The Firearm Blog

Newton Arms have revived the Leverbolt rifle that was invented by the famous gun and cartridge designer Charles Newton in 1929. The design borrows element from the Springfield, Lee Navy and the Winchester lever-action. By utilizing a lever the bolt can be cycled faster than a traditional straight pull bolt action.

Click to expand.

According to my copy of Bolt Action Rifles (4th Edition), the story of the Leverbolt is a sad one. Charles designed the rifle after this business, Newton Buffolo Rifle Corporation, folded in early 1929. Unbeknown to him, and everyone else, the stock market would crash in October of that year heralding the beginning of the Great Depression.

Newton approached Marlin who agreed to limited production only if he could secure at least 500 orders. The cost was a $25 downpayment and an addional $35 on delivery. He failed to secure the neccessery orders and once the market crashed any chance of the rifle being manufactured was gone. Charles died a few years later aged 62.

Mehul, a moderator at nitroexpress.com and expert of the topic emailed me information about the Newton rifle:

For a straight pull action that is much sleeker than any of its competitors today (the Blaser R 93, Strasser RS 05 and the Heym SR 30 are three popular designs that come to mind) the Newton Leverbolt is especially interesting because it comes with a controlled feed and extraction system that would make it ideal for dangerous game. The speed of reloading and getting repeat shots off would also be ideal for an African rifle – with a 5 shot magazine in calibers from 375 H&H to 458 Lott this could be much better than anything else available today.

I am not sure of pricing or availability of the rifle at this time.

A big thanks to Mehul for the info.

Site has been down, web hosting issues. Back online now.

From Chris @ American Tactical Imports:

I can say that it feels just like holding an actual 1911, will come with a 10 round magazine and will be of fine German engineering. We have an expected MSRP of $369.00 on it but that is subject to change once we receive final importation clearance and see all the manufacturing costs. Check back with us later in the year on tat.

More about the pistol here.

According to MarineSniper8541 @ AR15.com (without any collaborating evidence) the limited edition run of FN SCAR 16S rifles with their gold colored upper receivers was in fact a botched run that came out the wrong color. The marketing department then decided to sell them as a limited edition.

Apparently, the initial factory run of SCAR upper receivers went to anodizing and came back way too “gold” for FN’s specs. (Look at all advertisments, videos and such for the actual FN spec color of the upper, the upper and lower should pretty much match). It has been described to me that the anodizing of parts in FDE is tricky and can come out very “gold” looking if the process isn’t done correctly.

So anyways, FN gets its first commercial run of uppers back from anodizing and they are very “gold”. FN decides to go ahead and sell this huge batch of “gold” uppers and to call it a limited edition so that they can sell them without having to have them blasted and re-anodized…HAHA!

The next production run will be in the correct color for the uppers. So in a nutshell, the people paying $4500 for a “limited edition” are getting rifles that were actually screwed up and made in the wrong color. Smart move on FN’s part. They took a botched run of uppers and turned them into a “gold” mine. No pun intended.

Limited Edition SCAR.


Standard color scheme

This is just a rumor, and is not confirmed. If it is true it was a stoke of genius by the marketing department. I actually like the gold look a lot.

Many thanks to Jay for the link.

Jennerson took this photo in response to my post about the Scottish police hunting down knife owners. Apart from the fact that it is a great photo, it seems to scream “ΜΟΛΩΝ ΛΑΒΕ”.

Black knife, black gun, black leather sofa. Click to expand. Used with permission.

For those of you not familiar to the phrase: “ΜΟΛΩΝ ΛΑΒΕ” (or in latin script “Molon labe”) means “Come and take them!”. It is what the Spartans reportedly said to the Persians when they were told to surrender their weapons. Yes … those Spartans …

The full sized version of Jennerson photo can be downloaded here. It is currently my desktop background.

PoliceOne.com did some online polling last year on their website. I have no doubt its results are about as accurate as any other web poll, but the results are nonetheless interesting.

Results of the third poll.

The rest of the poll results are here.

The Google Street View photo taking van ran over a deer in Rush, NY while capturing every moment of the encounter on their 360 degree camera system.

The images have since been removed by google.

Hat Tip: Reddit via. The Daily What via. Gizmodo.

The Danish Forsøgsrekylgevær (Self Loading rifle M.1888) is a fascinating early autoloading rifle. I learnt about the rifle when Ian @ TheHighRoad posted this photo and asked if anyone could identify the rifle:

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I could not figure out what was going on in that complex mechanism. The general consensus was that it must be some type of complex lever action until Wes Janson figured it out.

