Rifles

Springfield Armory is introducing a Flat Dark Earth (FDE) color-tone variant in several categories, starting with the M1A Loaded Precision Adjustable Stock Rifle and the XD-S 3.3-inch pistol in 9mm and .45 ACP chamberings.

If you plan on attending the 2015 National Matches at Camp Perry, Ohio, look for two National Match rifles made by Armalite that seem pretty popular.

The roller-locked CETME Model 58 was the basis for Heckler & Koch's G3-based rifles, followed some time later by a semiautomatic version labeled the HK-91, which isn't gas- or recoil-operated in the conventional sense. The rifle employs a delayed blowback system with a nonrotating head and twin rollers. These rollers, located on the bolt on each side, lock into detents in the trunnion of a stamped steel receiver.

On firing, force on the bolt keeps the action locked until the bullet exits the barrel, then the action unlocks and the bolt is jolted to the rear against spring pressure. The bolt then returns to battery, stripping a cartridge from the magazine along the way. We have previously tested three roller-locked rifles made in the U.S., including the 308 Win. PTR-91 from JLD Enterprises. We mostly praised the PTR-91 rifle in the January 2005 issue, save it needing a trigger job and a flash hider. We also gave Buy recommendations to the Vector Arms V-53 in 5.56 NATO and the Bobcat Weapons BW-5 9mm in that same article.

Here, we revisit the PTR-91 and a similar rifle, the Century Arms C91 Sporter, both chambered in 308 Win./7.62 NATO. The original PTR rifle was first conceived in 2002, when JLD Enterprises purchased tooling and designs for the HK line of roller-lock weapons from Fabrica Militar of Portugal. The original "Precision Tactical Rifle" HK-91 clones were produced mostly from surplus parts acquired around the world from 2002 to 2006. Then, in 2006, PTR91 Inc. was organized and expanded beyond the original 91-style clones. The company was re-organized in 2010 with new management, and then three years later, PTR Industries made news when it announced it was leaving Bristol, Connecticut and was moving to South Carolina because of the former state's just-passed stringent gun-control laws.

Century Arms, headquartered in Delray Beach, Florida, makes and warehouses its surplus firearms and accessories business in Georgia, Vermont. Founded in the 1960s and run by William Sucher and Manny Weigensberg, Century is the largest importer of Romanian-made WASR-10 AK variants. The C91 has been supplanted in the Century Arms catalog by the C308 rifle.

So, no surprise — accurate, powerful, and well-made 308-Win. semi-auto rifles remain strong sellers. The question we wanted to know is, do shooters have to pay a premium to get one of these roller-locked mechanisms? The short answer is "No," but the longer answer appears below:

With much hype and anticipation, we took Kel-Tec CNC's RFB forward-ejecting bullpup rifle to the range 18 months ago to compare it with other bullpup-style rifles we've reviewed. This being the only 30-caliber bullpup we've tested so far, most of our shooters were eager to get behind the scope and send rounds downrange. Taking any bullpup to the range always draws some attention, and the Kel-Tec RFB was no different. The gun has a striking overall appearance, especially with the Nikko-Sterling 3-10x42 Nighteater scope we mounted on ours.

Sturm, Ruger has announced that the Mini-14 Tactical rifle is now available in 300 AAC Blackout. Suggested retail is one thousand and nineteen dollars.

This chambering should be interesting to Ruger shooters who want an AR-length round that can operate with both supersonic ammunition and subsonic ammunition, the latter for suppressed use.

Because of the 300 Blackout's bullet-weight range, it's easier to make a round that stays below 1100 fps but still has plenty of downrange energy.

After a lull of almost 25 years, IWI US is bringing back the Galil ACE family of pistols and rifles to the US commercial/civilian market.

The modernized Galil ACE is based upon the original Galil assault rifle first developed by IMI in the late 1960s. It has elements of the Russian AK-47 and the Finnish Valmet RK 62.

