#Handguns

Converting handguns into a carbine like form is nothing new, going back at least to the Civil War with various attempts at installing a stock and longer barrel on revolvers in use at the time. Command Arms Accessories has been brining to market their Roni kit for several years now, but is there any actual use of it outside of recreational conversions? Examples from Iraq and India have shown the conversion kit in active usage by some soldiers within the Iraqi Army, and the National Socialist Council of Nagaland, a separatist group in India. I can’t find the photograph that showed an Iraqi soldier with the Roni, but instead found one of a soldier in an Iraqi uniform shooting it at a shooting range. In addition I’ve shown a number of Ronis that have appeared on the Iraqi small arms market, some outfitted to Glock 17s, and others to what appears to be a Walther P99 handgun.

Firearms product placement within Hollywood movies always provides a fascinating look into how firearms are portrayed on the big screen. In this case, we have two firsts when it comes to product placement, that of the H&K M27 IAR, and the Radius from SilencerCo.

We first wrote about Kalashnicohn in 2014, when the small company began introducing their pistol caliber AKs. Compared to a number of larger manufacturers bringing the platform to market, Kalashnicohn has encountered a successful selling point considering that the entire company operates out of a small warehouse with 4 employees in Phoenix, AZ. While at Red Oktober the company showcased a number of their SBRs, pistols, and parts kits, mostly focusing on pistol calibers, however they do have some rifle caliber offerings as well.

“Grant Thompson – The King of Random” is a popular YouTube channel about all kinds of life hacks, experiments and DIY projects. Recently they’ve released a video tutorial about making a DIY concealment shelf.

Photographs of the rebel group Free Syrian Army have been circulating around since September that show a group of soldiers firing what appear to be Soltam K6 120mm mortars (Israeli origin, M120 in the U.S) at enemy positions in the vicinity of Aleppo Province. The odd part about the photos is that some of the troops firing the mortars don’t appear to be FSA troops at all. They certainly aren’t Syrian, as their equipment doesn’t relate to anything the FSA is using, with Berettas in Safariland holsters (depending on unit, but can be standard within U.S forces), and Glocks in what appears to be 1957 Radar holsters (standard issue within the British Army), MSA headgear, Meindl boots, in addition to British MTP Multicam scheme in use with many international forces rather than indigenous FSA soldiers. One of the soldiers is also wearing Turkish camouflage as well. The pictures have appeared on various Turkish and Arabic news websites, all from the a Getty Images source, which also appears to have been taken by a Turkish photographer from the Anadolu agency. Alongside them seem to be normal FSA troops. They could possibly be Turkish forces, but Turkish SF has a different camouflage scheme other than Multicam. Turkey is known to be helping the FSA in a number of covert ways.

On a number of social media groups and online forums across the internet, there have been reports from Sig Sauer Legion owners of the finish on their handguns wearing off, rusting in spots, or cracking off after relatively little time of ownership or use. Initially it appeared to be user blame in some of the cases, but a general search reveals that a number of owners are coming forward with complaints. The finish in question is their PVD process that uses a abrasion-resistant finish. Also, the pistol has an Alloy frame, with a Stainless Steel slide. For those who don’t know, PVD is-

It appears that the last active duty component of the U.S. Military has retired the tried and true 1911. In an article by the Marine Corps Times, Marine Special Operations Command (MARSOC), has officially announced that it is withdrawing the .45 ACP Colt Rail Guns (M45 MEUSOC 1911)from service while completely switching to 9x19mm Glock 19s. Earlier, the SOCOM entity had simply authorized the Glock 19 for limited use with the group. The article didn’t mention anything about the Marine Corps’ Recon battalions which also issue the Colt 1911, but I’m sure this will change in the future as well (Recon falls under a completely different chain of command than MARSOC does). Although these battalions don’t actively engage in operations overseas as much as MARSOC does (apart from a MEU), so it might take some time for the requirement to reach them.

Soldier Systems Daily is reporting on a new product from Black Hawk! that was introduced at Modern Day Marine, their Omnivore Holster system. Essentially the holster is designed to solve the problem of versatility that so many holster manufacturers have tried to tackle over the years. That is that usually an individual gun owner, police department, or military doesn’t own or issue out exactly one type of handgun, but has to accommodate for a variety of handguns of different sizes and dimensions over the course of several years. With each handgun comes a new holster, and often a handgun owner will have an entire bucket of holsters.

In the market for a new holster? Comp-Tac Victory Gear is now offering more options for their Flatline and Flatline Thumb Break holster lines. The company mentions the onset of fall as their motivation for increasing on-the-waistband (OWB) options. After all, thanks to colder weather gun owners are granted the ability to carry OWB since they’re also wearing thicker layers.

Trident Custom Coatings is a company out of East Dundee, Illinois that specializes in firearms and some automobile coating jobs, but has recently gotten into customizing Glocks. Specifically the company uses Duracoat, Hydrodipping, Black Oxide, and Nickel Boron for their current coating process.

Black Rhino Concealment is a Kydex company that has been very successful in recent years. They have expanded from a small shop operation to a full time professional company, nowadays making mostly different styles of IWB, OWB, and hybrid holsters, more currently magazine carriers. At Bullpup Shoot they had on hand four new products they will be introducing to their current lineup.

Daudsons Armoury is a Pakistani defense manufacturer based in Peshawar, that is starting to really come into prominence within Pakistan. The company makes a number of different products, from break open double barrel shotguns to 40mm high velocity automatic grenade launchers. Daud, or “داوود”  in Arabic, is the Islamic version of Christian Biblical David, who is considered a prophet in Islam, and thus is a popular name among many Muslims, Pakistanis included. Thus, Daudsons Armoury probably should have been named Daud’s Son’s Armoury. The company appears to have been formed in 1954.

Due to a previous post on small arms development in the Federally Administered Tribal Region of Peshawar, in Pakistan, TFB received some excellent first hand knowledge of firearms standards in Pakistan, from a Pakistani firearms enthusiast. One of the common assumptions about Pakistani firearms from our side of the market, especially ones from Peshawar are that they are all handmade contraptions of metal that will be lucky enough to last you several magazines safely, and maybe a couple hundred rounds operationally. Of course, this is no slight to the gunsmiths in Peshawar who are able to churn out many thousands of rounds of ammunition and hundreds of small arms from within mud walled huts by hand.

Outside of TFB, I’m a part of a firearms advocacy group at my university. Because of that connection, I was invited to participate in an event was sharing stories about the connection with firearms that people have in the United States. The event itself was very political, however my story was anything but political. If you want to, you can watch it in its entirety here. The story that I told, I clipped it from the main video and uploaded it on my own Youtube channel, which is shown here.

A video has been released wherein the wrist mounted Glock 19s used by Will Smiths character Deadshot, are being tested in a movie prop facility, most likely the Movie Armaments Group based out of Toronto. In collaboration with Walter Klassen FX, the groups worked together to create a sort of gripless frame, that used a system to release the sear on the Glock 19 slide. This is from Imfdb, explaining how it all came together-