Rifles

ROCHESTER, NY – American Tactical Imports has added the GSG Kalashnikov to its firearm list.

Today's semi-automatic rifle is more accurate and easier to care for than ever before. They're also a lot of fun. The most popular platform continues to be the AR-15, but not everyone is satisfied with chambering 22-caliber ammunition. The fact is that a number of calibers are coming (and going) in an attempt to increase stopping power. In this test we will evaluate four semi-automatic rifles chambered for 308 Winchester. The increase in power is significant, and 308 is a time-tested widely available cartridge. Our test rifles were the $2095 DSA SA58 21-inch Bull Barrel, the $1821 FNH USA FNAR, the $2363 Springfield Armory M1A Loaded, and the $1969 Fulton Armory UPR rifle, an AR-style gun is based on Fulton's Titan II lineup. Each one of our rifles, with the exception of the FNAR, was available with options from a menu of upgrades, so we took advantage of this when we could. The FN rifle does come with modular components to help suit the needs of different shooters.

To test our rifles we visited American Shooting Centers in Houston (www.amShootCenters.com). Our first shots from each rifle were to sight in a Nightforce 5.5-22x50mm NXS scope (www.NightforceOptics.com). We chose the Nightforce scope because of its clarity and versatility. It had a mil-dot reticle with see-through mil-dots plus illumination on demand. Pulling outward on the left-side focus supplied an ideal level of illumination. The reticle remained sharply defined at all times.

Because we would be flipping this one scope from rifle to rifle, we needed a system that offered quick, strong, and precise re-mounting. We could have gone with a quick-release unit, but instead we chose Nightforce rings that attached to the base via a half-inch hex nut. We used a 65-inch-pound Seekonk calibrated torque wrench with T-handle ($98, from www.Brownells.com) to make sure the unit was properly locked into place each time. The repeatable zero of the Nightforce scope made sighting in a simple mechanical chore. Suggested retail prices for the rings and scope were $160 and $1700, respectively.

Once we were sighted in, we recorded five-shot groups from the 100-yard line. Support was provided by Caldwell's new 7 rifle rest ($50, from www.Battenfieldtechnologies.com). This unit was a light skeletal structure that supported the rifle beneath the buttstock and the fore-end. The 7 design left plenty of room for the shooter to assume a natural shooting position with the benefit of additional mechanical support. We also fired with a Caldwell Rock Jr. beneath the fore-end with a beanie bag squeezed beneath the buttstock.

Each of our guns was designed as a battle rifle with available high-capacity magazines, so we didn't always take time to let the guns cool between groups. But we did take note of any difference in performance due to barrel temperature. American Shooting Centers offers target boards set out as far as 600 yards. But long-range shooters must first qualify at the 300-yard line. We decided that we'd pick the best ammunition for each rifle and try shooting them from the 300-yard line prone with bipod attached. With our Nightforce scope turned up to 22X, using a spotting scope proved unnecessary.

Our test ammunition consisted of 168-grain Federal Gold Medal Match boattail hollowpoints and two boattail hollowpoints from Black Hills Ammunition weighing 168 grains and 175 grains, respectively. Over our test period we suffered through heavy winds, which we monitored with a Kestral 4000 Weather Station ($255 from sinclairintl.com). Testing for function, accuracy and versatility from four different platforms, here is what we learned.

The problem of reliably driving one bullet into the center of a target at long range has plagued riflemen ever since the first rifled arm was created. In the quest for this holy grail, thousands of shooters have fired millions of groups over the years, and from time to time these groups have achieved incredibility. Still, after generations of riflemen, the problem is still with us.A group of products, generically called tactical rifles in their use by law enforcement and military sharpshooters, purports to solve this problem. Instead of tactical rifle, we prefer the moniker “precision rifle,” for such a firearm is built to put one or two shots—precisely—into a very small target at very long range. These precision tools are generally heavy-barreled scope-sighted bolt-action rifles with synthetic stocks, which themselves have adjustments for length of pull, buttpad position, and comb height. The rifle typically will have an optional bipod, adjustable target-type sling swivels, and whatever else the shooter thinks will aid his task.

Easily the best-looking of the trio, the Imbel-receivered FAL looked thoroughly professional with its even, matte-black finish, The first Brazilian FALs were made under contract by FN, but Brazil initiated production on its own, and our test rifle was made in its entirety in Brazil.

