Despite the similar name and subject matter, this new title is completely separate from the 1994 book Misfire: The Story of How America’s Small Arms Have Failed Our Military, by William Hallahan.

With that noted and out of the way, let’s look at the 2019 title by authors Bob Orkand and Lyman Duryea. Col. Duryea and Lt. Col. Orkand are both retired U.S. Army Infantry members, and both served in Vietnam during the early years.

Initially, I found this book somewhat difficult to read due to it jumping around in time too much. The first chapter begins by describing a January 1961 snowstorm in Washington, D.C. This leads into the inaugural ceremonies for President John F. Kennedy. In fact, I actually started reading it and then put it aside for later. Once I got past the first chapter, it generally went better.

Duryea and Orkand describe the trial by fire of the M16 rifle in the early days of the Vietnam War. It may be difficult to imagine now, nearly 60 years later and in service with over 80 nations, but the early versions of the rifle had serious issues.

As the book explains, there was a chain of events that led to many lives lost. This perfect storm of failures could have been avoided if the proper choices had been made.

To sum up, the ArmaLite firm had developed their AR-15 rifle using a specific load that used IMR-4475 (Improved Military Rifle) extruded smokeless powder made by DuPont™. This particular load gave an average velocity of roughly 3,150 fps, enough to penetrate a steel helmet at 300 yards. The Army insisted on a muzzle velocity of 3,250 fps in order to pierce a helmet at 500 yards. (The authors note that the NVA soldiers wore a soft pith helmet, while the Viet Cong seldom wore any headgear at all.) In order to achieve the higher velocity without exceeding the allowable maximum chamber pressure (52,000 psi), the IMR-4475 powder was replaced with a spherical “ball” type powder, WC846. However, while the chamber pressure was not exceeded, the port pressure was. As the bullet moves down the barrel, the pressure behind it begins to decrease as the powder is consumed. This pressure curve is different for each powder. Ball powder WC846 retains more pressure closer to the muzzle, so as the soldier’s bullet passed the gas port (a small hole in the barrel), the gas system was exposed to noticeably greater pressure.

This increase in port pressure caused a dramatic increase in the rate of fire, which in turn led to more parts breakage. Much more importantly, the jump in port pressure led to a surge in Failure to Extract (FTE) malfunctions. With the pressure in the barrel still high, the brass cartridge case was still expanded tightly against the chamber wall. This greatly increased the resistance of the empty case to slide out of the chamber as the extractor claw pulled on the case rim. In addition to the propellant issue, the chambers and barrels were not chrome-plated on the early rifles. In the very humid climate of Vietnam, corrosion soon set in, causing the chamber to become pitted. Perhaps the troops could have prevented such corrosion if they had been made aware of the issue and kept their guns well cleaned. This is the next great failure. The rifles often did not come with a cleaning kit. And, to make matters worse, the soldiers were often told the new wonder-gun did not need cleaning!

The result was huge number of FTEs during firefights, caused by a combination of excess port pressure and pitted and corroded chamber walls, brought on by a lack of training and cleaning kits. Once the rim had torn off the brass case, the only way to get the case out was to push it out with a cleaning rod. And, as noted, there were too few issued. The book refers to documented cases of troops under fire searching for a cleaning rod.

Unfortunately, the powers that be did not wise up to this problem nearly fast enough. The natural tendency of the upper military is to blame the troops on the ground. Duryea and Orkand state: “The first military reaction to poorly functioning weapons is to blame it on inadequate maintenance by the troops. A little bit of professional communication would have revealed that the problem wasn’t with the men. Many commanders looked no further.” And also: “This is a perfect example of senior officers out of touch with the men doing the fighting. The greater the distance from the action, the greater the tendency to discount reports from the field.” This is noted in chapter 5, called, appropriately enough, “CYA—The Name of the Game.”

As I mentioned above, chapter 1 is somewhat tedious to read. Chapter 2 gets into the technical aspects, including a brief mention of studies done in 1929 by the Ballistics Research Laboratory that recommended a smaller diameter round like .25 or .276. Naturally, the Army stayed with a .30-caliber round.

Chapter 3 looks at the early years at ArmaLite and of Eugene Stoner’s work there. It also looks at the Ordnance Department’s stubbornness to consider any outside designs (NIH, or Not Invented Here), and the .223/5.56x45mm round. This aversion to anything new also included the general concept of an assault rifle. The Ordnance Department loved their heavy, semiauto M14, not the light, selective-fire AR-15. Also discussed are Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara and his team of “whiz kids,” young and bright, but with little military experience who tended not to listen to experienced military advisors.

Chapter 4, titled, “The Small Arms Systems Test,” looks at the SAWS test that took place between July and November 1965. Included in the test were the M14, M14E2, XM16E1 and the belt-fed M60 MG. The guns were put through a series of trials, with all potential issues noted. There was a list of 29 possible malfunctions! (Not every gun faced all issues. Number 29 is a partial misfeed from a linked belt and only applies to the M60.) This is where the problems faced by the XM16E2 should have been noted and corrected, if not already dealt with.

Chapter 6, “The Troops Deploy,” starts out a bit dry with a long detailed summary of which units went where in Vietnam. If you were there, you will probably enjoy seeing your unit listed. After several pages, it changes direction to discuss propellant characteristics, specifically IMR-4475 and WC846. Both powders were used in the M193 cartridge. Also mentioned is that the brass used in the cartridge case was not sufficiently hard. This caused the soft brass to flow into the tiny pits in the chambers, further adding to the resistance noted in the explanation above. I was not aware of this prior to reading this book.

