#Photos

As many of you know, for the last few years I have carried a P226 Elite religiously. To me, the P-Series from SIG Sauer is biblical and some of the best handguns to use daily. When the 320 was released to market a few years ago, I was interested, but it seemed like another standard service pistol. I have no issues with guns that are common but prefer something that’s out of the ordinary. It has to be completely reliable, so I held off when it came to the 320 because I didn’t have much experience with them.

The CZ SP-01 Tactical from CZ is one of the hottest selling models for CZ currently. It is based on the classic CZ 75 and then modernized for the 21st century The gun was launched in 2004 to accommodate the increasing number of weapon attachments on the market. Fast forward 15 years and the gun is still a serious contender in the DA/SA market.

In the last few years, there has been a massive increase in vehicle-based shootings. These shootings include police attacks, where officers are ambushed in their cruisers. Let’s be honest though getting into a gunfight at all is a bad day, and getting in a gunfight while in a vehicle just plain sucks.

SB Tactical is one of those innovative and forward-thinking companies around the gun industry in my opinion. They have given the consumer market a lot of choices when it comes to pistol builds with their AR pistol braces. Now don’t get me wrong, not everything SB Tactical makes is crazy innovative, but overall the level of quality they offer is extremely high.

The Technical Directorate for Military Production (TDMP) is a defense armaments manufacturing arm set up within the Popular Mobilization Forces (الحشد الشعبي‎) that were established in Iraq during 2014 to combat the growing threat of the so-called Islamic State. TDMP has a website that is somewhat functional in Arabic, and an English version that still needs some work. The state-sponsored company is mostly committed to manufacturing multi-barrel rocket launchers, 81mm mortar shells, and UAVs of different configurations.

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.

In a recent propaganda video released by the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (Report Number 190 to be precise), a 7.62x51mm NATO MK 17 SCAR was spotted over the course of the propaganda video. Of course, there is nothing new about this development, we’ve covered the SCAR in use by the Taliban previously on TFB. But what is new is that we are starting to connect the dots on this particular MK 17, clearing up some of the misinformation and hope to even provide a possible explanation for its origins in Afghanistan.

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.

A recently published news video from Arizona-based 3TV/Arizona Family Channel concerning domestic violence in the U.S. Army included a photograph of a U.S. Soldier from the 7th Special Forces Group based out of Eglin Air Force Base in Florida. The soldier is posing with what appears to be an M4A1 SOPMOD Block II and also appears to be on deployment in Afghanistan due to the terrain, green valley, and patchwork of compounds in the background.

The Fiscal Year 2019 Department of Defense Budget Proposal has been submitted to Congress and will take some time before we find out if it is approved or denied. But within it there is a specific budget document titled “Counter-Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) Train and Equip Fund (CTEF)”. This proposal covers the Pentagon’s plans to purchase equipment and arms that will be provided to forces that the United States (i.e- SOCOM) supports in Syria and Iraqi government security forces. At the low end of the supply chain are items such as magazine pouches and canteens, while at the high end are HUMVEEs and bulldozers. We are going to narrow down our focus to the small arms segment for TFB’s interests. A key element to keep in mind here is that this proposal hasn’t been approved yet and thus we are simply looking at what the Pentagon wants, instead of what they are going to get in terms of funding for all this equipment. The final result could be less, or it could even be more depending on the politics that go into the decision making process.

Often completely overshadowed by the larger SHOT Show, the Antique Gun Show is strategically held during the weekend after SHOT Show (although this year it was held the weekend before). Although possibly not the best antique show in the United States, it certainly ranks highly up there with the quality of firearms brought into it. The majority of everything sold within this show is from the 1800s and early 1900s, with even a few older firearms as well. And unlike SHOT Show which is strictly regulated to media and industry folks, the Antique Arms Show is open to the general public for a small admission fee at the door. Apparently, for the first time since attending SHOT, TFB was able to pay a visit and bring to light a number of the more interesting pieces on display. Although not comprehensive of everything that was on display, this post will highlight some of the odder and more fascinating tables and vendors.

Kydex, or Boltaron, holsters are all the rage these days. But how are they actually made? With what tools and techniques do these excellent (or sometimes poor) IWB or OWB setups come from? In this episode we look at a local Kydex holster maker and go through all the steps it takes to bring one to fruition. From cutting out the Boltaron sheet, sticking it in a heater, forming it around a handgun, and all the other smaller steps along the way.

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 IWI 40x46mm Low-Velocity UBGL/Standalone Grenade Launcher has been around for a few years but this is the first time we were able to actually get our hands on the launcher at TFB. Available for LE/Military customers worldwide, the launcher is designed to lock onto the bayonet lug of the Tavor 5.56x45mm X95 rifle by way of two locking pins that keep it in place. At first glance, it appears to be similar to any other UBGL/GL design on the market but IWI really seemed to put a lot of effort into the finer points of detail on the launcher.

The Unimag from Ross & Zheng Engineering was created with the intent of having one magazine that was capable of working with the majority of popu lar cartridges that are chambered in an AR15, STANAG magazine configuration (or with similar dimensions). This means that the Unimag is designed and tested with the following cartridges in mind-5.56x45mm, .300BLK, .204 Ruger, 5.45X39mm, 6.8mm SPC, 7.62×39, 6.5mm Grendel, and .458 SOCOM. Too new at this point, but testing will probably be eventually done, but to add to that list is the .224 Valkyrie.