Fenix flashlights is known by first responders for offering duty quality EDC flashlights at a reasonable price. At their booth at Shot Show, they walked me through their new products for 2023. They offered incremental improvements on already solid products. They listened to complaints and critiques from their customers and addressed them which says a lot about the company.
They’ve already sent me a new flashlight to review, so they follow through with their promises and the want to get input on their products.
I’ve used various laser bore sighter devices to help me zero out a new scope but they can be a bit finicky and more than once, the battery died. Xaegis Tactical sent me a an traditional non-electronic bore sighter to test. These optical bore sighters sits on the end of your barrel and provide an alignment grid on visible when looking through your scope.
The kit comes with a 12 different caliber adapters, from .17 cal to .50 cal and a 20 ga-12ga shotgun bore adapter. These adapter arbor stems screw into the optical lens unit and are then fitted into your bore. Looking through your scope, you are presented with a 20×20 grid to help you align the reticle of your scope.
In my testing, using the kit on a Ruger 10/22 firing Aguila Super Extra High Velocity 40gr CPRN, was able to get on paper (30″x36″ paper target) at 100yrds. The impacts were low and to the left of bullseye by 15″-20″. This is not unexpected as target distance, barrel type, and bullet ballistics will alter the impact point from dead center of your bore. But being able to get on paper with my first shot meant I could easily make fine adjustments to zero out the scope.
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At Shot Show 2023’s Industry Range Day I had an opportunity to try Ruger’s new LC Carbine chambered in 5.7x28mm. This cartridge designed for the FN P90 and adopted by NATO and many European police forces. Much in the same way PCCs are hugely popular due to their magazine commonality with 9mm service pistols, Ruger created LCC to serve the same purpose for their Ruger 5.7 pistol.
At the range the LCC was light weight and even lighter to shoot. The 5.7x28mm round was designed a have a soft recoil, but this felt like a shooting .22LR due to the LCC’s design. It was fun to shoot and accurate but I’m not committed enough to invest into the 5.7 ecosystem. If Ruger would make a 9mm version of this rifle, they’d have my attention.
UTG makes a broad range of accessories for the AR-15 including hand guards, selector levers, charging handles, magazines, etc. But for the first time, they’re going to be producing billet milled AR upper and lower receivers. And as far as the ATF is concerned, the only part of the AR that is a “registered firearm” is the lower receiver, so technically UTG is making ARs for the first time.
These upper and lower receiver sets will be 100% made in the USA at their Michigan factory and headquarters. I got a chance to try out an AR almost completely built using UTG parts. The only thing not made by UTG was the BCG, barrel and gas tube, and trigger.
At SHOT Show range day I got a chance to try out the AR which functioned flawlessly. This despite being soaked from the rain blown sideways into the range lanes by 15-30mph wind. The UTG AR and the Integrix LPVO atop it let me easily engage plates 50yrds and 100yrds downrange.
The receiver has lot of useful features and cuts designed for ergonomics. It felt very natural and efficient, though I’m not a 100% fan of the style aesthetics which seem to be a little too Art Nouveaux and Futurist. But it’s not ugly but it’s just not for me. From a purely functional standpoint, if I were to build a new AR, I’d seriously consider using a UTG receiver.
Athlon Optics already had a broad line of rifle scopes from budget (Talos) to high end PRS (Cronus) and Tactical scopes (Ares), and hunter (Midas). So it was surprising to find that they were coming out with a whole new line called Heras named for the Greek god and wife of Zeus.
The Heras are being called “crossover” scopes because these scopes combine the reticles and glass found in their PRS scopes, hunting features from their Midas, but with a minimum focus distance of 10yrds. This close range usability makes the Heras appealing to precision rimfire, airgun hunters or even airsoft players. The Heras will occupy a mid-tier price point of with an MSRP ranging from $500-$700.
