Back in March 2018, Eric broke the news that B&T were finally set to offer a 7.62x51mm APC, the APC308. The rifle was unveiled at the 2018 Enforce TAC show but no details on when it might arrive in the US were given. It now appears that B&T USA are preparing to bring the APC308 to the US, releasing a press release earlier this week.

Building on last year’s successful launch of two MP5 clones, South Carolina based firearms manufacturer  PTR is announcing two new models in their production line up. The 9KT is an MP5K clone with a custom handguard, top rail and an end cap capable of accepting slings, pistol stabilizing braces and stocks (mind the NFA, boys and girls). The 9R is an HK94 style clone with a 16.2” barrel, top rail and a fixed stock.

Kalashnikov Concern has released a new competition ready rifle called Saiga-MK Svarog (Сварог – name of a Slavic deity). The rifle is the first project of the company’s custom shop which they call “firearm tuning laboratory”.

Here are few examples of suppressed firearms, in either 9×19 mm or the more powerful .223 Remington (or 5,56×45 mm).

Deals on D&H 5.56 magazines, the C308, Prvi 30-06 ammunition, the Vortex Razor GenII, and 80 Percent build kits.

DSArms has announced the availability of a new FAL parts kit based on surplused Israeli Defence Force FALs. The kits include a magazine and everything but the rifle’s upper receiver and barrel.

The US Army is set to receive a new batch of .50 calibre M107 long range sniper rifles with the Department of Defense announcing the contract award on the 28th November. The near $8 million dollar order will see Barrett Firearms provide between 700 and 800 rifles.These are likely destined for the Army and possibly for foreign military sale.

What captivated many visitors to Indo Defense 2018 this year from Pindad was the defense companies Harimau Modern Medium Weight tank that was a product of a joint venture with a Turkish defense company. However when it comes to small arms, Pindad had some new offerings as well, some that we should be seeing within Indonesian military service soon enough.

Today we’re taking a look at the Barrett that never was, the XM109 AMPR.  

Auto Ordnance in conjunction with Outlaw Ordnance is releasing another one-of-a-kind firearm with their NEW Airborne M1 Carbine. Auto Ordnance and Outlaw Ordnance have created a unique partnership this year and have debuted multiple custom firearms. Their latest team effort pays homage to all of the airborne members of our military from WWII. Auto Ordnance shared this public statement elaborating on the new Airborne M1 Carbine:

At Indo Defense 2018 this year we at TFB were able to get a hands-on examination of MKE’s KNT-76 Designated Marksman Rifle. The rifle is an upgraded MPT-76 service rifle that has a number of additional design features to increase its accuracy and precision as a squad level DMR rifle. Currently, there aren’t any in service with the Turkish Land Forces, but this is because the rifle hasn’t entered circulation yet. In addition, it appears that only MKE is producing the KNT-76, unlike the MPT-76 which is manufactured by three different Turkish arms companies; MKE, Kales, and Sarsilmaz. However, there have been modified MPT-76s that are in service with Turkish Land Forces, but these are armory level modifications.

The 19th Installment of Build of the Week was contributed by Valorius.  I only called it “Glorious” because it was kind of poetic. Overall a pretty clean build, and good integration of the Cobalt Linear Compensator—it looks good here. Valorius has been a long time contributor in the comments and discord so feel free to dig in on this build.

St. George Arms has published a video where Charles St. George, the founder of the company and the designer of the Australian Leader Dynamics Model T2 MK 5 rifle, has announced that this rifle will be manufactured in the USA. Here is the announcement text (quoted from the company’s website) followed by the mentioned video.

Auto Ordnance Corporation (of the Kahr Firearms Group) has unveiled a NEW Thompson Case Hardened Tommy Gun chambered in the traditional .45 ACP with looks that could kill. The aesthetic, swirling-water appearance of case hardening that is most closely associated with revolvers looks right at home on the side of their newest Tommy Gun. This new model, according to the Kahr Firearms Group, is now shipping to retailers and should be available for purchase extremely soon.

The 18th Installment of Build of the Week was contributed by Noshpatu.  I think this submission beat the whole “Space Force” announcement a few months ago so Noshpatu may have something. That said, anything with the Hera CQR is going to look science-fictiony. The drum actually looks pretty good with the build—normally it looks, shall we say, um, dumb? I do think this build deserved a laser rather than a light, though…

FN America has announced the introduction of the SCAR 20S, the civilian version of the MK20 SSR currently in service with US SOCOM. The launch follows the news last month that FN America would offer a limited run of 200 S20 packages, Richard covered that news  here.

Auto Ordnance Corporation has a new rifle for all of us through their growing line of WWII Commemorative Guns with the Tanker WWII Thompson. This model boasts many of the same features we have come to know from a Thompson rifle chambered in .45 ACP, but the aesthetic is meant to evoke the nostalgia of World War II. Featuring a cloth sling and mag carrier pouch as well as embellishments on the walnut stock and metalwork, this rifle definitely taps into the style from that era.

