Editorial

If you’ve watched an action movie within the last 40 years, you’ve likely seen the Desert Eagle in the hands of one of the actors. The large-caliber, gas-operated pistol is iconic and conveys “I mean business,” which is why it appears in Deadpool & Wolverine, The Matrix, Snatch, Eraser, Commando, RoboCop, Boondock Saints, Austin Powers, Terminator, and many, many more. The video game industry also loves this pistol, but is this admiration purely fictional, or is it rooted in practicality?

This Photo Of The Day is just for fun, but there’s a serious question behind it, asked by many. Should I buy a clip-on thermal or a dedicated thermal rifle scope? Hang on and get some advice, while you admire some cool, suppressed firearms in 300 Blackout and 9mm.

What if you want a classic wood-and-steel hunting rifle with generations of history behind it … but you also want to take advantage of the improvements in firearms technology over the past few decades? The new Mauser M98 Das Original allows you to have your cake and eat it too, and it even offers the classic bolt-action rifle in a never-before-available magnum chambering.

At SHOT Show 2026’s Industry Day at the Range TFB had the privilege of getting early access to the range to cover the ceremonial First Shot of SHOT. One of the benefits of this was we were able to get hands on as soon as the range went hot and I was able to put a couple of magazines through Steyr’s new AT family of 9x19mm pistols.

An integrally suppressed bullpup precision rifle - now doesn’t that sound like a cool package? Well that’s what Desert Tech have put together, a new handguard for an integrally suppressed version of their SRS series of rifles. The SRS SD kit is a carbon fiber handguard an and a full length Picatinny top rail which can be mounted on late model SRS A2s and SRS M2s.

Caldwell dropped the biggest piece of the ClayCopter puzzle at SHOT Show 2026 with the Surface-to-Air launcher. If you caught the  original ClayCopter handheld unit last year, this is the next step up. It’s a ground-based, hands-free launcher that turns your backyard into a sporting clays course. It's not a traditional clay thrower. The ClayCopter targets are biodegradable spinning disc-style targets that fly differently than standard clays, and they only break when you hit them, not when they drop.

Hearing, comms, performance, and downstream liability all get better when the rifle is less abusive to everyone standing near it.

The AR-15 has become the most prolific modern rifle in America—and for good reason. Its modularity, accuracy, ergonomics, and proven track record make it a top choice for self-defense, competition, and professional use. But among all the possible configurations, there’s endless debate over which build is truly “best.” There is personal conjecture from both professionals and content ninjas alike. Today is an examination on the original modern-day patrol carbine, the MK12 SPR; more than a precision weapon, the SPR is the do-all shooter; the SPR is the multi-tool of ARs.

Today’s POTD features the PTR GIR 100, a faithful U.S.-made interpretation of the Heckler & Koch G3, then rebuilt to copy the Swedish Ak4 battle rifle. Built around the classic roller‑delayed blowback system, the GIR 100 leans heavily into its Cold War roots with a parkerized finish and period-correct green furniture that immediately sets the tone. An 18-inch tapered barrel keeps the profile balanced, while the traditional steel SEF lower preserves the original manual-of-arms familiar to G3 users worldwide.

Welcome back to another edition of Concealed Carry Corner. Last week, we talked about some of the biggest problems when it comes to carrying a concealed firearm. If you happened to miss that article, be sure to click the link here to check it out. This week, I want to take a look at some ways to keep sharp when it's brutally cold out. Going to the range when it's well below zero is one of the toughest ways to train and if we are being honest, it can be counterproductive when you're wearing a ton of layers and heavy gloves. A few weeks ago, we talked about how carrying in extremely cold weather can make things tricky and going to the range in these conditions can be equally tricky.

Last year at SHOT Show 2025, I was stoked to run into the guys from Ally & Kaufman who were offering a cool lower receiver kit that pairs with a Brownells BRN-180 18.5" upper receiver to create the ‘SA80 at home’. This set up, the AKB-23 got a lot of attention and had developed further with an SA80-style pistol grip, a ‘Carbine’ handguard, L85 flash hiders and a range of SA80-style carry handles with sight mounts for ACROs and Micros.

Just because we’re used to doing something a certain way doesn’t mean it can’t be done better. That’s how just about every advancement, ever, in firearms design came about—someone rethinking the normal. And that is spreading over to the world of optics these days, with green visual elements replacing red-colored elements. That’s the key feature behind MCG Tactical’s new Boar boresighter; it takes the normal red dot used for such equipment and replaces it with green.

Rost Martin RM1F pistols are polymer-framed striker-fired handguns chambered in 9x19mm. The grips of these pistols feature the company’s signature Responsive Grip Texture and interchangeable backstraps. The magazine release buttons and the slide release levers are ambidextrous. The capacity of the flush-fit magazine is 17 rounds. With the flush-fit magazine inserted, the RM1F pistol has a height of 5.1” and weighs 23 oz.

Have you ever wondered what the SHOT Show is like through fresh eyes? Return guests Kevin and Bryce from The Carry Handle Podcast just made their debut on the show floor, and they’ve got stories to tell. Tune in this week as these SHOT Show virgins unpack their first-time experience, the standout gear that caught their eye, the places they went, the good and bad that they saw, as well as the hard-earned lessons from diving headfirst into the firearms industry's biggest event of the year. Please give a warm welcome back to returning guests Kevin and Bryce!

