So you worked hard and well to order and build what you consider to be the lightest Pistol Caliber Carbine ever? Believe it or not, now it’s probably the time to add some weight to it!

Frequenters of the blog as well as our YouTube channel TFBTV will know that we offer our Subscribe Star and Patreon supporters patches as rewards. Upon reaching a certain dollar value our supporters are rewarded with TFB embroidered patches. Many of these patches come from our good friend Milspec Monkey. Milspec Monkey now also makes hats and he sent me over one of the new CG-Hat Notch Adjusts – a patch compatible baseball style hat with integrated hearing protection slots.

With the majority of the United States and World either being shut down or a little more crazy than usual, it’s not a bad idea to carry a little more firepower. Now I know some of you only carry on the body with your favorite concealed carry handgun and that’s totally fine. Not everyone wants to carry a more capable gun in their backpack or concealed off body, but there are a few different guns that do a great job riding in a backpack concealed. Let’s take a look at the top 4 sub guns for concealed carry.

Gerber has been a long time favorite knife and tool manufacturer of mine. Being from my home town of Portland Oregon, the company has made many EDC knives as well as multi-tools and other bladed tools alike. Gerber has just announced that you can now custom design your own every day carry (EDC) knife at Gerber Custom.

Finding a good bag for everyday use as well as range use can be difficult, to say the least. In an effort to find the mythical “do all” bag, I’ve decided to purchase a few different bags with my own money in the name of science and product testing. These were not requested for testing, paid for by TFB or even talked about with any of the companies.

Franklin Armory’s Binary Firing System upgrades your rifle and may turn it into your favorite shooter. Skeptical at first, I have become a “true believer” (in the cult-like fashion of other Franklin acolytes). I fired every single 9mm round I had, then searched for more, like a junkie needing a fix. With this upgrade, merely picking up my Binary AK gets me giggly and warm inside. How many rounds did I fire? I have no frickin’ idea…

KRYK (pronounced “Crook” meaning; Raven) is a Ukrainian company making some pretty cool aftermarket options for firearms. (Check out their site here). TFB’s Doug E. has reviewed the same chassis for a Mosin, give it a read. I received the CRC 7R003 chassis for a Remington 700 from Raven. I was happy to see when my chassis arrived from the other side of the planet it was in excellent shape. The boxes were heavily abused however, everything was very well packaged and protected from the “handling”.

What was the best gear from SHOT 2020? In this episode of TFBTV, James Reeves talks about the five best bits of kit that he liked at SHOT Show 2020. There was a LOT there – did you see anything you liked? Let us know in the comments.

In this episode of TFBTV,  @James Reeves discusses the top 5 guns of 2019. These were all of the new guns reviewed by TFBTV this year, and our Patreon and SubscribeStar supporters voted on what they thought the top five guns were from the list of guns reviewed. We’ve got rifles, pistols, and shotguns from big names like Heckler & Koch, Glock, and SIG. Watch this episode and let us know in the comments if you agree with these picks.

For the last three years, I have put together a 12 Days Of Christmas series here at TFB that serves as our unofficial ‘letter to Santa’ for gun gifts. The staff’s significant others can take a peek into our world and order up firearm-related gifts that we actually want. This year we have an important Christmas business to attend to so I’m wrapping our gift ideas up alongside a Die Hard Christmas movie argument that will settle the debate once and for all. Theoretically.

Believe it or not, but we have been doing the Reader’s Choice Awards for an entire year with input from all of you! If it were not for our vocal readers like you reading this, this segment would not be the success it has been for the past 12 months! So for that, all of us at TheFirearmBlog would like to thank you for taking in our content and engaging with us.

STOP MANSPLAINING GUNS TO WOMEN #stayinyourlane

We have previously covered the Infitech Ruger PC Carbine Aimpoint Micro Mount and other accessories, but it was now time to put them on an actual rifle.

As we have demonstrated time and time again within the walls of TFB’s “ HOT GAT or FUDD CRAP” series, being labeled a Fudd is an indictment of a state of mind, not term based solely on the equipment you own or the activities you pursue. Case in point: I own a KA-BAR knife in a leather sheath. What (hopefully) keeps me from being labeled a Fudd is that I don’t believe “no one needs a switchblade for a utility knife”. My point is, you can see the usefulness of Elmer’s ear-warming hat without discovering you are his first cousin on 23andMe.com. But Fudd Gear does exist and is apparently one Prime click away from home delivery.

Throughout the crazy world we call the internet, there are countless optics available for sale in every budget you can imagine. Throughout the years, I’ve had the opportunity to try out a ton of different optics and prefer a few in various price ranges. Out of all the red dots on the market, there are three different options (technically four) I prefer depending on your budget so let’s jump into the different categories.

It’s been a while since TFB covered anything from Thyrm, but with their release of their new Helmet Mount VariArc it’s time again.

Ah, Pumpkin Spice season – My favorite time of year. While the rest of the world is asking for an additional pump of high fructose corn syrup, hold the nutmeg, I feel the urge to retreat into the woods towards peaceful isolation – black coffee in hand. Strangely enough, I’m not alone in my need to go deeper into nature; the woods are full of animals scrambling to fatten up before the lean months of winter. So, before we venture out, let’s take a look at some ammunition choices for a fall woods gun.

