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Our Factory Certified Pre-Owned SIG P226R 40 S&W, $725, came from South Carolina Gun Company. This was a police service pistol that has been refurbished. The pistol was delivered in a red cardboard box to distinguish it as a factory refurbished item. Still, the pistol appeared as new. The fit, finish, and quality control on the SIG left little more to be desired. Savings were $225 compared to the common $950 counter price of a new P226 with a rail and regular sights. Like two other test pistols, this one featured a rail, thus the "R" designation in the model number (which has been dropped from currently manufactured guns).

Based on correspondence with readers over the years, I've been told repeatedly that when a firearm comes up with a B or lower grade, it really doesn't matter what the grade is. The winning gun sets the pace for the test, so readers usually say, "Why would I buy what Gun Tests says is a second-ranked gun?" That logic is hard to refute. So, when you're at the gun counter and are trying to find a rifle, shotgun, or handgun you might like, it's helpful to know what to buy, of course. But sometimes a well-meaning retailer will offer a second choice if the store doesn't have your A-ranked model. That's when a periodic reminder of which firearms were "Not Our Picks" might come in handy.

After many years of teaching the shotgun and carbine, our rater elected to add this AR stock to his personal long-serving 870 to provide a common feel between rifle and shotgun and also for ease of carry in the truck. So, we are rating both the shotgun's application and the parts. The parts are not plastic, but instead are made of high-impact polymer and have a solid feel. We fitted an inexpensive NC3 light for evaluation. The stock is solid, and without rattles, and is easily adjusted. Being able to shorten it does help when storing the Remington in the home or when using it as a truck gun. We really like that the vented recoil pad is something you do not need with the M4 rifle, but which you do need with the hard-kicking 12 gauge. We liked the parts, and if we were rating the shotgun parts alone, they would get an A. These parts added a half pound to the base Remington 870 Riot gun, making it the heaviest in the test. As might be expected, it also kicked the least, and felt recoil was mitigated by the vented recoil pad.

Patterning performance was a slight disappointment, with a 59-41 pattern using the clay target load and a 62-38 pattern with the steel shot. There was one 3-inch hole in the upper right quadrant of the lead shot pattern and eight hits outside the 20-inch center circle — mainly to the right. Not quite as tight as the Browning, but not considered a deal killer. Just like the Winchester and Browning, the Mossberg features a red fiber optic bar that is quite easy to see and allows for easy barrel alignment on targets. We noted that the checkering on the Mossberg's forearm and stock was a little less sharp than we would have liked and did not have the comfortable feel of the Dura-Touch coating on the Winchester and Browning. It was about the same as the Beretta, although we did not think it severely hindered our handling of the shotgun or our target acquisition.

Our testing procedure was to shoot, swap barrels, shoot, and swap barrels again. We were able to get good accuracy out of these rifles, perhaps as good as rifles that are not takedown models. The DRD and Windham came in Plano hard cases, the Ruger came in a soft case. For regular transport, we acquired a VooDoo Tactical Discreet Level III Assault Pack, which is a discreet looking knapsack-size pack (17 by 8 by 3 inches) you would carry gym clothes in. The Ruger carry case is slightly larger (22.5 by 7 by 7.5 inches) and has Modular Lightweight Load-carrying Equipment (MOLLE, pronounced Molly) straps, definitely making it look more tactical and less discreet. Also, a removable patch with the Ruger logo is on the bag. The padding in both knapsacks hides any outlines the rifle might make. The main section of the VooDoo pack holds the complete lower assembly with an optic mounted and the barrel assembly. The second compartment holds the handguard. Two smaller outside pockets could hold a total of six 30-round magazines. The Ruger knapsack has three pockets, one of which holds the lower, while the other two pockets hold the upper/rail in one pocket and the barrel in the other.

The FN, Glock, and S&W all came from the factory with a cover plate attached to the top of the slide just forward of the rear sight. A hex wrench was used to remove the plate and replace it with a mounting plate the corresponded to a specific model and brand of reflex sight. All three manufacturers include the tools to mount the sights, and as we found out, some provided more mounting options than others. All the hardware types mount the sight slightly differently, as we will explain. Mounting the sight allows the user to also keep the iron sights mounted on the slide, and the FN and S&W featured taller iron sights that cowitnessed with the red dot. The Glock's sights were standard size and could not be used when a red dot was attached, so if the shooter wanted to co-witness (shoot to the same point of impact) iron sights with the red dot, he would have to install taller Glock sights like those used with a suppressor, which would appear in the reflex sight window. Mounting the optics was straight forward.

But any time Donald J. Trump's name gets mentioned, folks tend to get agitated for him, or about him, or against him. I'm merely making sure that my readers know what the putative Republican presidential nominee has to say about firearms because it might get overlooked otherwise. Straight from his website, here are the major points of Trump's recently released gun-policy ideas headlined "Defend The Rights of Law-Abiding Gun Owners."

Perfect gun hygiene isn't really that hard: Don't put guns and ammunition where kids can get at them. I took the additional step that, when I was handling firearms in my home office (measurements, photos, and the like), I didn't have any ammunition for those firearms on site. Could the 15-year-old version of Darling Daughter have bought 45 ACP at school and brought it home? Yeah. Very unlikely. And the guns were in a safe if I wasn't home. So, there were better chances of being hit by a smoking meteor of death than her getting in my guns. Now, she's the skeet coordinator for the National Skeet Shooting Association in San Antonio. Must be a coincidence. Number-One Son has a creative side business he calls Young Guns Media, and he's acquiring quite the collection of firearms as his budget allows. He's obviously traumatized by growing up around guns all the danged time.

At the range, we used three loads. The Black Hills Ammunition 200-grain lead semi-wadcutter bullet was our training and practice load. Next, the Hornady American Gunner 185-grain XTP represented a lightweight-bullet defense load, and the Winchester M1911 230-grain jacketed hollowpoint stood in as a heavy defense load. These are affordable 45 ACP choices likely to be used by shooters. We expected that heavy bullets with a long bearing surface would demonstrate good accuracy, but in this case, the lightest bullet weight gave the best accuracy. Also, our shooters noted the heavier push of the 230-grain load.

The high-capacity 9mmhandgun continues to be apopular personal-defensechoice, for good reason.Many of the fi nest handguns in theworld are chambered for the 9mmLuger cartridge and nothing else. Ina handgun of 30 ounces or so, loadedrecoil is light to manageable. Practicalaccuracy may be outstanding. Amagazine capacity of 15 rounds ormore is reassuring and gives a goodreserve of ammunition. With theseconsiderations in mind, we testedtwo modern economy-grade 9mmhandguns whose performance wasacceptable, especially consideringthe price, though our shooters foundwe liked one pistol better.

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