Articles by Scott Mayer

When I first reviewed a gun from Kahr Arms in 1995, I was impressed enough with the design, workmanship, and function that I surprised my mother with a Kahr K9 as a carry gun. Ordinarily, getting my mother the right gun is like trying to get her the right pair of shoes, but in this case the K9 went over with great success. At the time, it was one of the smallest 9mm handguns on the market. Its “slick” slide is ideal for concealed carry, and the silky smooth factory trigger pull has to be tried to be appreciated. If there are any qualms, it’s that the K9 is a bit heavy (compact polymer-framed guns were not readily on the market then) and its $600+ price tag (in 1995 dollars) was as much as one month’s mortgage payment. Since then, more states have passed “shall issue” laws. The results are increased demand for carry guns, more carry gun options, and more competitive pricing.

MTM never fails to come up with some clever plastic product I probably would not have thought of and now can’t live without. This year it’s the Cast Bullet Box and Gun Cleaning Patch Catcher. I’m an avid bullet caster and have always kept my supplies of sized and lubed bullets in cardboard boxes. The problem with that is dust always seems to find its way into the boxes and onto the bullets. Granted, the dust is only a minor annoyance, but it’s still an annoyance. Al Minneman who heads MTM, is also a cast bullet shooter. Every year I try to visit him and his fellow competitors at the N-SSA National Skirmishes. They’re good folks, I get to hear about what new things they’re working on at MTM, and we talk shooting.

Stag Arms had two new products at SHOT that are going to take a lot of the guesswork out of self-defense and 3-Gun competition for shooters who want “turn-key” solutions. The 2012 Executive Survivor’s Kit (ESK) is a special project done in partnership with Stag distributor LAN World and specifically marketed toward affluent people who have themselves, their family, and assets to protect during a “survival” situation. The kit is not set up for surviving a zombie apocalypse or an end of the world scenario, but instead for the more plausible scenario of being displaced for a few days by some disaster. I’ll be the first to admit that the whole “Katrina” thing has been done to death, but there never fails to be some new natural or domestic threat to make you realize that you need a gun. With social movements such as “occupiers” who think they’re somehow entitled to “their fair share” of what YOU own, I don’t blame people for being concerned about their safety.

CZ-USA has an extensive line and this year a whole bunch of new guns makes for a good looking year for this smart and affordable line of guns from CZ. The 712 shotgun is adjustable for length of pull. There is a new 1911 for concealed carry, the P07 comes with a threaded barrel, and in forest green. The 455 line of rimfires and a whole bunch of competition designs.

One of the most common questions I get is “What’s a good value-priced riflescope?” Well, that depends on your budget. If your budget is a few hundred dollars, then I don’t see anything wrong with one of Leupold’s VX-I scopes. Add a couple hundred bucks more to your budget, and the VX-II line is a step up without breaking the bank. This year though, Leupold is replacing those lines with improved VX-1 and VX-2 lines, respectively. Typically a manufacturer uses a change like this to implement a price increase, but Leupold’s Pat Mundy says the company was able to “hold the line on price,” and that’s good news for the consumer.

My first experience with any sort of red dot or reflex sight was many SHOT Shows ago when C-More sight owner, Ira Kay, explained how to use one properly. He demonstrated how keeping both eyes open when using the “heads up” screen on the C-More eliminated the perception of looking through a tube, which is exactly what you got with some of the cylindrical sights of that time. He also showed how with both eyes open, you could get the lens front covered with mud, blood or even broken, and still see the dot to aim. I was very impressed, and have owned several dot sights since. For close- to medium-range shooting where hitting the target quickly is the goal, you simply can’t beat a dot.

For 2012, Nosler added a new line of lower priced bullets and ammunition for high-volume varmint shooters called “Varmageddon.” They’re available as component bullets in .172″, .204″, .224″ and .243″ diameters, and loaded in .17 Rem., .204 Ruger, .221 Fireball, .222 Rem., .223 Rem., .22-250 and .243 Win. ammunition. The new bullets are quite a step up in quality from cheap bulk and rather different from Ballistic Tip Varmint bullets. For one thing, a quick scan through Internet suppliers shows that Varmageddon bullets cost about 65 percent that of Ballistic Tips for the same count, diameter and weight. I’ve been fortunate enough to get into some prairie dog and ground squirrel towns where the number of shots I took was only limited by how much ammunition I brought. In towns like those, the cost of ammunition can really add up. It’s tempting to try and shoot a town like that with cheap bulk bullets or “seconds,” but in my experience, doing so simply results in more misses and thus firing more shots, so it’s really a false economy. It’s a good thing that a manufacturer known for excellent bullets to begin with, can also make excellent affordable bullets.

A brand spanking new .22 Rimfire is a rite of passage for many American kids and getting the right .22 is perhaps the most important decision a parent can make. Of all the variables a parent has to consider, safety is probably at the top of their list. Parents need to think about safe places to shoot, eye and ear protection, how to safely store the gun and more. One thing they shouldn’t have to consider is having a gun that is safe, and safe to shoot—those ought to just be givens.

When we get our kids their first gun, it’s natural to want to get them something like what we had as kids, and a popular feature of “boys” guns “back in the day” was a cocking knob. It seems simple and safe enough to open a bolt, chamber a round, and pull back the cocking piece to shoot. I’ve even heard many parents insist on that type of action because they can easily see if the gun is cocked or not. They see the cocking knob as a safety feature. Well, I’m not so sure about that anymore after seeing the new Savage Rascal at Media Day. Its action is specifically made without a cocking knob—for safety reasons!

Browning’s Auto-5 is a no less an iconic firearm than Winchester’s Model 70 or Colt’s Single Action Army. The beloved “humpback” was in almost continuous production from 1903 to 1999, and has been manufactured in variations by Fabrique Nationale, Remington, Savage, SKB, Miroku and almost certainly by other, smaller companies. On November 26, 1997, Browning announced that the Auto-5 would be discontinued, and the “last” of them were shipped out in February 1998. Then, in 1999, Browning manufactured a limited edition of 1,000 “A-5 Final Tribute” guns, sold them out in 2000, and so ended a legacy.