Reviews

The AK rifle has earned a reputation as one of the most widely produced and reliable firearms ever made. Designed by Mikhail Kalashnikov in the years following World War II, the platform has served military forces, law enforcement agencies, and civilian shooters across the globe for decades. Its gas system, generous clearances, and relatively simple design allow it to continue functioning in conditions that might disable more tightly fitted firearms. Its fairly open front trunnion and the two locking lugs are also simpler and easier to clean out and get back in the fight.

Photo Of The Day: "White Satin" exemplifies the resurgence of 1970s 1911 aesthetics married to contemporary precision. The Colt Combat Commander frame sports a squared and checkered trigger guard, a hallmark of that era, paired with a Stan Chen Gen 2 magwell. Harrison Design & Consulting controls anchor the platform, while Derr Precision's bobbed grip safety and EGW Inc. bushing deliver both ergonomic refinement and mechanical reliability without sacrificing the cleaner lines of early custom work.

At the end of the 1890s, John Moses Browning was in a weird place. He’d had a hand in designing many classic lever-action rifles (and even shotguns!) over the past years, but he realized that without some big changes to the design, lever-actions would lose a lot of market share to bolt actions. Tube mag lever guns were not suited for pointed spitzer-style bullets, which European bolt action rifles could easily handle with their box magazines.

Henry Repeating Arms has joined forces with Big Woods Bucks (BWB) to create a pragmatic, simple, and extremely useful new lever-action rifle for all of us that should be perfect for whitetail deer hunting and other medium-sized game: the new H14 Long Ranger Big Woods Carbine in .308 Win/7.62x51 NATO.

Vortex Optics has taken one of their most popular rifle and shotgun red dots and enhanced them to be even better. The Crossfire II dot now has solar capabilities, a green dot option, motion activation, and other small upgrades to make it even more desirable for gun owners.

Leupold & Stevens, Inc. has expanded its Mark 4HD riflescope family with three new illuminated reticle options. The Oregon-based optics manufacturer now offers the Mark 4HD in Illuminated PR2-MOA, Illuminated PR2-MIL, and Illuminated PR3-MIL configurations, available in both 6-24x52 and 8-32x56 magnification ranges.

Why most after-action reviews produce paperwork instead of learning, the format and culture conditions that make post-incident review genuinely useful, and how to run one that officers do not dread and do not forget.

When I started carrying and trying various holsters and setups, one product that kept being mentioned to me was the PHLster Enigma. I finally purchased the Enigma a couple years into my concealed carry journey. I wish I had purchased it much earlier, as it quickly became my go-to setup.

The Brigade Speciale Beveiligingsopdrachten emerged from necessity. In 1975, with Europe rattled by the Munich massacre and rising terrorism, Major General E.N. Spronk of the Royal Netherlands Marechaussee identified an operational gap: the specialized counter-terrorist units on the books were too blunt an instrument for the majority of high-risk situations requiring expert intervention.

Welcome back to another edition of Concealed Carry Corner. Last week, we took a look at useful vs necessary upgrades to your carry pistol. I have a few more options, so if you want to check out that article and comment on what else you think are absolute upgrades, be sure to click the link here to add them. With the weather getting high into the 80s and 90s across the country, it can be tricky to carry larger firearms, especially with a light cover garment like a shirt or tank top. So how do you stay concealed? Let's take a closer look at the basics of printing.

Falco Holsters has announced the release of the A914 GBGuns IWB Holster, a tuckable hybrid concealed carry holster developed in collaboration with Graham Baates, a veteran with multiple combat deployments and professional firearms training courses, more than a decade of daily carry experience, and years of hands-on gear evaluation as a firearms journalist, including being the creator behind the YouTube channel GBGuns. Falco contributes its custom-fit manufacturing expertise and decades of experience working with premium leather, Kydex, and hybrid holster design.

Primary Arms has a new series of optics. The CLx family consists of four budget-minded red dots and prism scopes. Keep reading for all the details.

ST Engineering Advanced Material Engineering will supply the British military with 40mm grenades under a five-year contract valued at $87.8 million (£65.84 million), according to a contract award notice published by Defence Equipment and Support.

In this episode of TFB's Behind the Gun Podcast, I'm pleased to welcome back Dave Higginbotham, Product Marketing Manager at Safariland, for a conversation centered on the brand-new IncogXS, the latest holster to come out of the ongoing Safariland and Haley Strategic Partners collaboration. The IncogXS is the next evolution of the Incog X platform, refined into a single-clip, deep concealment IWB holster purpose-built for subcompact and micro-compact pistols. It features a microfiber suede-wrapped Boltaron shell, RDS compatibility, an ambidextrous body, and the new LinXS attachment system that opens up 3-6 o'clock carry versatility in a package that is genuinely built to disappear on your belt. We’ll also get to hear a few hints about what to expect next from one of the world's largest holster manufacturers.

When I was a kid, I always watched the credits of action movies until the end. I was waiting for one credit in particular - the movie armorer. The existence of such a job seemed too good to be true, since it encompassed all of my favorite hobbies: guns and movies.

Few pistols carry the kind of personal history that Jack Carr's MK25 does. The former Navy SEAL and #1 New York Times bestselling author carried the P226/MK25 through every deployment over a twenty-year special operations career, and its fictional counterpart drove a key plot thread in his debut novel The Terminal List. Now, SIG Custom Works has made that bond tangible in a limited-edition collector's package that pairs the pistol with another piece of Carr's personal iconography.

