a pile of brass cases that are ready for reloading. THE GEAR Whenever 7.62 Russian is mentioned, Kalashnikov’s famed design is the first gun…

Every year, the firearms industry launches a variety of new guns for the market. It is usually a spectrum of new blasters that range from high-end bolt guns and ARs to special shotguns and pistols. While small themes have appeared in the past, they have been centered on a small sector of the industry. That changed this year, as multiple companies decided to hop on the .22 rimfire bandwagon. In the past, these guns were not anything new, and each year we saw a new plinker hit the market. This year though, we have seen major companies build serious guns chambered in our beloved .22 LR. They are well designed and, in almost all cases, designed to mimic a full-size gun in their lineup. The benefits of this design are…