The Myanmar Military (“Tatmadaw” in Burmese) is one of the only Southeast Asian nations that manufactures the majority of its small arms and light weapons (up to 120mm mortars) and has been doing so since the early 1950s in collaboration with a number of foreign allies. The majority of Burmese small arms production has typically been licensed produced of designs from Europe but usually with a few modifications that the Tatmadaw requested from the Directorate of Defence Industries. So although not truly innovative in the field of small arms design, the Burmese production small arms are still somewhat of an oddity and a true gem to research and to look into. TZ45 and Uzi submachine guns, G3 rifles, Lee Enfield rifle grenade launchers are all equally represented here.

We’ve been comparing the guns of the Fallout series of post-apocalyptic video games to their real-world counterparts and today we’re going to examine the handmade rifle.

What would it be like to try and attempt to shoot historical small arms in some of the ways that they were actually used in the past? We try and do that in this episode with German small arms in a small team setting, assaulting an objective across open terrain using a base of fire complimented by fire and maneuver. We were able to get access to fully automatic machine guns such as the MG42 and MG34, in addition to the MP40 submachine gun and landmark STG44 rifle. Of course we also had on hand Mauser K98s that complimented the historical firepower. There was a G43 that was on hand but the rifle suffered some malfunctions that didn’t allow us to use it in the live fire.

The wizards at Franklin Armory have done it again. Up for presale starting today is the company’s latest adventure: the AK-C1 for a Binary AK47. Purists will hate the fact that I’m calling all AK patterned/styled rifles “AK47s”, but I’m just going to let it fly (all hate mail can be forwarded to James Reeves’s Mailroom PO Box). These new triggers will allow for a safe-semi-binary selector function that will allow the operator to fire a round on both the pull of the trigger as well as the release of the trigger. Delivery of the preorders is set for Q1 of 2019.

At the Arms & Hunting 2018 exhibition, Russian TsKIB SOO has introduced the civilian version of the OTs-129 designated marksman rifle. The civilian rifle is called MTs-566 and it is largely a copy of its military counterpart. Let’s see what interesting features this rifle has.

Although the L1A1 SLR (FN FAL) service rifle served the Australian “Digger” faithfully for an extremely long period of time, infantrymen in the Vietnam War realized that the rifle could be “tweaked” to fit the combat that the soldiers had to fight in day after day. Undergoing field modifications that would be against regulations anywhere in the world, the troops did it anyways because it fit a necessary field requirement. 

Good afternoon tax stampers and welcome to the latest edition of TFB’s Silencer Saturday, where we bring you the latest in news, announcements and product releases from around the suppressor industry. Today we will reflect back on the week’s events and then dive in to an academic discussion about designing and building the world’s perfect silencer. Is it possible?

I ran across a booth at TriggrCon 2018, and it was loaded with many things to upgrade your Mossberg and Remington shotguns. New stocks, forends, and magazines of all sizes. I talked with Doug from Adaptive Tactical for a while, when I noticed towards the back of the booth there was a whole display of 10/22 accessories. He showed me their Copper Basin Takedown Firearm Pack. I told him I had a 10/22 Takedown, and I wondered how I could take it up a notch. He suggested along with the pack, that an upgraded barrel, like the Tac-Hammer barrel, would help enhance the rifle.

Although rebel groups and insurgents are usually focused more on small arms themselves instead of the accessories that can be attached to them, we are continuing to see the diversification of these after-market accessories throughout the world as the firearms themselves become more modular than ever before. The fighting in Syria for example as brought us a myriad of examples of both real and counterfeit parts that adorn the handguards and stocks of numerous small arms in use by rebels and conventional forces fighting them alike. Possibly the most hilarious of these examples is where actual Iraqi soldiers were attaching Mad Bull Airsoft grenade launchers to the 6 o’clock position of their very real carbines.

The speed is considered hypersonic if it exceeds the Mach5 mark (5,626 fps) which basically means five times the speed of sound. In an interview given to Russian RIA Novosti news agency, Vladislav Lobaev, the founder and chief engineer of Lobaev Arms, said that they are researching the hypersonic ammunition and in case of a government support within a year they can create a precision cartridge that will have a muzzle velocity of 2,000 m/s (about 6,560 fps) which is roughly equal to Mach 6.

While out in Canada filming with Britishmuzzleloaders, Mike had a Chinese Type 97 bullpup rifle in .223 Remington shoved bodily into his hands. What else to do than make a video about the rifle that is so uncommon in the USA due to import restrictions?

The New Zealand Herald has reported that the 9,040 LMT 5.56x45mm MARS-L rifles purchased by the New Zealand Defense Force have suffered critical parts breakage in certain components of the rifles, specifically the firing pins, bolt carriers and inside the trigger mechanism (the specific part is not mentioned in the article). According to the article, issues came about with a number of rifles that were seeing constant use in training. After an initial assessment and following warranty agreements, LMT has replaced the parts in question on every rifle that was bought by the NZDF in addition to updating the inspection protocols under which the rifles have been adopted.

The Benelli MR1,  a semi-automatic rifle in .223 Remington developed and manufactured by the Benelli Armi SpA of Italy was never a hit in the USA.