Click to expand. Photo from Statens Forsvarshistoriske Museum

The Forsøgsrekylgevær was designed by Rustmester Rasmussen (Bjarnov) and Captain VHO Madsen. What is unqiue about this rifle is that the magazine is gravity fed. You could simply pop in cartridges into the loading/magazine-like device and let gravity do the rest.

While gravity fed magazines were not uncommon and were used in Maxim, Gardener and other pre-machine-gun guns, unlike those which were very heavy and either crew served or mounted on the deck of a ship, this was designed as a infantry rifle!

Can you imagine running around in a gun fight knowing that your rifle could fail to feed, or worse, jam if you did not keep it upright? That would not have been much fun. I reckon this was why only 50 were ever made and they only saw limited service by the coast guard.
The The Danish Arms & Armor Society describe the action (translated using Google, emphasis mine):

The mechanism of rekylgeværet is a kind of automatic version of the Peabody vippende bottom piece. Instead of traditional gun magazine had a solid loading device when the cartridge collars were in the two grooves. Cartridges were to fall into the gun by their own weight. When the gun was not in use, was loading device folded down so that it covered include opening.

Gun can be used both as individual leaves and machine. By simply placed cartridge directly into the bottom piece cartridge bearing. As a machine left by loading device.

Click to expand. Photo from The Danish Arms & Armour Society (I think)

The M.1888 fired the 8x58RD cartridge. The blackpowder military load for the 8x58RD sent a 226 grain bullet @ 1591 fps generating 1270 ft/lbs of energy. The smokeless version pushed the 226 grain projectile at 2034 ft/s generating 2076 ft/lbs.

While the rifle itself has faded into obscurity the 1882 Madsen machine gun was based on its design. The Madsen was in active use for over 100 years until last year when the Brazilian police force finally retired it.

1882 Madsen machine gun replica.

STI International are the latest addition to brethren-of-ar-15-manufactures, joining fellow 1911 pistol makers such as Wilson Combat and Para Ordnance (the Para TTR is based on the AR platform).

The Bane holding the new STI Tactical AR-15. Video is here.

Two models will be available. The Tactical / sporting model features:

Chambered in 5.56mm NATO, the 16-in. 410 SS barrel features a 1:8 twist with a mid-length gas system. Featuring a Nordic Tactical Compensator and JP Trigger group, this rifle also includes a custom STI Valkyrie hand guard and gas block.

Specs:

Trigger: JP Trigger group
Barrel: 16″, 410 stainless steel, 1 in 8 twist, 1/2″ x 28 thread for the compensator
Compensator: Nordic Components Tactical Compensator
Gas Block: Custom STI Valkyrie Gas Block
Handguard: Custom STI Valkyrie Hand Guard
Sights : none
Overall Length : 36″
Weight: Competition: 6 lbs., 10 oz. Tactical: 6 lbs., 7.8 oz.
Finish: Black Teflon Coating over hard anodize
Competition Approvals: USPSA

STI Tactical model.

The competition model features:

The STI Valkyrie Competition hand guard has all the same great features as the Tactical model, with a 12″ OA length for increased stability for the competitive Shooter. The STI Valkyrie Competition Gas Block is light weight and concealed under the hand guard. The entire rifle has an anodized finish with black Teflon coating.

STI Tactical Competition model.

I am not sure what the pricing on the competition model will be.

More info at STI.

SayUncle and Oleg Volk report that the Calvary Arms CAV-15 MKII polymer AR-15 lower receivers are back in production after getting approved from the BATF.

Last year in February the BATF confiscated their inventory. Apparently the feds were not happy about how the serial numbers were attached/moulded to the plastic.

Click to expand the images:

Very pretty! (The “increased profits” refers to manufactures of AR-15 rifles)

From the press release:

The CAV-15 MKII receivers are back in production, after receiving approval from BATF Technology Branch for the method of affixing the serial number plate to the lower. We are currently filling back orders for our dealers and OEM clients. We will begin taking retail orders when all dealer back orders are filled. Please check with our dealers to see if they have in stock what you need.

We are currently not selling complete lowers, or complete rifles. Our vendors for these parts have substantial back orders. We currently have no ETA for these parts. If you are concerned about impending legislation, buy a lower receiver now and assemble it into a complete rifle when the supply chain stabilizes.