South Carolina based firearm manufacturer PTR just revamped their logo and website ahead of a SHOT Show new product announcement. And before we go any further, yes I have asked and no I don’t know what it is yet. However, PTR has graciously offered TFB some hands-on time prior to the opening of the show. Much like my high school days when the popular girl noticed me in the hall that one time, I checked my empty calendar and jumped at the chance for some one on one time with PTR’s new product.

Cabot, most famous for crafting a matching pair of 1911s from a meteorite has released a press release detailing the company’s acquisition and future production of Alchemy Custom Weaponry, a small but specialized handcrafted 1911 manufacturer. Alchemy Custom Weaponry was started and still currently has Rob Schauland as the head manager of the company he started in Illinois in 2011. Through the merger, he now heads up Cabot’s manufacturing facility in Fort Wayne, Indiana. From the press release-

Springfield Armory’s XDS pistol has been their most popular handgun since its inception into the market. A likely close second would be the feature-heavy XD Mod.2 which is an upgraded version of the staple, original model XD. Now Springfield has melded the desirable traits of both pistols to usher in the XDS Mod.2 before SHOT Show.

Savage Arms first flipped the world of rifles on its head when it introduced its AccuTrigger. Then, it followed up with an AccuStock which was a tremendous improvement over basic synthetic, factory stocks for rifles. The 3rd trick up their sleeve?… The AccuFit System.

Someone somewhere posted these old price lists from Heckler & Koch. They are dated from 1985, 1991 and 1992 and includes some of the HK firearms on sale back then.

For a while, I’ve known that something was going on in terms of a new reticle, and I was guessing that SHOT Show 2018 might be the time when it was going to be released.

The weeks leading up to the SHOT Show are always an insane flood of product leaks and announcements; not All Quiet from the western venue. After all, if a company launches a new model or line during the show, it gets lost in a sea of noise. But I was somewhat surprised to hear the news coming out of West Valley, Utah – SilencerCo had removed CEO Josh Waldron and President Jonathan Shultz from their leadership positions within the company. Surprised because two weeks before SHOT is a strange time to voluntarily dominate the news cycle with headlines portraying possible instability. However, even though the timing was awkward, many industry leaders had been expecting a leadership change at the embattled private company for some time.

CCI Ammunition is rolling out two new variations of rimfire ammo leading into SHOT Show 2018. One offering is a tweak to their bread ‘n butter Mini-Mag ammo. They gave it a segmented hollow point tip that splits into three equal-sized projectiles upon impact. This 40-grain bullet should be even more impactful and lethal than previous versions for varmints. The new flavor of .17 HMR ammo features a thinly-jacketed Speer bullet capped with a polymer tip. This results in flat, repeatable accuracy and significant expansion upon impact as well.

FMK Firearms is set to unveil a NEW series of Elite Race Pistols to the public at SHOT Show 2018. They will boast what they are calling an Elite Trigger, textured frame with a shock absorbing back-strap and a beveled magwell. The premier component of these pistols though will be the slide. It is custom designed with a cut-out for a Vortex Venom or Trijicon RMR to go directly on it, it takes Glock® compatible iron sights and it employs front and rear slide serrations as well as the slide top being hollowed out for balance and curb appeal.

To break in the new year of 2018, Canik has decided to bust out some new colors for one of their most popular pistols. The Canik TP9SF Elite has broadened its color options so now you can hit the range with either a Black, Tungsten Grey or Olive Drab Green (OD Green) Cerakote model.

In the category of what two things fit perfectly together, Volquartsen and anything .22LR is pretty much a given. So when the latest email blast came from the precision rifle and pistol manufacturer showing a new production run of the Summit Rifle, I couldn’t help but smile. After all, Primary Weapon Systems (PWS) announced the retirement of the straight pull rifles and receivers a couple of years ago, leaving myself and others to scramble for the remaining guns. My project “spark plug” – making a charger style pistol with a Summit receiver – has unfortunately stalled for the moment, due mostly to time constraints.

Franklin Armory just announced the Reformation – an 11.5 inch barreled AR15 with a stock that does not require an NFA Tax Stamp. Would you like to know the secret? Are you ready? Lean in really close to your computer/mobile device/teletype machine:

Federal Premium has tweaked the secret sauce on their recipe for Syntech ammunition to better suit competition shooters. They have paired up with the USPSA to design Syntech Action Pistol. This flavor of ammunition employs a Total Synthetic Jacket (TSJ) bullet in more reliable grain weights for knocking down steel targets. It also has a flat point to the TSJ as opposed to the traditional conical or round tip found on standard Full-Metal Jacket (FMJ) rounds.

Firearm parts producing KE Arms has recently added two 9x19mm handgun barrel compensators to their product line up. Machined from 7075 billet and available in either an “Enhanced” or “Carry” configuration, both variants have “long” or “short” thread options for customers. This allows a user to fit these compensators to a threaded barrel depending on the length of thread space available. Both of these devices have elongated ports at the 12 o’clock position, while they also have circular ports at the 3 and 9 o’clock positions. KE Arms claims that these compensators reduce muzzle flip by at least 40 percent during the process of firing. Securing them to the barrel after being threaded on are two set screws at the 3 o’clock and 9 o’clock positions.