We are only a few weeks into 2026, and it looks like this year might see quite a few battles between pro-firearms activists and anti-gun legislators across the U.S.; we’ve already seen several states introduce highly restrictive legislation, and there might be more to come. Below, see a list of states that are either working on significant new firearms restrictions this year, or see similar restrictions from previous years’ legislative sessions coming into effect. This list is not comprehensive; research your own state’s laws if you are concerned. But it hits the highest points.

Photo Of The Day, and we go full Special Forces. The story takes us underground, where the 22nd Assault Company of Belgium’s 3 Para transformed Brussels–Schuman metro station into a Close Quarters Battle training environment. Far removed from open terrain, this setting emphasizes confined spaces, limited sightlines, constant civilian infrastructure, and the need for rapid decision-making under pressure.

James Earl Jones is known for lots of things—he played famous roles like Darth Vader’s voice in Star Wars and not-so-famous roles like General Solomon in the Command & Conquer video games. But he was also (perhaps to the surprise of those who only know him for his thespian work) a former military officer, earning his Ranger tab in the 1950s, and he had a very respectable firearms collection that is now up for sale at Checkpoint Charlie’s. It’s a wide collection, with interesting semi-auto handguns, single-shot target pistols and a few classic Wild West revolvers—like this Colt 1877 Lightning.

Over the last couple of years the guys at MK Machining have been working up their MK2.6 bullpup rifle chassis series. This year at SHOT Show they had some brand new prototypes of a new type of bullpup - a straight-pull.

American-made AKs definitely saw a resurgence at this years SHOT Show with strong offerings from companies like Stenzel Industries and Black Rain Ordnance. Black Rain introduced the Freedom Fighter which they describe as ‘a modern American-made evolution of a proven fighting rifle’.

Century Arms announced an exclusive distribution partnership with Live Free Armory at SHOT Show 2026, bringing the Apollo 11 V2 budget 2011 pistol to their booth alongside the company's existing product lines. The partnership addresses supply constraints and lead times that have limited availability of Live Free Armory's affordable double-stack 1911 platform.

Berry's Bullets came to SHOT Show 2026 with a product refresh that addresses real needs handloaders have been dealing with. Three new bullet profiles and storage solutions that look like they'll actually hold up.

The AKS-74UB is one of the rarer Kalashnikov variants, a suppressed short carbine designed for missions requiring minimal noise and visual signature. Derived from the AKS-74U developed by Mikhail T. Kalashnikov in the 1970s, the AKS-74UB was created by a team of engineers at the Research Institute-61 (NII-61, now TsNIITOCHMASH Central Research Institute of Precision Engineering) using the AKS-74U as the base, a mass-produced weapon adapted into a small-production-run specialist tool for clandestine and close-quarters use. The AK-74UB was designed as a dedicated suppressed version of the AKS-74U; as such, it was assigned the GRAU index 6P27.

Photo of the Day: Let’s highlight the Taran Tactical Innovations x V7 Harbinger rifle package fitted with a HUXWRX FLOW 762 Ti suppressor, as seen in the movie The Ballerina. The Harbinger platform combines a lightweight match-grade .308 barrel with a precision-oriented stainless fluted profile and ultra-light 2099 lithium-aluminum M-LOK handguard.

Welcome back to TFB's Small Business Spotlight! Each week, we feature small firearms-related businesses and give them a chance to introduce themselves. This week: The Armed Papist, a Catholic-focused firearms training operation out of Texas.

All Weatherby RPM cartridges have a rebated rim of .473" diameter with a .500” case body. These are basically the .284 Winchester case head and base dimensions. This case design allows using standard 30-06 Springfield/308 Winchester bolts but have a larger case capacity at a given case length. With an overall length of 3.34", the 25 Weatherby RPM is a standard/long action length cartridge that, according to Weatherby, provides magnum performance. The new 25 Weatherby RPM is designed with a focus on shooting heavier, high-BC bullets: the recommended twist rate is 1:7.5" and the case length of 2.4” results in ample room over the case (.94”) for those long ogive bullets. To download the full SAAMI cartridge and chamber drawings document for the 25 WBY RPM, click here.

This year’s broad pushback against firearms rights at the state level continues, with California now gearing up with a lawsuit against big names in the 3D firearm print world. On Friday, February 6, the State of California announced it was suing Gatalog and CTRLPew LLC over files they distribute online.

Canik displayed ten new optics at SHOT Show 2026, expanding from pistol red dots into rifle scopes and rifle-mounted optics. The lineup includes low-power variables, a 4-40x precision scope called the KNIGHT, and enclosed-emitter rifle red dots including the Obsidian LITE.

RCBS brought their revitalized Weaver brand to SHOT Show 2026 with a line of Precision and Precision Tactical rings that mark a significant departure from what Weaver used to be. After securing the Weaver license from Revelyst in late 2024, RCBS is taking the 90-year-old brand upmarket with rings priced from $109.99 to $325.99; a far cry from the $30-60 budget hardware Weaver was known for.

Today’s Photo of the Day features the DS Arms SA58 FAL equipped with a 21-inch standard-profile barrel chambered for 7.62×51mm NATO. This configuration uses Mil-Spec barrel steel, a chrome-lined chamber and bore, a 1:10 twist rate and a bipod-cut profile with a front sling swivel. The barrel is threaded 9/16×24 right-hand and fitted with a long, slotted flash hider that also serves as a bayonet mount.