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Posted by heggenstaller, Oct 16 2009, 07:21 AM
Bushmaster, finally, will offer a consumer version of the ACR in 2010. Several, actually. That was the bottom-line word delivered yesterday at the company's new products seminar held in Kerrville, Texas.
The ACR, or Adaptive Combat Rifle, has been an ongoing collaboration involving Bushmaster, Magpul and Remington for the past two years. A quick rundown of features includes: a two-position (suppressed and non-suppressed), short-stroke, gas-piston system of operation; modular, interchangeable bolt heads, barrels, magazines, buttstocks (one of which is a six-position side-folder) and handguards; an aluminum upper receiver and a polymer lower receiver; a cold hammer-forged, free-floating barrel; and ambidexterous controls. In short, it's innovative and badass.
The cool thing here--other than it being a brand-spanking new gun that you can get your hands on real soon--is the ACR's modularity. The consumer version will be offered with a 16.5-inch barrel, but Bushmaster will also be making barrels with lengths of 10.5, 14.5 and 18 inches. The first version of the ACR will be chambered in 5.56x45 mm, of course, but since a tool-less disassembly allows you to change bolt heads, barrels and magazines, the ACR can be user-configured to run with other cartridges as well. Ongoing development will focus on the 6.8 mm Rem. SPC, 7.62x39 mm, a yet-to-be-disclosed 6.5 mm round and, get this, the .30 Rem. AR.
When these components become available, swapping them out should be a cinch. I watched as the ACR was broken down into its six main components in about a minute.
In an update posted to Bushmaster's website, the company says it is putting the ACR "through every imaginable scenario to ensure that it's absolutely ready to be released" and that the "official launch" is "slated for the first half of 2010." In the meantime, feast your eyes on a few pics I snapped at the seminar.
And yes, I shot it. At 10 zombie targets as fast as I could.
Posted by heggenstaller, Jun 19 2009, 08:06 PM
Chances are your dad has a Savage in his gun vault. It’s probably a Model 99 lever action, although it could be some variation of the Model 110 or Mark II, or—in the case of my dad—a Model 24F 12 gauge/.223 Rem. over-under. But I bet he doesn’t have a Model 10BAS-K.
So reverse the roles this Father’s Day and teach your dad something for once.
The BAS-K is built around the 51-year-old Model 10 action, and it’s chambered in .308 Win., but those are about the only things it has in common with Savages of yesteryear. Instead of a traditional, sporter-type stock, the BAS-K uses a four-piece, modular deal. The fore-end and action sections of the stock are aluminum and bolt together with Allen screws. And, yes, that is an AR-style buttstock and pistol grip on the gun. Savage gives the BAS-K a receiver extension (I’d call it a buffer tube if it were an AR), and the collapsible buttstock slides over it. The assembly includes a receiver end plate and a castle nut, which means you can easily swap the factory buttstock with one you may like better.
Inside the fore-end, just forward of where the barreled action’s recoil lug nestles into place, is a wedge nut. The wedge nut is part of Savage’s new Accu-Stock system, which, like the BAS-K’s Accu-Trigger, is designed to magically make your groups smaller.
The BAS-K has a heavy, fluted, free-floating, 24-inch barrel that ends in a wicked cool muzzle brake. An 18-inch section of Picatinny rail runs over and around the barreled action. You can attach in-line night-vision devices in front of the scope and mount infrared illuminators and lasers to the assembly’s “wings.” Or, if you’re like me and don’t own NVDs and IR accessories, slap a 225-lumen SureFire M3 alongside and see how far you can drill a soda can at night.
Former SOF sniper Steve Adelmann tests the BAS-K, along with two other rifles in the Savage law enforcement line, in the July issue of Shooting Illustrated. Look for the white cover with one heck of a big, black, bolt-action rifle running across it. That’s Shooting Illustrated, and that’s a Savage.
And take dad shooting Sunday. He took you.
Posted by heggenstaller, May 15 2009, 04:59 PM
Complete this sequence: SR9, LCP, LCR, ?
If you didn’t answer SR-556, you may still be a Mensa-certified genius, though it certainly didn’t take one to predict Ruger’s next gun in a line decidedly geared toward tactical and self-defense roles would be an AR. That’s right, Ruger joins the ever-lengthening list of companies who now make the hottest-selling rifle on the planet.