Republic Forge, a Perryton, Texas-based manufacturer of 1911s in various configurations has recently announced that the company has transferred ownership to an undisclosed private equity group. Along with the transfer of ownership, Republic Forge is also moving to the great state of New Mexico, specifically to the city of Los Ranchos. The company’s Master Gunsmith, Jeff Meister, is moving with the company along with all of the assets, and manufacturing equipment.

Nothing gets shooters and collectors salivating more than the lure of affordable HK clones. With build materials alone running close to the $1500 mark, quality complete roller lock guns start at $2K and go up from there. Could these Palmetto State Armory MP5 clones open up the classic sub gun to a whole new demographic of shooters who were previously unable (or unwilling) to pay $3,000 for an HK build? Maybe.

Consumers have been excruciatingly patient in waiting for the MDR by Desert Tech. To help alleviate those frustrations Desert Tech’s Director of Marketing, Carson Jenkins, put out a statement on Friday, January 5th to give consumers a status update on production:

Kimber Manufacturing recently announced the company will be building a new engineering and manufacturing facility in City of Troy, Alabama. The new facility will double the company’s manufacturing capacity, something the company has identified as a significant step in meeting increased demand for its products.

The Remington 2018 Product Catalog is now live, containing a variety of new models in every category. Some, like the ‘Smoke’ colored R51, are variations on a previous theme, while others, like the Model 700 PCR are all new for this year. The RP9 gets a big brother with the addition of the RP45 in .45 ACP and we already had an advanced look at the DM line of magazine fed 870 shotguns.

SilencerCo, as we currently know it, is no more. Or at least changing rapidly. CEO Josh Waldron and President Jonathan Shultz have stepped down from their senior leadership positions of the West Valley based silencer manufacturer. The news comes just weeks after former president Jason Schauble resigned due to family health concerns. Both Waldron and Shultz will stay on at SilencerCo, with Waldron filling the role of Senior Advocacy Adviser. A search for a new CEO is currently underway.

Hang S. has contributed this post to TFB covering the history of the K2 rifle and various attempts at upgrading it from 2005 until today. This is Hang’s first post for TFB.

This is a guest post by Richard L., who is reviewing his personal VCOG. It is also Richard L.’s first guest post on TFB. We’ve reported on the VCOG when it first hit the market in 2013, and then again with an in-depth look at SHOT 2014. 

Sig Sauer has just announced the new P365 – a compact 9mm pistol designed to be the ultimate everyday carry handgun. A quick look at the specifications put in about the same size class as the G43, with a 10+1 round capacity. Magazine extensions are also available as well as a ‘slim rail’ for soon to be released lights and lasers.

The POF USA Revolution compact .308 rifle continues to rack up awards, as it has been awarded the NRA American Rifleman Magazine’s 2018 Golden Bullseye award for Rifle of the Year.  Just this past August , industry peers and professionals awarded the Revolution the 2017 Firearms Industry Choice Award for Rifle of the Year.   Previously reviewed here at TFB, the Revolution is a relatively lightweight .308 AR-platform rifle that this author found to be accurate, pleasant to shoot, easy to clean, and 100% reliable throughout the review.  

ERGO has a pretty expansive lineup of accessories to customize almost all of the popular firearm platforms. Everything from the AR-15, AR-10, AK, shotguns, handguns, you name it and they will have something to add your own style to it. Leading into 2018, and SHOT Show which is looming before us, they have announced a new Elite Series of Camouflage Over-Molded Grips, Rail Covers and Magwell Grips in a pretty enticing array of colors.

There are lots of timeless firearm debates to throw all of your shooting friends in a frenzy. They are sometimes more dangerous than talking about politics at Thanksgiving dinner.

Conflict Armament Research has released a report featuring the results of in-person findings of what the so-called Islamic State has been using in the past three years. These findings (40,000 items, 845 small arms) have resulted from personal visits to the frontlines and carefully scrutinizing captured weapons caches. If you can, I would highly recommend  reading it yourself over on the organization’s website in the PDF form. We are going to summarize some of the more relevant findings of the report when it comes to small arms use and development here in this essay.

Ruger, like many firearm companies right now, is gearing up for the most wonderful time of the year in the gun industry: SHOT Show! With that extravaganza of firearms looming in front of us, they have been introducing and announcing lots and lots of new models for 2018. Here are some of the rifle models you will see varying from the diminutive .22 Long Rifle up to the robust .300 Win Mag.

It was announced on Friday, January 5th that Ruger would be laying off in total 50 employees. Most of the positions being laid off are not directly tied to manufacturing or the production of firearms. It will primarily be roles in sales, engineering and marketing.