CZ-USA: Scorpion Evo in .22LR
The title says it all. MSRP around a grand, no pistol version expected.
Big letdown, honestly, but maybe interesting to some.
RISE ARMAMENT: Watchman XR in 22ARC
Honestly, I didn’t know that Rise Armament made entire guns, I thought they only made triggers. Or maybe this is the first? That’s not really as important as what this new rifle is chambered in: the new 22ARC from Hornady. Most people may look at this and wonder why 22ARC matters when 6mmARC is so close in diameter and already established. I like the 22ARC because it is basically a way to put a 22-250 into an AR-15 size receiver. Hornady really optimized the new 22ARC to shoot heavy projectiles at long distance, like a PRS-style of shooting. The ammo will have 88gr loads available on store shelves that stock it. The gun itself has a lot of cool but not ground-breaking features, and it’s $2,100 price tag indicates that it should be a fine rifle.
TAURUS: .327 TORO
Taurus is introducing a new carry revolver in my personal favorite wheelgun cartridge: .327 Federal magnum. The gun is a 6-shot, small-frame, optics-ready piece with a 3″ barrel, and a spurred hammer. When I think of a super versatile small gun, this is what pops in my mind. There are better options if you want to seriously increase the size o your carry gun, but the combination of size, power, and capacity can’t be beat. Plus, this one is optics ready. MSRP of $554 makes this hard to beat on multiple fronts.
HARRINGTON & RICHARDSON: Clone Correct DOE AR-9
To be completely fair, I don’t know much about Colt-style AR9’s. I do know that that PPC’s should run dual-feed stick mags and that Glock mags look terrible handing out the bottom of a receiver. H&R making clone-correct Colt 9mm SMGs (really PCCs) that use those Colt stick mags makes me happy. The DOE gun specifically is very neat and aesthetic. No idea about a price nor an estimated time of availability.
WRAITHWORKS: WARP-15
The WARP-15 is an all-plastic AR-15. They use the KE-Arms all-polymer lower and mate it to their own creation almost-all-polymer upper. The resulting gun is around 5 pounds total and should have a price tag in the $400-$500 range. The way they can make a polymer upper is by holding the barrel with a trunnion, with the polymer clam-shelled around it. Basically like how a normal AR upper is a bolt locking into the barrel extension and everything else doesn’t experience real stress from firing, this gun works with a similar concept. A bolt, trunnion, and barrel all made of steel contain the real forces of firing and the rest is polymer to reduce weight. The handguard and receiver are injection molded as a single piece. Definitely not going to hold zero on a laser aiming device, but I don’t think this is aimed at NODs users.
Honestly I like this gun. I hope it works well and I hope the company sells a ton of them.
SENEX ARMS: MBLR-15
A bullpup AR. Been done a dozen times already, I know, but this one seems different. It’s not just a conversion lower, or some sort of Bubba’d abomination. Senex looks to have put some serious engineering work into this gun. This gun is actually an AR-18, except modified beyond that. The AR-18 upper and lower receivers have been converted into a single piece bullpup receiver. While bullpupp-ing the AR-18, Senex has allowed the use of lots of common AR parts, like standard barrels, gas blocks & tubes, cam pins, firing pins, gas keys, and other minor parts. Honestly that’s pretty smart on their part. I’m not sure how much use the quick-change barrel and handguard will get by end-users. Lots of companies really thought that would take off but it just never does.
The main thing I think makes this gun worthy of note is that I want to promote more innovation in the firearms industry (part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4). More new stuff, more different things, and this counts for me.
Scattered Shots 