Ruger broke the news this morning at the 138th NRA Annual Meetings and Exhibits in Phoenix, AZ. I was there. Here’s what I learned. Spread the word.
Ruger’s first AR is a piston gun, and it has an adjustable, four-position regulator.
The SR-556’s heavy-contour barrel gives it a wonderfully muzzle-heavy feel.
There’s a quad-rail fore-end on the gun, made by Troy Industries. The backup iron front and rear sights also come from Troy.
Ruger ships the gun with 30-round MagPul PMags. Three of them, I think. I repeat: A Ruger gun that comes from Ruger with 30-round magazines.
The Hogue overmolded grip is nice; the trigger pull not so much.
A collapsible buttstock rounds out the package.
Want more? Read Shooting Illustrated.
Posted by heggenstaller, Dec 19 2008, 07:26 PM
It was August when I got the news. Remington’s Eddie Stevenson called one afternoon to see if I wanted to shoot some geese in Alberta. “Sure,” I said. “We gonna be using the 870 or the 11-87?”
“Well, we’ll have pump guns,” he replied, then after a short pause for effect, added, “but they won’t be the 870.”
A new pump shotgun from Remington? Real-ly…
A few days later I received the “INCOMING” notice. “Remington Model 887 NitroMag,” it read. I stopped editing mid-pen stroke and proceeded post-haste to the firearms inventory manager’s office. There, on the gun cart, sat a black polymer-encased pump gun that certainly was not the 870.
Whereas the 870 pretty much defines tradition, the new Model 887 NitroMag throws classic design out the window and takes a space-age approach. Just about every exterior component of the gun—receiver, trigger guard and barrel—is cloaked in a shell of polymer. Remington calls it the “ArmorLokt” treatment. Since polymer doesn’t rust and is less affected by abrasion than bluing, the 887 NitroMag is built to take abuse. Like in a duck blind or on the bottom of a boat.
The surface of the barrel, receiver and synthetic fore-end has a sort of tire-tread pattern, for lack of better description. It provides texture to keep your hands from slipping and also looks much different than any other shotgun—neither of which are an accident. Some guys here hated it; others thought it was neat. I warmed up to the style after a few days.
Thanks to a redesigned trigger plate assembly that includes the fire controls, carrier and both shell latches, the 887 NitroMag is much easier to tear down for cleaning than the 870. You can have it field-stripped and back together again in less than two minutes.
At first glace, I thought the gun looked bulky. But when I picked it up, the balance didn’t feel that much different from an 870. And, the 887 NitroMag actually weighs about two ounces less than a comparable 870.
I know exactly what you’re wondering, because I asked the same question. The answer is no, the 887 NitroMag will not replace the 870. Remington’s still going to crank out as many 870 shotguns as it can. This new pump gun is just another option, and a worthy one to consider at that, especially if you take better care of your decoys than your shotgun.
Big Green doesn’t have specs posted on its website, www.remington.com, yet, but they should be there in a few weeks. In the meantime, here are a couple pics to consider.
Posted by heggenstaller, Dec 12 2008, 07:48 PM
I don’t mean to gloat, but I love my job. New guns arrive at Shooting Illustrated headquarters on a daily basis, and part of my duties is to make sure a good deal of these rifles, shotguns and handguns have my name on them for testing and evaluation.
The firearms inventory manager, that lucky guy here who gets to check out all the new guns the minute they arrive and log them into the books, lets the rest of us know what came in from where through e-mail. The messages are simply titled “INCOMING,” all caps to convey the excitement owed to new guns.
So think of this running commentary as an inside look at what we just added to our gun vault—and what you may want to add to yours. Ed Friedman, who blogs as often as he breathes, demanded that I keep this short. If you want more info on a particular gun, buy Shooting Illustrated. Or e-mail me. Just don’t title your note “INCOMING.” I’m not sure I could handle the disappointment when I discover your message doesn’t include a list of new guns for me to shoot.
Look for the first gun in a couple days. Here’s a hint: It’s from Remington, it’s a pump shotgun, and it’s not the 870.
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on New Pump From Remington