by Tim Chandler “You’re not a S.E.A.L. ‘till you have eaten Italian steel…” Anonymous Thus begins the sordid tale of the M9 that is oft repeated in gun shops and firearms related web-boards the nation over. Anyone who asks questions about the Beretta M9/92 pistol long enough will inevitably hear about how a bunch of S.E.A.L. team members were killed/maimed/deformed …

by David Crane defrev (at) gmail (dot) com November 6, 2003 Last updated on 10/11/11. The 1911 pistol that Kimber is currently supplying to U.S. Marine Corps (USMC) MARSOC/Special Operations Command Detachment 1 operators, according to reports, differs from the Kimber Custom TLE/RL II in several key respects (The following information is, as yet, unconfirmed/unverified): 1) It utilizes Kimber's Series …

by Tim Chandler So you have the perfect AR15 with a properly tweaked extractor and equipment setup… And you have the perfectly reliable handgun on your hip for daily concealed carry… But do you really know how to use either of those tools well enough to save your life? Unfortunately, the answer to this question for many out there is …

by David Crane The Beretta CX4 "Storm" carbine is a pistol caliber carbine that will eventually come in 9mm, .40 S&W, and .45 ACP. Right now, it only comes in 9mm Parabellum. The CX4 Storm carbine is a a modular design. Both upper and lower receivers are primarily made of polymer. The main selling point of the Beretta CX4 Storm …

Kimber’s Custom Shop has just come out with their Tactical Custom II, Tactical Pro II, and Tactical Ultra II 1911’s. The new guns are geared specifically for the CCW (Concealed Carry) crowd. If the guns function as well as they look, Kimber’s got some winners on their hands–’cause the new guns look GOOD. Since they’re geared for the CCW crowd, …

by David Crane david@defensereview.com This company has just come across DefRev’s radar. Troy Industries, Inc. appears to be a specialized small arms manufacturer with a specific focus on Special Operations applications and the CQB (Close Quarters Battle) role. According to the company, the Rock SOPMOD (Special Operations Peculiar Modification) M14 Commando Carbine has been designed under contract for the Naval …

by David Crane david@defensereview.com A little over a year ago, I wrote a story on the Arms Tech Recon Rifle. Well, in early November 2002, I got to shoot Arm’s Tech’s Compak-16 select-fire subcarbine/SBR (Short-Barreled Rifle), which is basically a shortened version of the Recon Rifle. I actually had a lot of fun shooting ths gun. Ideally, I would have …

Several months ago, in a phone conversation, Alex Robinson, owner of Robinson Armament, told me he was working on a new rifle project for the military. He couldn’t disclose very much at the time, but it certainly sounded very interesting. Well, it now appears that he was talking about the brand new Robinson Armament RAV02 MC (pronounced "RAVE") select-fire rifle/carbine. …

by David Crane david@defensereview.com DefRev (DefenseReview.com for any newbies out there) has known about the RROC Conversion for quite some time–about the last year and a half, long before it even had a name. RROC stands for Reduced Recoil Operation Control system, and it was invented/developed by Bob Davies out of Tempe, Arizona. Bob’s company is called Advanced Device Design …

by David Crane defrev@gmail.com September 03, 2002 Well, the folks at Leitner-Wise Rifle Co., of Alexandria, VA, have certainly been keeping busy over there. They’ve just come out with two new weapon systems speciifically geared for military Spec-Ops and LE tactical use. We’ll start with the Leitner Wise LW15.499 Mini-.50(or .499), a.k.a. Multi-Level Threat Response System (MLTRS). As this is …