Rifles

CVA’s Cascade bolt action series has a new entry. The Cascade XTS incorporates iron sights from the factory and comes in a range of popular hunting cartridges. Let’s take a look at what it brings to the table.

The reason for lever-action rifles’ decline isn’t because people didn’t want them, not exactly. The problem was twofold: A lot of people who wanted lever-actions could have their desires met by rifles that were already on the market, typically at more affordable second-hand prices than they could find if they were buying new.

It is hard to overestimate the importance of European firearms manufacturers for the global industry. Austrian Glock needs no introduction; Belgian FN Herstal was the main manufacturer of US military weapons for years; the list goes on and on.

Bear Creek Arsenal added a bolt-action twist to its sprawling AR catalog on October 27 with the launch of the Bear Bolt Pro Series, a run of bolt-action AR uppers and complete rifles.

MDT has expanded its JAE-G5 for the right-hand Remington 700 long action CIP, bringing the chassis to magnum-length builds that run CIP-length magazines.

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.

The idea of a lever-action .410 is nothing new at all; Winchester and Marlin both sold them in the past, and while they weren’t very common, they were something you could definitely find on the used market, as long as you didn’t mind a relatively high price.

A lever gun with M-LOK slots, a one-piece Picatinny rail and a suppressor-ready barrel is not what most people picture when they hear "lever action," but that is exactly what Savage Arms has built. The new REVEL Tactical joins the REVEL Classic and REVEL DLX as the third member of the series, and it keeps the smooth cycling of a lever action while adding the accessory-ready features modern shooters ask for.

The M4A1 is one of the most recognizable U.S. military carbines of the modern era. Still, the weapon that entered service in the 1990s is not quite the same M4A1 that soldiers and special operations forces use today. Its development has been driven by a recurring problem: how to keep the M4's compact size while making it withstand the much higher firing schedules of combat and intensive training.

Dark matter outweighs everything astronomers can see, and nobody has ever held a piece of it. Daniel Defense is aiming for something similar with Gray Matter, a dealer-exclusive run of the DDM4 V7 SLW finished in gray from end to end. It is available now; it comes only through Daniel Defense dealers, and "Once it's gone, it's gone."

Back in 2022, when MDT released the ACC Elite chassis for the first time, Hrachya wrote it up and told us:

Bergara has a new rifle model optimized for the PRS production class. The Premier Competition Elite family of rifles is built to be an off-the-shelf match winner. Keep reading for all the details.

Allied forces rarely cross platforms when it comes to serious rifle training, but that's exactly what happened when these U.S. Marines went “down under”. The Marines from the 4th Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion of the 4th Marine Division fielded the Australian Defence Force's Enhanced F88 Austeyr during the Coral-Balmoral Cup at Puckapunyal Military Area in Victoria.

Both rifles carry over the modular chassis system that defines the ACE line, now built around a left-hand bolt-action. Jared Smethurst, Beretta USA's Product Manager for Long Guns, frames it as an overdue move rather than a novelty, noting that extending the ACE platform to left-handed shooters was a natural next step, since the platform was already designed around precision and adaptability that lefties have simply been locked out of in factory form.

The cadre presence company of Austria's Panzergrenadierbataillon 13 tackled a scenario straight out of modern hybrid warfare doctrine: an enemy force seizes critical infrastructure and must be expelled without destroying it. For two weeks in August, 130 soldiers drilled this complex balancing act at the decommissioned Riedersbach power plant in Upper Austria, a facility shut down in 2016 that offered what no purpose-built training range could match: industrial complexity on a realistic scale. In this POTD, the green Sturmgewehr 77 A1 MOD "Nightfighter" edition is the focus point.

The Winchester Model 64 was introduced in 1933, but its story actually begins with a John Browning project in the 1890s. That’s because the Model 64 is really just a gussied-up version of the Model 1894/Model 94 lever-action, the best-selling sporting rifle of all time (at least in the North American market).

The Palmetto State Armory Jakl is a well-known commodity within gun culture at this point. The long-stroke piston rifle built around the AR15 is no stranger to love and hate; thus, the same is true with bullpups. This article looks to cause a ruckus and bring together two paradoxical and controversial weapon platforms and mix them together. The Jakl bullpup chassis article review is here, and it's twice the paradox with twice the Jakl bullpup.