For the month of September and our Reader’s Choice voting, we voted on the BEST Aftermarket Trigger you could add to one of your firearms. This could have been anything from your handguns to your rifles to your shotguns. The most frequently upgraded firearm, in regards to triggers, is the modern sporting rifle so there were an abundance of options put forth for that type of firearm. Between 12 triggers to pick from your chosen winnner was… (drum roll please)… the Geissele SSA-E!

As a minor point of order, most of the below-listed suggestions are not dedicated gunsmithing tools – they are simply excellent hand tools that are most commonly used for weapon maintenance and upgrades. So when you aren’t switching barrels or swapping handguards, go ahead and use them to assemble that IKEA crib that will last you one to three seasons. These top tools are obvious picks – torque wrenches/drivers, brass punches, a solid vise – and shouldn’t need any explanations. Instead, let’s go through some guidance on how to protect your new, and costly, investments.

Do you hear that? No? Well, I do. It is a faint but constant ringing in my ears that can either be like a distant static sound or a dominating noise that makes concentration difficult. It’s called tinnitus and it’s largely preventable by using quality hearing protection like earplugs, muffs or a combination of both. The problem is that passively blocking noises with plugs or muffs means that shooters, hunters and those involved in defensive or tactical situations may not hear important and useful information as they would with unprotected hearing. Fortunately, electronic hearing protection technology has advanced in recent years, bringing professional grade active hearing protection to consumers at obtainable prices.

I am on the lookout for a new competition handgun, and the “new” CZ Shadow 2 for Production/Carry Optics looks like the hottest choice at the moment.

Over the last few years, I have been running the Aimpoint magnifier with their PRO and CompM4 red dots. When I bought the magnifier for my Aimpoint, I still had the factory mount that twisted off the mount. It was an early Aimpoint mount and I decided to purchase a LaRue swivel mount for my Aimpoint 3x magnifier. After running the LaRue mount for a few years, I saw the Scalarworks LEAP/Mag mount and was immediately interested. After running the Scalarworks LEAP/Mag mount for about 4 months, I have enough time behind it to give my impressions so far on the mount.

On the eve of 2020, everyone should be comfortable with the idea of adding weaponlights to pistols and rifles that are used as tools for protection. Forget the sun going down: walk into a building, into a parking garage, under a bridge or into the woods from bright daylight and a quality weaponlight may give you an advantage in a defensive situation. But before you decide to drop hundreds of dollars on a new supercandle (Copyright Pete, 2019), let’s take a look at some weaponlight considerations.

Let’s start at the beginning, shall we?

Imagine a free world where you could use Amazon Prime to order a dozen Magpul PMags, a case of 5.56mm ammo or a Geissele AR-15 trigger. And while I realize that it’s “their business, their rules” and that there are many other high-quality outlets that will ship you exactly what you want, there is still a part of me that wonders “why not?”. For the moment at least, there are a limited number of gun accessories and related gear products on the world’s largest internet retailer to keep us all somewhat happy. We’ve peppered you with knives, flashlights and the occasional less-than-lethal suggestion. But I decided to dig into the Amazon underworld, looking for firearm-related gear products that you don’t see every day. Who knows, maybe some of these Amazon gun gifts can be the perfect way to end a long friendship at this year’s company Secret Santa gift exchange.

We are rolling into the cooler months of fall as we usher in the month of September which means hunting, hiking, exploring the outdoors, and tidying up our properties outside before we are bombarded with snow. All of these activities might have us searching for better footwear (what closet did I put them in last year?) or possibly contemplating an upgrade of new boots this fall. So in this TFB Review, we take a look at one of 5.11 Tactical’s newest pieces of footwear with their APEX Wedge Boot that could be perfect for hunting, hiking, or your everyday hustle. Come along with us as we share a walk in my shoes to see how they stack up and if they could potentially be right for you.

A few weeks ago we relayed some staff pics for budget everyday carry (EDC) knives, an essential piece of kit for concealed carry and overall daily life. We’ll most likely revisit the blade topic again with suggestions for automatic/assisted openers, a $100 budget and fixed blade suggestions. But for today, I polled the staff for their top suggestions for EDC Flashlights. There are no price limitations or caveats – I just wanted to know what they carried around on a daily basis. Let’s take a look.

Good afternoon, Comrade. Please do not stop working – this public service announcement can be reviewed with time made available while waiting in the rations line. As we announce our list of Labor Day Deals, we’d like to remind everyone that you are only entitled to personal items that coincide with your abilities as well as your needs. For example, if you are unable to successfully operate an AK47, you are not permitted to take part in any of the below-listed merchant’s (capitalist pigs) sales offers. Likewise, if you already own three or four functional rifle magazines, you will not be permitted to purchase additional ammunition feeding devices. The people thank you for your cooperation.

Every Day Carry – “EDC” – has expanded into it’s own sub-industry in recent years, blossoming from just “keys-phone-gun-wallet” to medical gear, flashlights and of course knives. While a trip through Instagram may have you believing that without a Rolex and a fancy inlaid mother of pearl auto opener you aren’t worthy to leave the house, us mere mortals must work within our budgets IRL. So let’s take a look at some EDC knives that are both functional and affordable.

Many people cringe when they hear the term “universal holster”. I understand why, and frankly, for years I had exactly the same opinion. I thought that the holster is either good or universal, but never both. And turns out I was completely wrong.