The Firearm Blog

These run the end of the year.

Smith & Wesson

Through December 31, 2008, consumers will have the opportunity to take part in two promotions from Smith & Wesson - the Hunting Fall Spectacular and the Holiday Handgun Promo. During the designated months, consumers will be able to receive rebates or free magazines with the purchase of select firearms.

Hunting Fall Spectacular:
· Purchase a new Smith & Wesson Elite Gold or Silver shotgun and receive a free shotgun case
· Purchase a new Model 500 or 460XVR revolver and receive a $75 rebate
· Purchase a new i-Bolt™ rifle and receive a $50 rebate
· Purchase a new 1000 Series shotgun and receive a $50 rebate

Holiday Handgun Promotion:
· Purchase select J-frame revolvers and receive a $30 rebate
· Purchase select revolvers over $500 and receive a $50 rebate
· Purchase a new M&P pistol and receive a $50 rebate or two free magazines
· Purchase a new Sigma pistol and receive a $50 rebate or two free magazines

Thompson/Center Arms

Thompson/Center will offer new incentives this year as part of the Get in the Hunt Promo, which began October 1 and continues through December 31, 2008.

Get in the Hunt:
· Purchase any new Encore barrel and receive a $25 rebate
· Purchase any new Omega Z5 muzzleloader and receive a $50 rebate
· Purchase a select Encore Pro Hunter or Endeavor and receive a $50 rebate
· Purchase a new ICON™ rifle and receive a $50 rebate

Walther

Walther will begin its PPK & PPK/S Promotion starting October 7, 2008 running through January 7, 2009. During the three month long promotion, consumers will receive a $50 rebate or two free magazines with the purchase of a new Walther PPK or PPK/S pistol.

The P99 RAD was unveiled at MSPO 2008. As far as I can tell it is a standard P99 with a Picatinny rails and a different, but still interchangeable, grip.

The “RAD” part of the name refers to the hometown of the Lucznik Arms Factory, Radom. Interestingly enough “Rad” was the the unofficial nickname of the Polish Vis semi-automatic pistol used in WWII.

The pistol was designed by the Polish military and I do not know if Walther will sell this design to the public.

More here (this page is English, most of site is not)

I have done my best to find accurate information about this firearm on the Polish MSPO 2008 website. I do not speak or read Polish so I had to rely on Google Translate. If I got something wrong, please correct me in the comments.

Reader Ben emailed me a graphic he did of P99, its very cool.

I like do art in my spare time. Take a look at the attached file. This picture of a p99 was made by x-raying and refinishing with illustrator. Unfortunately it is probably not accurate.

Click to expand.

ExistingThing has a very cheap solution to the Walter G22 (.22lr bullpup rifle) trigger problem.

The Walther G22 has a terrible trigger, lots of take up, and a very mushy break. I saw it as an opportunity to practice my trigger control, and got pretty good with it. After a recent trip to the range I took it apart for cleaning, and decided to spend a bit trying to figure out a cheap, reliable, effective way to shorten the trigger pull. Previous attempts had been fruitless, but this time I actually figured something out.

More here.

A very detailed review of the Walther P99 pistol has been post on the PAFOA forum here. It also includes some beautiful photos of the P99.

So, the real verdict, how does it shoot? Well, for me, it shoots better than any gun I have ever fired, which includes an impressive list of what’s what in the realm of combat handguns (custom or otherwise). I shot 365 rounds (300 of various FMJ rounds and 65 HP’s) today, and I find that I can rapid fire the center out of a 8×10 piece of paper at 10 yards seemingly all day long regardless of what stance or grip I use. Hell, it didn’t matter whether I used the sights, used a threat-focused approach at near eye level or shot from the hip at 4 yards, I was still on paper and in the scoring ring for all but 10 errant shots. I also got to shoot 150 rounds with my Streamlight TLR-1 attached (20 of them in complete darkness aside from the light) and as a bonus, not only is the light useful, but the extra weight up front allowed for faster follow-up shots; never a bad thing. My concentrated accuracy test involved shooting the staple at each corner of my last target to see if I could hit them and thus drop the paper from the target stand. At 10 yards, it took me a mere 6 shots, with both of my misses being less than a few centimeters too low. That’s good enough for a combat or carry gun, it’s certainly good enough for my standards and I doubt I could have done that with any other handgun I own. It’s inexplicable to me why this gun just shoots so much better in my hands than anything else, though everyone that ever shot with me when I had my previous P99 laughs and tells me I should have never sold it, that was the one gun I shot like a pro. Well, here’s to renewing relationships with old friends, this P99, like her predecessor, has earned her rightful place in a holder tucked inside my waistband.

More here.