If Variety is the Spice of Life then Palmetto State Armory (PSA) is the 11 Herbs and Spices of US gun makers. PSA used to be known as a maker and retailer of budget AR components from small regional manufacturers but in the last few years has branched out into becoming its own legitimate gun brand. This year they’re debuting their new Sabre line of budget premium build ARs.
The Sabre ARs come factory pre-installed with upgrade components like Ambi selector switches, 3.5lb duty trigger, Ambi charging handle, and a tuned barrel nut that allows for an extremely low profile hand guard without the usual bolt tabs. It’s everything most custom build AR makers would drop into their ARs but the whole rifle is planned to have a street price under $1000!
PSA is releasing a half-dozen different variants. If that wasn’t impressive enough, this same year they’re also releasing a similar number of new AK rifles under their Soviet Arms brand. These are clones of historic and current model ComBlock AKs including clones of Chinese and Soviet Era rifles. They’re also releasing historical clones of the M16A1 and the Stg44. It’s going to be a busy year for PSA.
The first thing most experienced shooters remark on the Arken EPL-5 and SH-4, apart from the low price, is the weight. For all the features you get in a sub $600 scope, the one thing you don’t want more of is weight. Compared to a similar magnification Vortex, Athlon, or higher end scope, Arkens are heavier. This isn’t much of an issue for benchrest or even NRL or PRS shooters but it certainly was a deal breaker for most hunters.
Arken listened to the feedback and came up with a new line of scopes with an “L” in their name for “light weight”. The new 6-24×50 EPL-4 shaves off 16oz of weight compared to a 5-25×56 ELP-5. That weight savings comes with a trade off a smaller range of adjustment due to its smaller objective lens and tube. But along with its capped windage turret, this 1-pound weight saving should make this new scope attractive to back-country hunters and most competition shooters alike.
I look forward to testing the EPL-4 later this year.
KelTec is the Mad Genius of the firearms world, creating a range of innovative and unique gun designs like my folding 9mm Sub-2000 carbine. At last year’s SHOT, they showed me a prototype of a Carbine Kit for their P50 5.7 pistol. Perhaps for regulatory or other reasons, they chose not to release that kit. Instead developed a fully assembled R50 rifle variant of the P50 pistol.
For all intents and purposes this appears identical to the Carbine Kit conversion of the P50 they showed me last year. Its obvious they planned to create one from the start because all P50s come with a cut-out in the lower hand guard for their folding stock. Due to recent DOJ policy changes regarding pistol braces, some features and variants will no longer be available for this rifle.
The KelTec website states they expect a Q3 product release. I would take that with a grain of salt considering they had planned to release the Carbine Kit last year. Regardless, us oppressed captives of the State of California may never see the P50 until KelTec releases a non-folding CA complaint model.
At SHOT Show, Athlon debuted the Generation 2 update to their top-tier Cronus spotting scope. This new model features updated glass 1mm larger than its predecessor. But its major improvement is in its large focus ring which wraps around the scope’s tube. Athlon updated the internal gearing to provide more precise fine focus resolution while its large diameter allows for fast course changes in focus.
At Shot Show 2023’s Industry Range Day, there was a long line at the Ruger tent which ended up being mostly to try Marlin’s new lever action rifles. But on the less crowded side of the tent was what looked like their ARs. But it wasn’t, it was the new SFAR. You could be forgiven for mistaking it for yet another 5.56 AR, but the SFAR (Small Frame Auto-Loading Rifle) is chambered in .308.
Compared to other .308 AR10’s I had shot that day, the SFAR had the a smaller physical footprint. And more amazingly weighed as much as a typical 5.56mm AR. Perhaps it was the can they had had on it but the rifle had a softer felt recoil. Not unlike shooting a AR PCC. I was delighted and surprised.
I am not sure what sorcery Ruger used to shrink down an AR10’s components but it seemed to work. I understand that the guys at TFB had issues with their SFAR cycling reliably. My demo rifle functioned flawlessly as it did for the half-dozen other shooters ahead of me in line. If I was in the market for an AR10, I’d consider this one.
