In the last few years, there has been an increase in the number of people who carry “truck guns” or vehicle-based guns in everyday life. It can be tricky navigating certain laws when it comes to truck guns but we won’t get into the legality. Maybe I’ll dive deeper into the legality in a later blog, but for now, let’s focus on the overall concept.

If you haven’t followed our recent coverage of OSS Suppressors, the Millcreek, UT based company has undergone a near-complete transformation in the past few years. What used to be a hexagonal, multi-part suppressor that would confuse even veteran NFA owners, is now a sleek, round, one piece tube available in either steel or titanium and in multiple lengths. The centerpiece on the OSS design, the forward vents/ports, however, remain, acting to help eliminate the blowback pressure in semiautomatic firearms. Instead of forcing gasses back down the barrel, increasing cyclic rates and dirtying up the action, the OSS Helix design vents gases forward. And now IWI has seen the benefits of the OSS system, making the brand their official suppressor.

Ruger Custom Shop has released its third firearm and the second 10/22 Competition rifle. The main difference of this rifle from the first Custom Shop 10/22 is the stainless steel barrel and brown laminate stock. Let’s see what other features it comes with.

In this episode, James discusses 6 reasons why the Galil ACE is better than the AK-47/AKM.

I learned about the MARS rifle right before the SHOT Show 2019. The video demonstration of this rifle on the company’s website showed that while being chambered in .308 Winchester, the rifle virtually has no recoil. Needless to say that I was curious to find the MARS Inc. at the show and see if the gun matches the claims.

In 2017, at the French exhibition Milipol, TFB told you about and showed you pictures of FN Herstal’s SCAR-SC with 300 BLK in development.

Comparing the Springfield M1A to a Russian SKS. Joel shoots them and tries to determine how they stack up and which one is a better battle rifle. You may notice there’s very little discussion about the accuracy of these guns. You can expect a minute of man at distance and approximately two MOA at 100 yards.

Tom Bostic of TommyBuilt Tactical is a legend in gun building ( and other stuff), specifically when it comes to Heckler & Koch. TFB’s Nicholas C wrote this story about the G36 last year.

In this episode of TFBTV, James talks about his 5 favorite SMGs/Pistol Caliber Carbines from SHOT Show 2019. There were a LOT of new pistol caliber carbines at SHOT this year (yes, most of them took Glock mags – in fact, 60% of the guns in this list accept Glock magazines). So James tells you what the 5 best SMGs were and why he chose them.

The US Army has released some photographs taken at Fort Bliss, Texas, during testing of the Army’s new Squad Designated Marksman Rifle (SDM-R). The new 7.62x51mm rifle from Heckler & Koch has not yet officially been fielded and testing and tweaking continues.

In this episode of TFBTv’s coverage of SHOT Show 2019, at Range Day, Brannon LeBouef talks with Brett from Dark Storm Industries about their new .458 SOCOM AR pattern guns. Big bore performance in an AR-15 pattern rifle. they also have a full line of AR pistols as well.

In this episode of TFBTV’s SHOT Show 2019 coverage, Brannon LeBouef talks with Maxim Defense about their new PDX SBR and AR-Pistols which will also be chambered in 7.62×39. A nice sweet little package for personal defense or just plain fun.

AR-18 is probably one of the most underappreciated firearms designs in history. The rifle itself was not very popular, but the basic design of its bolt and bolt carrier was used by at least 9 different countries: Germany in the G36, Belgium in the SCAR, the Czech Republic in Bren 805 and 807, the US in Bushmaster ACR, UK in L85, Israel in Tavor, South Korea in K1A1, Singapore in SAR-80 and Japan in their Type 89. Now, another country and another company joined that list – Canada with WK180-C designed by Kodiak Defence.

Barrett has taken the 5.56x45mm REC7 rifle and upgraded it to a 7.62x51mm package which is now the REC10. The REC10 was a product development of a foreign military solicitation program in which Barrett was successful in acquiring and winning. We don’t know what exact country this was, but we should have more information on the blog side of TFB in the future, or at least when we see them being used in the wild.

In this episode of TFBTV’s SHOT Show 2019 coverage, Brannon LeBouef talks with Roy from Brownells about their new BRN-180 which is their classic take on the Original AR-180 and the new “sexual chocolate” that they call the BRN-Proto to mimic the prototype serial number 0001 AR-15.

Many of us have been long awaiting the arrival and debut of the 7.62mm Tavor 7 and the 12 gauge TS12. Unfortunately there have been a few setbacks in getting the small arms in from Israel. In the case of the Tavor 7 the reason is that the rifle itself is a 4 MOA gun, something that the U.S. sales reps knew wouldn’t be a good fit for the U.S. market. Thus, IWI in Israel is redoing the rifle in order to make it a 1 MOA rifle, suitable for an acceptable standard of accuracy in the United States.

Lancer’s new L30 AIR (Aerial Interdiction Rifle) was designed for gunners from an aerial platform.  Chambered in both .308 and 6.5 Creedmoor, this rifle was designed with being lightweight for caliber as well as compact.  The upper receiver was developed with weight reduction in mind, and lacks a forward assist and dust cover.  Further weight reduction is achieved with the selection of Rubber City Armory’s Ti Bolt carrier group.  It’s skeletonized rail is compatible with most rail mounted brass catching or deflecting devices, a must when used from most helicopters.

