Reviews

Welcome back to Front Line Friday. This week we're reviewing the T.REX Arms Titan Level 2 OWB duty holster, tried on two different pistols. Front Line Friday is brought to you by Dead Air Silencers, whose support keeps this column going every week.

Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome back to TFB’s Silencer Saturday, brought to you by Yankee Hill Machine, manufacturer of the new Victra 20-gauge shotgun suppressor. This week we are looking at an uncommon but clever method of suppressing firearms. Captive piston ammunition suppresses the shot by containing the sound inside the cartridge. For regulatory reasons, this has never caught on in the United States, but with the recent changes to the NFA, there's no reason now why it couldn't. Let's discuss.

The Double-Alpha EDGE shot timer bundled with two Target Activation Pods (TAP) turns any swinger, drop-turner, bobber or slider into a target that releases on a programmable delay, with no activator popper in the way. For competition shooters who want (un)predictable movers in training, it is one of the most useful pieces of range gear I have used this year, and the bundle price is fair.

France has a habit of sending Liberty across the Atlantic. In 1886, she stood 151 feet tall in New York Harbor. This time she fits in a holster. TFB's Photo of the Day is the Manurhin MR73 Liberty, a 100-piece limited edition hand-built in Saint-Bonnet-le-Château for America's 250th birthday. Its "Liberty" engraving comes straight from the Declaration of Independence, joined by the town's centuries-old coat of arms, a nod to a region that supplied arms and munitions to the colonial cause.

This is the top reason to use a shotgun—because the local game laws require you to do so. This is less common these days thanks to the increasing prevalence of straight-wall cartridge laws, which allow hunters to use rifles chambered in straight-wall cartridges (like 360 Buckhammer, .44 Magnum or .45-70) but not rifles chambered in bottleneck cartridges (.30-30, .308, .30-06, .270, etc.). Some of these straight-wall jurisdictions previously restricted hunters to using shotguns; the idea is that a shotgun slug that misses the mark is less likely to accidentally kill someone the next county over. That same logic is used to justify straight-wall cartridges.

Six years ago I tested the original Leica PRS 5-30x56i on a Ruger Precision Rifle, and I concluded that it had a clear, crisp image, a mechanical feel and turrets that were a pleasure to use. Nowhere in that review did I say, "it would be better in tan." Yet here we are, with the PRS 5-30x56 i FDE Edition, and I will be honest: I am weak; colors work on me. A scope is not more accurate because it matches the stock, and a brown-green RAL 8000 or a ghost gray rifle does not hit one centimeter closer at 100 meters. We buy it anyway. We even pair our rifles to the rifle scope. I once sent a Spuhr mount to be Cerakoted in silver and burnt bronze purely for the look, so I am in no position to judge any of our readers.

Some upgrades add speed, some add accuracy, and some just fix the one thing about a pistol that nags at you every time you pick it up. The Pinnacle Safety from Creekside Custom belongs to that last group. It is a purpose-built replacement for the factory safety on the Ruger MK IV, made for shooters who want the thumb to land in the same comfortable spot every time.

Picatinny rails are everywhere on guns, and almost nowhere else. Atlas Defense Co wants to change that with the CRC Compact Rail Carrier, a small, clip-equipped 3-slot rail that turns Picatinny into everyday carry. The idea is to take the versatility of the standard accessory rail and put it where people actually carry their gear.

Savage Arms, one of America’s oldest firearms companies, has been acquired by another of the US’ oldest firearms giants - Smith & Wesson. Formed in 1894 by inventor and businessman Arthur Savage. Previously, Savage was a subsidiary of Vista Outdoor until 2019, when Savage and Stevens were sold to investors in a deal worth $170 million.

The Russo-Japanese War was one of the first major conflicts in which two modern industrial powers employed machine guns extensively against one another. Russian forces primarily used the Maxim machine gun, while the Japanese increasingly used the Hotchkiss machine gun. Both armies initially had relatively limited machine-gun inventories, but the weapon's battlefield effectiveness encouraged them to expand their stocks during the conflict.

Arnold Schwarzenegger's Terminator saw the world through a red heads-up display, keeping count as it went. Now another Austrian creation wants to do something similar, only this one is a 9mm pistol from the small town of Wolfau in Burgenland. This Photo Of The Day takes a closer look at the OPOS Arms Venator in 9mm.

Welcome back to another edition of Concealed Carry Corner. Last week, we talked about how to travel with your carry guns and best practices when it comes to preparing to travel. If you happened to miss that article, be sure to click the link here to check it out. This week, I want to look at some of the best ways to choose the perfect carry gun. There are countless options on the market and trying to figure out what the perfect option is can be really tricky. There are certainly a few options that can make a huge difference in overall comfort and confidence when it comes to carrying a concealed handgun. Let's take a closer look at how to choose the perfect carry gun.

Six months ago, a compact angled spotting scope called the Zeiss Conquest Apia 65A showed up with a simple pitch: Zeiss optics, low weight and an affordable price. Now the family has grown. VALYRA has announced the Conquest Apia 85A, two straight models and a batch of eyepieces and accessories, all following the market's shift toward lighter, smaller equipment.

The phrase "riding shotgun" comes from stagecoach messengers who sat beside the driver with a short double-barreled gun, and Derya Arms has built a new shotgun for the same job. The EX1400 Coach is a 12-gauge side-by-side with 18-inch barrels, a compact break-action gun made for fast pointing in tight quarters. It joins the 24-inch EX1400 Field in Derya's EX line of imported shotguns, which are built in Türkiye and exported to the U.S.