Right away, if you know anything about revolver manufacturers, you’re saying to yourself: “Manurhin is a French company, not American, so why are they selling revolvers to celebrate our milestone?” … and you’d have a point. But as their post on The Social Network Formerly Known As Twitter says, France was right there with America during the Revolutionary War:

Magnum Research has announced a threaded barrel option for the Desert Eagle chambered in .50 Action Express, complete with a custom L5 piston designed specifically for suppressed fire. It's an interesting engineering solution to a platform that doesn't typically appear on suppressor-equipped firearms. Let’s have a closer look at this Beast!

Tyler Grey spent thirteen years getting told no. No, this won't work. No, sights don't work that way. No, nobody will want them. The fact that Saberdyne Systems launched the NDEX Indexing Sight System just now suggests he stopped asking permission. NDEX is a rear-sight-only system that removes the traditional front sight post entirely, forcing a philosophical reckoning with how pistol shooters have been trained for the better part of seventy years. The mechanism is simple, the implication is not. If front-sight focus is doctrine for precision shooting, what happens when you design sights for stress response instead of range conditions?

XS Sights is answering a pretty obvious question with the R3D 2.0 for the PSA Dagger Micro: if you're carrying a subcompact that's built for fight-now defensive work, why settle for factory sights in low light? The answer is you shouldn't, and XS has equipped the Dagger Micro with night sights that actually deliver on the promise.

Colt Optics is playing for keeps with the LP5X-P, a weapon-mounted aiming laser that skips the usual "first generation" stumble and walks into battle-tested. Built in partnership with Brolis Defence, this unit has already been standardized and fielded across NATO forces, which means the US version you're looking at now isn't some designer's fever dream; it's earned its stripes in the field.

There comes a time in most people’s lives when they start looking for exactly what they want instead of just what is available. With the benefit of experience and some additional disposable income, many experienced shooters start seeking out custom solutions that match their needs precisely. This is true in the world of holsters, too. FALCO Holsters offers custom holsters configured for a specific pistol or revolver, including combinations with more than 160 weapon lights and lasers. Depending on the selected model, customers can choose options such as sweat guard height, adjustable retention, cant, handedness, belt width, leather color, stitching, edge color, decorative underlays, and more. That is an extensive level of customization, but are these options necessary? Let’s look at why you should (or should not) consider a custom holster.

When world leaders converged, France's most elite intervention unit wasn't far behind. In fact, they were probably there ages before. The Groupe d'Intervention de la Gendarmerie Nationale was engaged at full strength in Evian-les-Bains, where France hosted the G7 Summit from June 15 to 17, 2026, marking the second time the lakeside resort city served as the backdrop for a gathering of that magnitude.

CrossBreed's newly announced fitments for the Staccato HD C4X tell a familiar story in the holster market: a compact carry gun draws ecosystem attention once it proves itself in the field. The C4X, the compact aluminum-frame version of Staccato's compensated platform, landed well enough in its first iteration that it's now attracting the depth of support usually reserved for flagships. Which makes sense, because a hard-use carry gun like the C4X demands holster solutions that match its versatility.

Leupold's Mark 250 Limited Edition package launches during America's 250th anniversary year, and it's built around one of the company's most capable modern combat optics paired with a secondary red dot in a complete box, something that actually matters for working rifles. The package is exclusive to Scheels and capped at exactly 250 units, each sequentially numbered and engraved with the Betsy Ross flag.

There's a pattern in American military history that's so intrinsically tied to a specific thing that mentioning it feels like you're setting up a punchline, and yet, FirstSpear just dropped it unironically across an entire collection. The five-color disruptive pattern that the Marines called Frogskin, which made its operational debut during WWII with the Raiders in the Pacific, is officially back, and no, the marketers didn't overthink the frog thing. It's just what people called it, and after 80-some years, FirstSpear figured enough time had passed to resurrect this piece of genuine American military history without anyone cringing.

The 250th anniversary of American independence arrives with a fitting tribute from SOG Knives, a company that's built its reputation on delivering uncompromising steel to professionals who demand reliability when it matters most. The new SEAL FX 250th Anniversary Limited Edition fixed blade marks the occasion with a commemorative run limited to just 250 individually numbered examples, each carrying the weight of that numerical restriction as a collectible marker.

In the world of double stack 1911s, there are a number of choices at a plethora of price points. Wilson Combat has always been a leader in high-end 1911s, but has recently been moving more into the double-stack 9mm model variants. One of the most recent releases is the Experior Elite Commander and I’ve had the chance to test it out for the last few months. Let's take a closer look at the Wilson Combat Experior Elite.

Two hundred and fifty years is worth more than a flag decal, and Microtech Knives agrees. The North Carolina OTF maker dropped a limited-edition Hera II to commemorate the Semiquincentennial, dressed in patriotic Cerakote and paired with a double-edge Apocalyptic finish blade that carries the kind of character you'd expect from a milestone piece.

I'll admit up front that I've become one of those guys who can't stop doing math on the amount of money I haven’t spent recently on tax stamps, which is a strange sentence to type, but here we are. For the last two weeks, I've had a Franklin Armory F22-V SBR on the bench and at the range for a while now, and today I want to share my experiences and thoughts with you, sor far, on this unique platform that just a year ago would have been an extra 400 bones just for the permission to enjoy the 10/22 in what I think is one of its most enjoyable forms - a two stamp SBR.