#NewRelease

Palmetto State Armory (PSA) had a ton of new things in their main booth at SHOT Show 2024. Some are in production now, while others are merely concepts at this time. Let’s take a little virtual tour through those items.

Arken Optics is moving into the night vision space with the new Zulus 5-20x digital day/night scope. It features an integrated IR illuminator and 1920×1080 resolution. Let’s take a closer look at the rest of the features.

Accessory rails are more common than ever on modern sporting arms. While these rails offer many advantages, (including the mounting of foregrips, lights, and laser aiming modules) there are also a few drawbacks. Aluminum rails can heat up quickly and they don’t always offer a positive grip with sweaty or wet hands. Enter Walker Defense Systems with their NILE Silicon Carbide M-Lok Rail Panels.

Every year the advent of fall brings changing leaves, cooler weather, football, and of course: the return of the seemingly ubiquitous #PumpkinSpice craze. While it started primarily with pumpkin spice lattes, the autumnal flavor and accompanying orange color themes can be found practically everywhere around this time of year. Thanks to an office joke between the Glocksmiths at Phoenix-based Overwatch Precision, the firearms industry is participating in the cultural ode to titian-hued winter squash. As they announced on Tuesday, you can purchase a special-edition “ Pumpkin Spice TAC Basicness” Glock trigger until November 5th.

Program Executive Officer (PEO) Soldier out of Fort Belvoir, Virginia recently tweeted an image depicting U.S. Army Brigadier General Anthony Potts (currently commanding PEO Soldier) on the test range firing a test rifle apart of “emerging technologies for Next Generation Squad Weapon” as spelled out in the tweet.

At this year’s Singapore Air Show, S&T Kinetics showed off their latest bullpup rifle, the 5.56x45mm NATO BR18. The BR18 is the latest version of what began as the BMCR, or Bullpup Multirole Combat Rifle which initially debuted at the 2014 Singapore Air Show. The biggest difference with this iteration of the design is that it is finally ready for production, following trials held in 2017. Currently it appears the company is going to try for a Singaporean adoption, most likely by the Armed Forces. However, a company representative also mentioned that there could be potential for an international sale.

Now more than a week has passed since SHOT 2018, and we at TFB are finally recuperating from what is most likely the busiest single week that the entire team will have all year. With SHOT Show over, we can finally go back to the boring business of gun writing and video making. But while the show is still fresh on our minds, I think it is important to take a second and look at some of the trends and big product pushes that occurred during the show.

The sanctions on Russian companies have hit the American AK enthusiast hard – no longer can we import inexpensive Izhevsk Kalashnikovs to feed the beast. Yet, there is a silver lining: Domestic AK production is on the rise to meet the demand, and one company in particular is staking its name – the biggest name in the business – on American-made AKs done right. That name being, of course, Kalashnikov USA.

Quite the unicorn, the 5.56x45mm NATO SCAR-Subcomact Carbine was only unveiled recently last year at Milipol in Paris. This year we were able to get our hands on the actual SCAR-SC at SHOT Show. Based on the previous SCAR-PDW, the SC was created due to a need within Law Enforcement entities in the United States for small, compact, select fire, 5.56x45mm PDW style weapon. Although the SC is essentially a shortened SCAR with a 7.5 inch barrel, it has some features that are unique to the system. First and foremost is the non-reciprocating charging handle. This has been a much-debated point on a stock SCAR of any configuration. On the SC model the non-reciprocating handle was required due to the short overall length of the carbine. You can’t avoid getting your support hand close to the charging handle. But also to help with this, the handle has a “Swept” Up or Down design. Numerous 3rd party manufacturers have made these sorts of “Swept” designs for the SCAR, but this is the first time FN Herstal is going with what is essentially an aftermarket part on a production gun.

Lyman has released a number of new products this year, but we’ll only be able to get to a few of them that really stand out. First off is the company’s new reloading line, branded in bright orange. In order of weight, they are the Brass Smith Ideal C-Frame Press, the Brass Smith Victory Single Stage Press, and the Brass Smith All-American 8 Turret Press.

Robinson Armaments has added a new Tailhook Brace to a new line of pistol XCR versions of their full-length XCR rifle configurations, in addition to adding M-Lok to their entire line, along with the previous Keymod rails they had mounted on them previously. The pistol configuration comes with the Gear Head Works Tailhook Mod 1 (made from aluminum) and is set up on the companies adjustable stock/adjustable cheekpiece. The entire configuration is ATF approved as well. The line can be ordered in 7.5″, 9″, 10″, 11″ and 12″ length barrel configurations, in addition to corresponding handguard lengths. The slimmer versions are the Keymod ones which take up less space on the sides and bottom of the handguard than the M-Lok that need more space for the mounting systems. In addition, the pistols and all the rifles for that matter can be ordered in 5.56x45mm, .300 BLK, 6.8 SPC, 7.62x39mm, and 6.5 Grendel. There is a rifle option that can be ordered in 7.62x51mm as well.

The Ryker FIST Grip is a new take on Picatinny mounted forward grips. Instead of being mounted at the 6 o’clock position like virtually every other forward grip on the market, the RYKER is designed to be mounted at the 3 or 9 o’clock of any firearm that has Picatinny rails on the handguards. Interestingly this includes pump-action shotguns with Picatinny equipped shotgun forends. The grip can be altered for a left or right-handed configuration by simply disassembling it and reversing the direction of the grip placement on the Picatinny rail adaptor.

At the 2018 SHOT Show Industry Day at the Range, Florida gunmaker FightLite Industries, best known for their SCR “ban state” lower receiver that allows “compliant” rifles to be made using AR-15 components. FightLite also is the manufacturer of the MCR upper receiver, a conversion kit that transforms an AR-15 into a belt-fed light machine gun.

Kalashnikov USA, orphaned stateside importing partner of Kalashnikov Concern, brought their latest prototype and production guns to the 2018 SHOT Show, and there is good reason to be excited. Chief among them: The KR-9 9mm AK carbine.

Good news for bullpup fanatics: The Lithgow F90, Australia’s improved version of the AUG, is in production in the USA right now under the name “Atrax”. Representatives of Dasan USA, the stateside manufacturer/importer, said that major components of the Atrax, including the barrel, were already being produced in their facilities within the country, to allow production weapons to comply with US import laws. Dasan Representatives said that the technical data package for the US-made components was transferred to the US from Australia, so each component made in the States adheres exactly to Lithgow’s methods and standards for that component.