Friday, February 10, 2012

GUNS FOR THE NEW YEAR

There's a lot of interesting new guns out there or about to be released. There's several of them I'd like to add to the collection.

In the past several years, there has been an explosion of .22 LR replica guns that resemble, either closely or not, various centerfire cartridge guns. There's scads of AR-15/M-16 (or for you younger folks, the M-4) looking rimfire assault rifles, as well as those that resemble HK's, AK's, the M-1 Carbine and other guns. In the handgun department, you can get many different brands of 1911 clones and other replica guns that shoot .22 LR.



Now ISSC has come out with a .22 that resembles the excellent FN SCAR rifle, which goes for about 3 grand. The ISSC MK22 rifle is a fair clone on the exterior, and it's given decent ratings in the several reviews I've read. I'm familiar with the Glock .22 clone that ISSC makes, and it seems to be a decently made pistol, adding a much needed thumb safety to the layout.  A reasonably priced and much cheaper to shoot alternative to the real thing.



Another exciting and fun .22 that's supposed to hit the shelves this month is the Umarex UZI .22 Pistol and Rifle. They both look like lots of fun but I'll be opting for the .22 pistol first. Again, it's reasonably priced and cheap to shoot. On second thought, after looking some more at the Umarex Uzi rifle clone, if I come across that I might get it too.

Stoeger one made a pretty cool looking Luger .22 LR replica. Unfortunately, all the reviews I've read on them say it's a Ronco Jam-O-Matic. But this year Stoeger put an interesting twist on the existing line of side-by-side double barreled defense shotguns with an Over/Under model. For some reason, I'm attracted to that, even though I use a pump 12 gauge for home defense.









The Stoeger Double Defense over/under looks like a fun gun. I'd set one up with a lowprofile combination laser and flashlight. It's a great truck gun, under the seat gun or just general good to have with you on the tractor or the lake gun.

For home defense I prefer a few more rounds standing by, because reloading a double barrel with shells from a stock mounted shell carrier is not the fastest or best way to deal with any miscreant you'd need to throw down on while they are breaking in your home. Four or five rounds, as carried in most pump or semi-auto shotguns is usually plenty, but two shots might not be enough.

But hey, a double barrel was good enough for Steve McQueen in The Magnificent Seven.




Kel-Tek is coming out with a pretty cool .22 magnum rifle, the  RMR-30  that uses the same magazines as the PMR-30, which is a heck of a fun pistol to shoot. Supposedly it's almost ready to ship, but it's yet to appear on Kel-Tec's website, and I know I waited a year and a half until I could find a reasonably priced PMR-30, so Kel-Tec is pretty well known for S--L--O--W--L--Y getting their new products on the shelves.

Likewise, I've yet to see any of the Kel-Tec KSG 15 round bullpup pump shotguns yet, and they are already supposed to be on the shelves. I'd like to see how heavy of a weapon the KSG will be, particularly if it will be front heavy, and I'd want to shoot it before I develop an opinion on it. It could go either way.

I've yet to see the Ruger version of the 1911 or the Browning .22 caliber version of the 1911. Some gun shops have had a few come in, and either had them already on waiting lists or they were sold immediately after touchdown. I'm still interested in seeing these two takes on the 1911.

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