Red, green or gold: Lodestar Technology has put the choice of reticle color into the LNK9 lineup. The LNK9 now comes in three new optics configurations, with a 2 MOA Green, Red or Gold Dot reticle. The new options give owners more say over the sight picture, while keeping the features, performance and secure-access technology at the core of the platform.

This week, I'm joined by Cameron Tapler, Director of Branding and Product Management at Palmetto State Armory and the face most people see on PSA’s growing YouTube Channel. Cameron didn't come up through marketing. He started at PSA nearly a decade ago as a compliance manager on the manufacturing side, later took over compliance for all of the company's FFLs, and now helps decide what PSA builds and how it reaches shooters. Few companies roll out as many new guns in a year as PSA, so I wanted to hear how that process works from someone who has seen it from the regulatory floor up. Please give Cameron a warm welcome to the show!

The U.S. Small Caliber High Velocity concept started in 1950 with a study, then evolved into testing and evaluation. By the late 1950s, they discussed a .22 caliber rifle with respectable accuracy at 300 yards. The Army Infantry Board brought Armalite’s Eugene Stoner, designer of the AR-10, who impressed the board in 1956. They showed him the ballistic research and asked him to scale the rifle down for an experimental .22 cartridge. This evolved into the .223 cartridge, which emerged when the AR-10 was scaled down into the AR-15 in 1957. Typical engagement ranges from the last several wars led to the conclusion that engagement typically took place within 300 yards.

Anyone who grew up with a Nintendo remembers Duck Hunt: lead the target, squeeze the trigger, and pray the dog doesn’t laugh. Denmark is now playing the grown-up version, with enemy targets that buzz instead of quack. In this Photo Of The Day, we take a new look at the Benelli M4 A.I. Drone Guardian.

Custom & Collectible Firearms isn’t in the business of making their own firearms—they take other manufacturers’ designs and embellish and otherwise improve them. In this case, they’ve gotten their hands on a Colt Python and given it a makeover.

A suppressed 9mm PCC is one of the most enjoyable things you can shoot. Subsonic from the muzzle, no blast, no ear defenders strictly required, and a rifle you can run flat and fast all day. The catch has always been the operating system. Foxtrot Mike's ISU-9 upper receiver is an attempt to solve that at the root, and in this article we’ll try to explain how it works.

Four years, thousands of pistols built and a tolerance strategy measured in microns. That is how Jacob Grey describes the development behind the Nox Gentleman Series, the latest version of its American-made double-stack 1911, and the company is at pains to point out that this is not a new colourway.

Kent Cartridge has recalled specific 12- and 20-gauge shotshells because they may produce excessive chamber pressure when fired. Kent warns that the pressure could damage a shotgun, leave it inoperable, and seriously injure the shooter or bystanders. If you have Kent hunting ammunition on the shelf, check the box before taking it out.

Every army has a few soldiers whose job is to hit what the rest of the squad cannot. Colt Canada has built a rifle around that job. The new C25 Sharpshooter is a semi-automatic modular 5.56mm NATO rifle, billed as "compact with maximum accuracy," and it is the first look at what the C25 Series brings beyond the C7/C8 family that has served Canadian and allied forces since the 1980s.

You are lying prone behind a rifle, the clock is running, and you need the wind, the range and your drop. So you lift your head, look at the Kestrel in your hand, read the numbers, lose your sight picture and start again. I have done that more times than I care to count, on the range, in matches and in the field. The Kestrel HUD is Kestrel’s answer to that problem: a display that sits on your rifle and shows the solution from your Kestrel Wind & Weather meter, so you don’t have to look away from the scope. When I first wrote about it in 2019, I wasn’t sure whether it was a clever tool or just another gadget. I ended up buying one, and after using it across several rifles, here is what I think.

John Moses Browning never saw this one coming. His 1935 design, finished after his death, has now picked up a Coyote Brown Cerakote coat that would look right at home on a dusty ridge in a spaghetti western, with Morricone whistling somewhere in the background.

In California, Contra Costa County’s sheriff has agreed to lift its concealed-carry permit restrictions on red-dot sights, weapon-mounted lights, and single-action-only 1911- and 2011-style pistols, according to the Second Amendment Foundation (SAF). SAF announced the settlement October 8. The plaintiffs filed a notice of voluntary dismissal the next day.

Silent Steel has launched the Baffle Streamer Gen 2 family, a new generation of its traditional baffle suppressors. A completely redesigned Gen 2 Baffle Module is produced by 3D printing, and additive manufacturing allows internal geometries that conventional manufacturing methods cannot produce. Sound and flash suppression both improve significantly, and the process lets weight, durability and performance be optimized for different applications.

Berger has added a 6.8 Western load to its Elite Hunter ammunition line, and the Mesa, Arizona maker says it's available now. No pricing or SKU was listed.

Most camo rifles get their pattern from a factory machine. The DB15 Swamp Stalker gets it from a stencil, a steady hand and a lot of patience. Diamondback Firearms built this 5.56 NATO rifle as a Sports South exclusive, and the finish is made of precision-cut stencils, hand-laid patterns and individually sprayed Cerakote layers. The idea is a rifle that stands out at the dealer counter and in the field. "The Swamp Stalker finish is built the right way," says Diamondback COO Alicia McCabe, and she adds that the attention-getting paint sits on top of the DB15 foundation.

RCBS has announced a next-generation update to its Vibratory Case Polisher, and the unit is shipping now. The redesign centers on two upgrades reloaders will notice at the bench: a quick-detach (QD) bowl for faster removal and an upgraded lid with built-in sifting to speed up media separation.