The markings on the receiver indicated the maker was Fbrica de Itajub, the government-owned company that is part of the government-owned IMBEL arms complex. The IMBEL logo and name also appeared on the upper receiver.

GunReports.com has compiled the largest collection of rifle data and prices on the web. Updated daily. Bookmark this page for quick and easy reference to pricing, reviews, and accessory links.

Wilson’s new Quad Rail offers a more comfortable handhold on the fore end while maintaining four rails for accessories.

The NRA Competitions Division recently announced four bits of news important to shooters:

The AR-10 has led an interesting and strange life since its birth in the 1950s. It has never achieved the popularity of the AR-15, even though it was Eugene Stoner's first rifle built on his gas-impingement system. Initially spurned by the U.S. Army for the legendary M-14, the AR-10 was banished to relative exile, occasionally appearing in the hands for small foreign militaries, or in a few cases, the revolutionary. Raul and Fidel Castro were said to have ended up with a few of them, courtesy of a captured Batista government arms shipment. Today we find the AR-10 finally emerging from its diminutive brother's shadow. The shooting community's renewed love affair with all things AR has led to a demand for heavier calibers like the AR-10's 308 Win./7.62 NATO. In fact, one of our test guns, the Mossy Oak-covered Remington R-25 ($1,532), was introduced specifically with the hunter in mind. The other guns in our test are the ArmaLite AR-10T ($2,124), a match-barreled Target model with a 1-MOA guarantee, and the Fulton Armory Titan FAR-308 ($2,058), a gun with a distinct tactical look. The gun consumer's embrace of new shooting technology has forever blurred the distinction between tactical and practical shooting. Whether on a rooftop watching a perpetrator, eyeing a bull's-eye on the shooting line, or a big buck from a deer stand, all have the same basic requirement: the bullet should hit where it's aimed, and stop the target.

As the 270 Winchester nears its 80thbirthday, one fact demonstrates its widespread popularity: more than 50 factory loads are available for it—a long-standing record for a non-military cartridge. The Winchester 270 has long been standardized with 1:10 twist-rate barrels, and popular loadings usually utilize 130- to 150-grain projectiles. In this narrow and well-known load range, the 270 Winchester functions with excellence and utility.

Of course, how well the cartridge performs depends on the quality of the gun shooting it, so we went in the search for the best 270 bolt actions, turning to three of the most recognized names in bolt-action rifles today: Browning, with its new X-Bolt centerfire, the revitalized Accu-trigger Savage long action, and Remington's latest version of its long-running 700 series. Our specific test items were:

Browning X-Bolt Medallion No. 035200224, $959; Remington 700 CDL No. 84080, $931; and Savage's 114 Classic, $826.

According to a search of our website, gun-tests.com, we have never tested air rifles. Then again, weve never seen the cost of ammunition rise the way it has in the past year. Air rifles are commonly used in competition and as a training device for young shooters, and also for killing small game and pest control where firearms would overpenetrate. So we thought it might be worthwhile to try some air rifles to see if they were an economical vehicle for sharpening our skills. In this test we evaluated four single-shot pump-action air rifles. They were the $319 Gamo Whisper Deluxe No. 611006754, the $325 Walther Falcon Hunter No. 225226, and two Spanish-made rifles by Norica, the $220 Dream Rider and the $290 Marvic Gold.These rifles are new imports available to retailers through Camfour, Incorporated (camfour.com). Both the Walther and the Norica Dream Rider were 22-caliber rifles. Our Norica Marvic Gold fired 25-caliber pellets, and our Gamo rifle shot the popular .177-inch-wide pellet.With little precedence for test procedure we went about making a list of what we would be looking for and how we would judge each product. Reliability is always our first concern. Even a weapon that fires five shots into one hole and then quits running is going to get a failing grade. Next to reliability was ease of operation. Specifically, would working the pump be so tiring that shooting wouldnt be fun anymore? We also wanted to know if the sights on these rifles were reliable and easy to adjust. Would mounting a scope be worthwhile, and how secure was scope placement likely to be atop the smallish rails? Would the triggers prove to be precise or fatiguing? Could these guns actually supply us with valuable practice time?When it came to setting up accuracy tests we had to determine what distance we should shoot them at. Olympic air rifle distance is 10 meters or, about 33 feet. But given the fact that these rifles were shipped with scopes ranging in magnification from 3X to 9X, we concluded that none of our rifles were designed for that distance. We also considered that the lead text for the Whisper Series rifles on the gamousa.com website reads, "This New Models, [sic] will change the way you think about hunting with airguns." In preliminary tests we had fired standing from 36 feet and using only the open sights each of the rifles seemed capable of near perfect accuracy. To determine which rifle or rifles were superior, we would have to fire from a greater distance.Through research we learned that in England organized competitions for air rifles such as those ruled by the UK Association of Rimfire Benchrest Shooting specify targets set at 25 meters. We decided to collect data by firing from a distance of 25 yards with scopes in place utilizing a setup for rifle weve used many times. This meant a Ransom rifle rest beneath the fore end and a Protektor rear bag underneath the stock. In this manner we collected data for our accuracy chart. To satisfy our curiosity about the efficiency of the open sights on each rifle, we removed the scopes and fired a single six-shot group from the bench. From this pattern we calculated an average five shot group size. Would this test prove too severe? Lets pump up the action and see what we learned.