It's not often we get a truly interesting rifle to test. Most are commonplace, and frankly carry little excitement for our test team. Once in a while a surprise comes along, and that's what happened recently. Houston Product Coordination Editor Kevin Winkle sent a rifle to Idaho that got our attention, and the more we looked into it, the more we liked it. This is the Roessler Titan 6, with interchangeable barrels in 300 Winchester Magnum and 270 Winchester (about $1980 for the rifle). The rifle came with no scope mounts and no iron sights, though both are available from the importer. There was, however, an excellent manual with the rifle printed on heavy stock that should last a long time. The receiver was a simple cylindrical type, and we guessed — correctly — that Remington Weaver-style bases would work on it. We used a Leupold 4X scope in Weaver rings for all our testing. We tested the gun with both barrels, using Remington and Winchester 180-grain loads in 300 Mag; and 130-, 140-, and 150- grain JSN Federal ammo in 270. Here's what we found.

If we were a rifle maker with a line of AR-15s, we might put up a neon sign outside our establishment that had an image of our carbine with a simple message below: "Millions and millions sold." Because while that might not quite be true for an individual maker's line, it is certainly true for the ArmaLite Rifle platform collectively. The various configurations of ARs are among the highest-selling rifle designs ever, and their appeal seems to keep broadening, even in the face of political restrictions in some jurisdictions.

Despite this popularity—or perhaps because of it—other designs suited for self defense want to take the AR down a notch, make a little cheddar for themselves at the expense of the standard defense rifle of our time. One such competitor du jour is the Beretta ARX 100, itself an adaptation of the successful ARX 160 military rifle made by the famous Italian gunmaker. The ARX 160 service rifle has shown up in several war zones, and it certainly is not an M16/M4/AR-15 rifle. In fact, the ARX platform has little in common with the AR, which could be a significant hurdle for commercial success, or perhaps the beginning of the next big thing. Which one is what we aimed to find out when we went shopping for a 5.56 NATO-chambered Beretta ARX 100 JXR11B00, $1522, a recent online price for the rifle at TombstoneTactical.com. We put it against a Colt M4 Carbine LE6920SOCOM, $1622, which we recently priced at a Houston-based firearms and floral-design store called Texas Guns and Roses (TexasGunsandRoses.com). This price also includes a $15 handling fee for online orders.

The disadvantage the Beretta had to overcome was that most experienced rifle shooters handle the AR-15 as if it were second nature. To help dial out some of that bias, we assembled a group of both novice and experienced raters for this project, one of whom has fired rifles, but never the AR-15 or the Beretta. With no prior AR-15 experience, we would see how quickly our novice could be brought up to speed on both rifles. Other shooters included a 20-year law-enforcement veteran, whose abstract on carbine training has been published on a federal level, and another rater who is a military captain recently returned from a fourteen-month deployment and a certified NRA instructor. We felt that this mix, along with other interested shooters, would help us pick the best battle rifle.

To test them, we used loads in different weights from several makers. We included Federal American Eagle 62-grain FMJ Green Tips (prior to the recent BATFE attempt at reclassifying them as armor piercing), Hornady 55-grain jacketed soft points, and Black Hills' 77-grain Open-Tip Match. We also fired the Black Hills 52-grain Match, Hornady 55-grain Zombie Max, and Federal's 55-grain JSP and Winchester's 55-grain FMJs. Here's what we found:

Beretta's APX, a new striker-fired full-size pistol in 9x19mm, 9x21mm IMI and 40 Smith & Wesson cartridges, debuted at the 2015 International Defence Exhibition & Conference IDEX expo in Abu Dhabi Feb. 22.

"IDEX is one of the first venues where defense contractors present their wares to worldwide military customers and Beretta felt this was the ideal environment to present the international offering of its APX pistol," said Carlo Ferlito, general manager of Beretta and Beretta Defense Technologies (BDT) vice president.

Beretta intends to market a variant for the commercial market later this year. The new Beretta APX has an ergonomically-molded reinforced polymer frame fitted with a built-in MIL-STD-1913 Picatinny rail, interchangable backstraps and grip panels, and a modified Browning locking system. The APX is 7.56 inches long with a 4.25-inch barrel.

The trigger can be considered a light double action, with a 6-pound break, 0.2 inch of travel, and a 0.12-inch reset. The rear portion of the striker slightly protrudes from a round slot on the back of the slide as a loaded-chamber indicator.

The slide is machined from stainless steel and has a nitride coating that reduces glare, scratches, and corrosion. Other features include wide front and rear slide serrations, three-dot sights dovetailed into the slide, and no manual safety save for a Glock-style trigger safety.