Are regular Kel-Tecs not elusive enough for you?  M-Carbo (Military Carbine Brotherhood) is now officially partnered up with Kel-Tec in the production of 1000 special edition SUB-2000’s.  These SUB-2000’s will come with a special quick-flip optic mount that accommodates for full folding of the SUB-2000.  Other upgrades include:

This year Century Arms had two big ticket items on the SHOT 2019 list. The first was the company’s custom line of AK-patterned rifles and Canik handguns that were worked on by a custom shop outside of Century. Century Arms gave them carte-blanche to complete different modifications to the AK rifles and with different finishes applied too. The Canik’s were done by a separate shop but still have that same individual flair to them.

Condition Red Ordnance Manufacturing (CROM) has this “riddle of steel”: how to create a highly portable platform that can fire .50 BMG bullets quietly.  The answer is the .500 Blackout chambered Zero Dark Fifty.  CROM already manufactures a .338LM chambered AR with their CR-7 platform, and were wanting to expand that platform to other possibilities.  After some experimentation, they came up with the .500 Blackout.  The 911gr bullet they have as their primary load produces 2385 ft/lbs at roughly 1085 ft/s, roughly 5x the energy of subsonic .300blk.  CROM claims a max effective range of 1000m, and a velocity loss of only 9% at 400m.  COAL is 3.8″.

In November, FN America announced that SCAR20S, civilian version of FN MK 20 SSR – Sniper Support Rifle will soon be available for the US customers on the civilian market. FN MK 20 SSR is currently used by US SOCOM units under the designation MK 20 Mod O Sniper Support Rifle.

We here at TFB are admittedly fans of the work going on at Kinetic Research Group.  KRG is usually one of my first stops every year to check in on the meticulously perfected FOX-42 project.  For those of our readers unfamiliar with this platform, it is a precision refinement and evolution of the Magpul Massoud concept.  See our previous reporting here for more detail on the evolution of the rifle (With much credit to Nathaniel F.).  Though KRG has thoroughly tested near-finalized versions of this rifle, They recognize that end users can detect or encounter problems that a manufacturer might not encounter.  Therefore, units are going out for extensive beta testing in Q1 2019.

CMMG has revamped and streamlined their AR15 product line in order to allow customers to see what the company has at a glance. There are three initial tiers of what they offer. The Banshee is their pistol or SBR setup, the Endeavor is their long distance line, and the Resolutes are 16.5-inch carbines. Within these classifications, there are 100, 200, and 300 series of classes as well. The difference between 100-300 comes down to how many bells and whistles come with each system, 300 being the higher end option. Previously CMMG had a number of different acronyms for their product line which might have confused folks looking at the rifles that were on sale.

The biggest news at Desert Tech this year was that the bolt action SRS rifle has now been updated to an “SRS A2” configuration. The company engineers took some time to look at the configuration of the rifle and were able to take almost two pounds off the weight in some cases. Primarily this meant changes to the chassis of the rifle, while still maintain the same bolt and barrel. Some of the changes made are the handguard design, allowing interchangable handguards so users can have shorter or longer versions. Another large change was the barrel clamping method which Desert Tech claims that it increases accuracy by 30-percent because of how it holds the barrel in place.

What do you get when you mix together an AR and a M14/M1A rifle? The new MK 36 rifle from Overmatch Precision Arms. They’ve actually been working on this rifle for a while, it was originally called the Osprey MK36 rifle and was being developed by Osprey Armament which is now Overmatch Precision Arms. The rifle is finally finished and will be released very soon.

MarColMar has been hard at work.  After 2 years of effort, and 2 million dollars spent in production, their CETME-L reproductions are shipping out to customers.  These are full guns, not a kit that you have to weld, bend and pin together at home.  These feature new CHF nitrided 1:7 twist barrels and brand new 600 ton stamped flats made in-house at MarColMar.  They are fully 922(r) compliant because the only use 8 imported parts: The hammer, sear, guide rod, front sight tower, rear sight, bolt, rollers, and flash hider.  

When I saw I had received NEMO arms as one of my range day assignments I was both excited and not at the same time.  I was looking forward to shooting their .300 win mag. extra-large frame AR, but at the same time I knew my job here at SHOT with TFB was to report on the new hotness, of which I though NEMO had none.  Once again it goes to show “you don’t know what you don’t know.”

In just a few short days Magpul have launched an army of new parts. Some are brand new, like the CZ Scorpion EVO 3 line of products which we told you about a few days ago and some are more of an extension of existing product lines.

Back in December 2017 we reported that Barrett would be launching their new 7.62x51mm REC10 rifle, now in 2019 it’s finally here. Barrett have confirmed that the REC10 will be introduced at SHOT Show 2019.

The CZ Scorpion EVO 3 must be selling well. At least well enough for Magpul to start making magazines and accessories for it. Someone found a market need to feed.