By Jeff Gurwitch It’s been 8 years since my last Competition to Combat article, written back in 2018. It was the last year of use for both the Daniel Defense 10.3 CQBR upper and the 14.5 RISII non-front sight post upper. Beginning in 2019, U.S. Special Forces started to switch over to the Giessele URGI upper with mid-length gas system …

by David Crane david (at) defensereview (dot) com October 26, 2022 DefenseReview’s (DR) published a lot of information about Vortex Optics combat optics and scopes AND fire control systems/smart scopes in general (see “Related Articles” below for both). However, to date, we haven’t done a piece on the US Army’s new smart scope, the Vortex Optics XM-157 Next Generation Squad …

By Jeff Gurwitch February 20, 2022 Last updated on 2/24/22. Offset-mounted red dots are obviously nothing new. I’ve utilized a mini red dot sight in a 45-degree offset mount on my duty rifle since 2012, during all three of my Afghanistan combat tours (See Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 and Part 4). Born out of the competitive shooting world, …

by David Crane david (at) defensereview (dot) com January 14, 2022 DefenseReview’s (DR) been covering Vortex Optics combat optics for quite some time now (see the “Related Articles” section below), because, well, they rock…and they frankly just keep getting better, and cooler. Well, the mad optical scientists at Vortex Optics have just unveiled the new Vortex Razor HD Gen III …

By David Crane Image(s) Credit: Cobalt Kinetics July 31, 2021 Cobalt Kinetics, a company whose products DefenseReview (DR) covered quite a bit a few years ago, is relaunching and updating their BAMF-Pro series of competition/tactical carbines and pistols, and recently issued a press release to that effect, which reads as follows: Cobalt Kinetics® is BACK and BETTER than ever! July …

By David Crane david (at) defensereview (dot) com March 15, 2021 DefenseReview (DR) wrier/contributor and chief new-product tester Jeff Gurwitch has launched his very own YouTube channel called “Modern Tactical Shooting” or “MTS“, which is the same name as his technical and tactical shooting training company. It should be noted that Gurwitch is both a retired U.S. Army Special Forces …

By David Crane david (at) defensereview (dot) com May 12, 2020 A small company called Valhalla Tactical has developed a very interesting minimal-offset rifle mount for mini red dot sight combat optics, called the “Rukh“, and they were kind enough to show the prototype for it to DefenseReview (DR) at SHOT Show 2020. What’s interesting about the Rukh is it’s …

By Jeff Gurwitch October 29, 2019 Last updated on 10/29/19. In this episode, I sit down with Mike Keenan (retired Navy pilot), who served with me in Afghanistan, to go over the M4A1-type work-gun clone he built in virtually the exact configuration of the customized/modified M4A1 carbine he carried on the ground while supporting SF (Special Forces) operations down range. …

By Jeff Gurwitch October 2, 2019 Retired U.S. Army Special Forces soldier Jeff Gurwitch, discusses his M4A1-type SOPMOD Block II combat/tactical AR-15 carbine clone, a copy of the carbine he used during his last combat tour in Afghanistan. The video includes everything, from the accessories he chose and how he employed them in combat, to the benefits of running a …

By Jeff Gurwitch September 12, 2019 Last updated on 9/12/19. In DefenseReview’s (DR) “The Build” Episode 1: “Franken Race Rifle”, retired Special Forces Soldier and DR writer/contributor Jeff Gurwitch, discusses building a competition-ready AR-15, as well as the benefits of hydraulic buffers and the FERFRANS Delayed Sear Activation System (DSAS)/Rate Reduction System (RRS) bolt carrier group (BCG) in semi-auto and …