In general, Bosnian defense manufacturers are not very well known in the US. But there is one important exception – AC Unity, a company from the town of Goražde, known to US and international customers for its polymer magazines for AK, AR-15, and MP5s, which TFB reviewed several years ago.

Savage Arms has carved out a confident following for their Axis series of rifles because of their affordability, reliability, and surprising accuracy as well as how attainable these rifles are. Now, they are adding an even better value proposition into the mix by announcing that they will be threading all of the barrels on Axis rifles moving forward.

Nothing stirs more of an emotional divide in the 2A community than the bullpup. While there are factual arguments for the practical use of the platform design, the emotional responses are rarely middle ground. The bullpup is a rifle that end users either love or hate; rarely is it undecided.

Springfield Armory is adding three new Model 2020 Waypoint rifles to the lineup, and this time the story is as much about the finish as it is about the mechanics underneath it. All three get a Super Grip SG-100 Cerakote treatment on a bead-blasted carbon fiber stock sourced from AG Composites. The Super-Grip is a non-slip, ceramic finish that adds a rubberized texture to the stock for better handling in the field.

Smith & Wesson marked the nation's 250th anniversary with a rifle that carries two origin stories on a single receiver. The Model 1854 America 250 Limited Edition lever gun honors both 1776 and 1854, the year Horace Smith and Daniel Wesson patented their first lever action, a lineage the company revived in 2024 and now commemorates in walnut and stainless steel.

The British L85 is one of the more unusual stories in modern military small arms. Conceived during a period when Britain was attempting to develop a new generation of infantry weapons around a domestically designed intermediate cartridge, the project eventually produced the L85 rifle. This advanced but deeply troubled weapon would later become one of the most extensively reworked service rifles of its generation.

Fierce Firearms has released the Wingman SBR, a short-barreled precision rifle chambered in 22, 25, and 6.5 Creedmoor, built on the company's CT Mini Rogue platform and priced at $2,995 MSRP. The rifle ships with a titanium action, 12.5-inch carbon-fiber barrel, and a base weight of 5.3 pounds without an optic, mount, or accessories. Let’s take a closer look!

MDT has added three new precision rifle actions to its portfolio through its acquisition of Lone Peak Arms, the Utah-based custom action manufacturer it secured earlier this year. The Fuzion, Fuzion Ti, and Razor platforms represent MDT's first entry into the bolt-action market and extend the company's reach across precision rifle components. All three designs employ the Remington 700 footprint, ensuring compatibility with the widest available ecosystem of stocks, chassis systems, triggers, and bottom metal components.

There's something satisfying about a lever gun that doesn't need you to fuss over it before opening day. Smith & Wesson and Vortex have teamed up to build exactly that, four new Model 1854 packages that come out of the box scoped, sighted, and ready to hunt. Two rifles in .30-30 Winchester, two in .45-70 Government, each factory-equipped with a Vortex Crossfire HD 2-7x32 riflescope already mounted in Pro Riflescope Rings.

Say “bonjour” to an upgraded French rifle! PGM Précision's Ludis arrives as a deliberate bet on a specific shooter profile: the long-range competitor or sport shooter who doesn't need a magazine, doesn't need semiauto capability, and doesn't need the feature set of the Ultima Ratio platform. What they need is interchangeable barrels, match-grade precision, modularity, and the build quality that justifies the PGM name without the operational overhead or cost of a full professional rifle. The upgrades include a new chassis with an integrated ARCA rail along the entire length of the handguard, as well as a new fixed stock that offers the new adjustment options.

Some rifles are built to disappear into the field. The CDX-30 X-LITE Gold FX Edition is built to be noticed, then shoot holes in your expectations anyway. Quebec-based Cadex Defence has long paired uncompromising precision engineering with distinctive aesthetics, and this custom shop offering in Cerakote FX Gold with a battle-worn treatment might be the most visually arresting expression of that philosophy yet.

When Winchester gutted its product line in 1964, buyers and gun writers were appalled—but they shouldn’t have been. They should have seen it coming, because for decades, Winchester had been making iffy business moves that should have prophesied the future.

The iconic American rifle of World War 1 is the 1903 Springfield, but most of the Doughboys were issued a different gun. The US Rifle, Model of 1917, also known as the Enfield or P17, thanks to the vagaries of history, was the most prevalent US rifle by far. Over two million were made in a two-year span. So how does it stack up today?