Ferlito said, "Beretta waited to enter the striker-fired market until we had a pistol we knew would meet the needs of the operator. The APX has been more than three years in development. We tested it extensively with professional end users and incorporated that feedback at every opportunity. The result is a pistol platform that delivers superior performance in durability, reliability, accuracy and ergonomics."

A slot on the frame allows the use of a tool to decock it before it can be field-stripped by operating a lever found on the left side of the frame.

An optional manual safety system will be available upon request, consisting of a frame-mounted two-position switch. A reversible magazine-release catch and a factory ambidextrous slide stop/hold open release lever help make the pistol suitable for left- or right-handed shooters.

Supplied black double-stack metal magazines have polymer bottom pads and offer 17-round capacities in 9x19mm NATO and 15-round capacities in 9x21mm IMI (9 Italian) and 40 Smith & Wesson.

Our first look at the Mitchell Mauser gave us hope that here we had an essentially new 98 Mauser to play with. The bore, finish, wood and all the stuff that came with it looked new, except that some of the accessories showed some age marks. This version came with a fancy certificate along with a leather sling, bayonet in scabbard, leather frog or bayonet hanger, leather ammo pouch, and a field cleaning kit. The certificate stated the rifle had been in military storage since its manufacture in Yugoslavia during the 1940s. It went on to state the rifle had been inspected and tested every five years since its storage, essentially stating these are not newly made replicas, but older original Mausers. The M48 Mausers were made in Yugoslavia after WWII — presumably in 1948 and after — so there is no reason to doubt these are in fact all original. They came from a factory or arsenal that has been in Yugoslavia since the late 1800s.

There is, in fact, lots of commentary online to the effect that these so-called all-original rifles from Mitchell's have been gussied up, restamped (all the numbers of our test rifle match, even the stock), reblued, refinished, and the like. Was this rifle ground down, restamped with all-matching numbers, and then reblued? Then how come the crest is pristine? Was the metal completely buffed, reblued, new barrels stuck in and the wood sanded and refinished? No, it was not, because in the first place there would be no profit in doing so. Also, the stock is by no means skimpy. It's proud of the wood everywhere, which refinished wood would not be. The M48 rifles were made after WWII, and they could easily have been put in storage because there was no great need for them. Because the Germans had nothing to do with the making of these rifles that came from an ancient armory or factory, there is no reason the Yugos would have used older German stamps to mark them, and that puts the lie to some claims the numbers don't have the right font characteristics. At any rate, we took a look at the rifle as it was, not from the viewpoint of the conflicting opinions online.

One thing is for sure, this rifle has all nice stuff throughout. The barrel is pristine. The stock is in excellent condition, as is the bluing. The accompanying certificate told us the stock was in fact "teakwood," not walnut. We wonder about that, but don't have any teak on hand to compare with it. It does look like photos of teak we've seen online. The wood is very hard, has some decent grain, and has a dull finish of some sort. It seems to be a reasonable stock wood. All in all, we thought the rifle looked pretty good, and would make a fine display for some folks, whether or not it would satisfy every Mauser collector. Of course the intent is for it to be shot, so of course we shot it. We did that with three types of ammo, mil-spec hardball of unknown origin from 1983 with a 198-grain, steel-jacketed, boat-tail bullet; Remington 170-grain Core-Lokt SP; and PMC 170-grain PSP. We were going to try another mil-spec steel-case ammo from Romania, but it would not chamber. Here's what we found.

Beasts usually like to keep as much woodlot, coulee, or cornfield between us and them as possible, and that may mean shooting our rifle farther than the sighted-in distance. Essentially we use old-fashioned Kentucky elevation and take our best guess at crosshair hold over. Combine a good sense of distance with shooting experience, and you could fill out your tag. If not, youll kick up dirt below two sets of hooves, whiz a round high, or, sadly, wound an animal.
Riflescopes with ballistic reticles purportedly take the guesswork out of long-distance shooting by combining a typical crosshair with additional aiming points at set distances. The reticles are calibrated to popular hunting cartridges with muzzle velocities in the range of 2800 to 3000 fps or more. The usual suspects fall into that range-243, 6mm, 25-06, 270, 308, 30-06, 7mm Rem. Mag., 300 Win. Mag., including a slew of others. Since the aiming points are not calibrated to a specific load they, offer general approximations, which means you will need to shoot your rifle to understand how the reticle will work with your specific rifle and cartridge combination. The reticles are chockfull of aiming points and seem cluttered compared to a typical hunting scope, but they are quite easy to master. You may want to make a cheat sheet on an index card or a piece of masking tape and fix it to your stock so you can remember what aiming points are for what distances. Finally, you will still need to know the distance to the target, and some scopes have this covered with built-in range estimators, as you will see.