According to a search of our website, gun-tests.com, we have never tested air rifles. Then again, weve never seen the cost of ammunition rise the way it has in the past year. Air rifles are commonly used in competition and as a training device for young shooters, and also for killing small game and pest control where firearms would overpenetrate. So we thought it might be worthwhile to try some air rifles to see if they were an economical vehicle for sharpening our skills. In this test we evaluated four single-shot pump-action air rifles. They were the $319 Gamo Whisper Deluxe No. 611006754, the $325 Walther Falcon Hunter No. 225226, and two Spanish-made rifles by Norica, the $220 Dream Rider and the $290 Marvic Gold.These rifles are new imports available to retailers through Camfour, Incorporated (camfour.com). Both the Walther and the Norica Dream Rider were 22-caliber rifles. Our Norica Marvic Gold fired 25-caliber pellets, and our Gamo rifle shot the popular .177-inch-wide pellet.With little precedence for test procedure we went about making a list of what we would be looking for and how we would judge each product. Reliability is always our first concern. Even a weapon that fires five shots into one hole and then quits running is going to get a failing grade. Next to reliability was ease of operation. Specifically, would working the pump be so tiring that shooting wouldnt be fun anymore? We also wanted to know if the sights on these rifles were reliable and easy to adjust. Would mounting a scope be worthwhile, and how secure was scope placement likely to be atop the smallish rails? Would the triggers prove to be precise or fatiguing? Could these guns actually supply us with valuable practice time?When it came to setting up accuracy tests we had to determine what distance we should shoot them at. Olympic air rifle distance is 10 meters or, about 33 feet. But given the fact that these rifles were shipped with scopes ranging in magnification from 3X to 9X, we concluded that none of our rifles were designed for that distance. We also considered that the lead text for the Whisper Series rifles on the gamousa.com website reads, "This New Models, [sic] will change the way you think about hunting with airguns." In preliminary tests we had fired standing from 36 feet and using only the open sights each of the rifles seemed capable of near perfect accuracy. To determine which rifle or rifles were superior, we would have to fire from a greater distance.Through research we learned that in England organized competitions for air rifles such as those ruled by the UK Association of Rimfire Benchrest Shooting specify targets set at 25 meters. We decided to collect data by firing from a distance of 25 yards with scopes in place utilizing a setup for rifle weve used many times. This meant a Ransom rifle rest beneath the fore end and a Protektor rear bag underneath the stock. In this manner we collected data for our accuracy chart. To satisfy our curiosity about the efficiency of the open sights on each rifle, we removed the scopes and fired a single six-shot group from the bench. From this pattern we calculated an average five shot group size. Would this test prove too severe? Lets pump up the action and see what we learned.

Shooters who have considered purchasing a semiautomatic rifle chambered for .308 (7.62 NATO) likely balk at the question of which rifle they should buy, bypassing completely the question of whether to buy such a gun. Unquestionably, self-loading .308s are coveted by nearly everybody, mainly because they can do so much. They can compete, they can plink, they can hunt, and, of course, they’re made for self-defense, should such a situation arise. Though there are many options if you care to search them out, there are basically three readily available rifle types in .308. They are the FAL, the M1A (M14 clone), and the HK-91. The L1A1 FAL, equipped as we’ve described it below, is a very good alternative to the M1A Springfield, and may be less costly.