To read more on reticles including our recommendations, purchase the ebook, Bolt-Action Rifles & Gear, Part 2 from Gun Tests.

Older Mauser rifles are getting scarce. We used to be able to pick them up for a song, well under $100 in recent memory, but no more. Our Idaho test team recently had a chance to examine and shoot two old surplus Mauser rifles in standard military configuration, one a Swede M38 bearing the Husqvarna stamp on its ring (about $500), and the other a Brazilian 1908 DWM M98 in 7x57 (about $450) — or about five times what they used to cost — and these were far from perfect.

The 1908 DWM M98 was one of the longest rifles we've tested, with its 29.2-inch barrel. The Swede, in 6.5x55mm Swedish, had a decent birch stock and a more reasonable barrel length. We shot them with Remington ammo (both calibers) and a variety of other types. A reader suggested we be sure to try non-U.S. ammo in the Swede. We had some Swedish surplus on hand, so we were able to do that. Here's what we found.

Husqvarna Mauser Model 38
6.5x55mm Swedish, $500
One of the first Mausers adopted by Sweden was called the Model 96, which later got truncated and lightened into our test rifle, which was then renamed the Model 38. Considered a small-ring Mauser, the Swede has an extended cocking piece with checkering on top. In front of that is the standard turn-over, wing-type safety. The Swedish Mauser cocks on closing, which means the final inch of closing the bolt is done against spring pressure. The follower of our test rifle had not been altered, so the bolt would not slip closed on an empty chamber. That's of course a wartime expedient to make sure the soldier knows when to reload in the heat of battle. The wood of our test rifle was birch, and in very good condition. The grooves in the forend and a few other places on the stock were dark, indicating the wood had been at some time refinished, leaving behind some of the old dirt. There were no significant markings on the stock save for a "T" on the left side of the stock near the finger groove for stripper-clip loading. There was also an insert on the right butt-side, which indicated barrel and throat wear. This barrel was marked a "3" and should be replaced.

The metal was mostly in the white, which means there was severe bluing wear throughout. Actually, some of the parts looked like they had never been blued, while others clearly had bluing worn extremely thin. The white metal showed signs of incipient rust in many places. The floorplate was particularly bad. The barrel was tapped on its end for a flash hider, but was missing any sort of protective cap. The action ring had the Husqvarna name and a date of 1942.

The rifle was relatively clean outside, but its barrel was a mess. We cleaned it as well as we could, but had no great hopes for its accuracy. The trigger was a common military two-stage item, with a clean break on the final part, though a touch heavy. The sights consisted of a rear U-notch adjustable to 600 yards, and it had a clever idea incorporated. If you flipped it up 90 degrees, you can see the yardage markings repeated on the bottom, so the soldier could make adjustments without taking the rifle down from the shooting position, or without exposing his head to look at the top of the sight. The front blade was in a dovetail and was essentially unprotected. It had a flat top, which was an improvement over the common German pointed-top front sight for determining elevation.

All in all we thought this rifle needed a thorough disassembly and cleaning to make all its parts work better, especially the sight adjustments. We left that for the owner, who kindly loaned this to us as soon as he got it. All the numbers we found matched on this rifle, so it would be a good representative of the type if it were fully cleaned up. Many collectors have no interest in shooting their collectibles, so they tend to ignore the condition of the inside of the barrel. We think that's a mistake, because the heart of any rifle is its barrel. If that's neglected and generally in poor condition, we would not rate the rifle highly even though the outside looked like new. That's our two cents.

As for ammo, there is no shortage of it available for this caliber, and we had Remington, Hornady, and some Swedish surplus with steel-jacket bullets. This latter ammo looked quite nasty in the box. As it turned out, it gave reasonable groups, but bolt lift was hard, most likely from the poor condition of the cases. The hot Hornady ammo got much higher velocity and gave zero sticky bolt lift, and also gave us the best accuracy. Smallest group was 1.1 inches, and average was 1.6. There were no problems with the rifle, though ejection was generally not very strong, no matter how hard we worked the bolt.