Chapter 7 is written by Col. Duryea and describes the death of PFC Joseph Reid. Private Reid was the first soldier to die under Duryea’s command, and his death was directly due to an FTE. This is followed by a series of quotes from various sources, giving opposing opinions on the XM16E1. Several quotes are from the Ichord Subcommittee Report that examined the M16’s problems. In response to growing complaints about the rifle’s reliability, the House Armed Services Committee formed a subcommittee headed by Congressman Richard Ichord (D-MO). This report can be found on the web, if interested.

Chapter 8, “Someone Had Blundered,” continues with the Ichord Report and its findings. Some highlights include noting that the decision to use WC846 powder may have been influenced by the manufacturer Olin Mathieson’s “close relationship” with three Army commands involved with ammunition purchase. The report also states that it was “at least unethical” for Maj. Gen. Nelson Lynde, Jr., the commanding general of the Army Weapons Command, to jump straight to Colt immediately after retiring from the Army.

The book quotes a Small Arms Review article, “The M16 in Vietnam.

Just The Facts!” in Vol. 9, No. 5, February 2006 where Christopher Bartocci states: “The principal and most serious cause of the malfunctions of the AR-15/M16 rifle in Vietnam was the failure to chrome-plate the chamber.” However, Duryea and Orkand note elsewhere that clean new rifles would often have FTE issues with WC846 ammo and not with IMR-4475 ammo. Most likely, it was a perfect storm of pitted, non-chromed chambers firing soft brass ammo loaded with WC846.

Chapter 9 is written by Lt. Col. Orkand. It begins with the touchy subject of the role of media in the war. Orkand says: “It wasn’t the press that ‘lost the war’ in Vietnam for the U.S. The war’s outcome, to the contrary, was a self-inflicted wound resulting from decisions made by our nation’s totally befuddled military and civilian leadership.” The several pages of media issues also include President Lyndon B. Johnson’s “If I’ve lost Cronkite, I’ve lost middle America” comment, after watching CBS news anchor Walter Cronkite’s report in February 1968. The chapter then reverts back to further discussion of the Ichord Report. Orkand notes the tone of the report, with the words “unethical,” “unbelievable” and “borders on criminal negligence” quoted.

Chapter 10 takes a look at the TFX/F-111 aircraft project, of all things. The authors compare the TFX program to the M16 mess to point out McNamara’s faults. The Tactical Fighter Experimental eventually grew into the USAF F-111 Aardvark swing-wing jet. But it started out as a joint Navy and USAF fighter-bomber program. Both services were looking for new aircraft in the early ‘60s. McNamara ordered both services to work together on a joint design. He also felt the Marines and even the Army could make use of a jack-of-all-trades aircraft. In spite of the official selection board recommending the proposal by Boeing, McNamara ignored their choice and chose the General Dynamics design. The USAF also favoured the Boeing design. The Navy didn’t like either design but tried to develop a suitable variant. In 1968, after years of trying, the Navy cancelled its version.

Chapter 11 is a history lesson that deals with “Vietnamization,” the training of the South Vietnamese to fight on their own. It also looks at Code of Conduct issues and discusses corrupt Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) leadership and its effect on morale. A relevant point the authors make is: “No amount of training and equipment can offset corruption, lack of motivation and self-interest.”

Chapter 12, “Author’s Commentary,” Duryea comments on Colt continuing to test its guns with IMR-4475 ammo, while being well aware that the ammo used in Vietnam was WC846. Worse, the Army was also aware of this. For this, Duryea writes: “Colt and Army decision-makers were thus directly complicit in an unknown number of Americans killed in close combat, one of whom was my first KIA as a company commander.”

In summary, this book covers a lot of ground, not just the M16 woes. It looks at corruption in the ARVN, the role of media, the poor decisions made by LBJ, McNamara and Gen. Westmoreland. At times, I found it changing direction within chapters and to be rather repetitive on the propellant issue. It does cover an important period in U.S. military history through the eyes of two men who were there.

Early-Version M16s—A Perfect Storm of Failures
MISFIRE: The Tragic Failure of the M16 in Vietnam
Author: Bob Orkand and Lyman Duryea
Publisher: Stackpole Books
ISBN: 978-0-8117-3796-8
Copyright: 2019
Hardcover: 6.24”x0.87”x9.33”, 251 pages, with Color/B&W photos
MSRP: $29.95 (USD)

The Colt 1911A1 used by Mel Gibson as Lt. Col. Hal Moore.

The Colt 1911 used by Sam Elliot’s character, Sgt. Maj. Basil Plumley.

The Vietnam War is one of America’s most misunderstood conflicts. Unlike in World War II and Korea, where the enemy was often on the other side of a battlefield, the battle lines were almost invisible in the jungles and highlands of Vietnam. The Viet Cong (VC) blended in with the population and waged a brutal insurgency in the country, launching hit-and-run campaigns, bombings and ambushes against both the South Vietnamese and the American Armies. The North Vietnamese Army (NVA) would also cross the border and launch attacks on military bases. The “American War” lasted over 16 years and saw over 58,000 American fatal casualties and cost millions of Vietnamese lives. In the end, with lack of support for the war, the United States withdrew its forces from Vietnam and the capital of South Vietnam, Saigon, fell in April 1975.

Since the war ended, Hollywood has not been kind to the American Armed Forces. While there were some incidents where a few American soldiers did do some horrible things, nothing in comparison to the VC and NVA atrocities, Hollywood usually paints the American military with a broad negative brush in Vietnam-related movies. Compared to how American soldiers are portrayed in World War II movies or any film about an earlier conflict, soldiers in Vietnam movies are often portrayed as monsters. This anti-military attitude can still be seen in the film industry today, though it is not as common as it used to be.

In 2002, a movie broke away from this attitude. “We Were Soldiers” is based on the book We Were Soldiers Once … And Young. It tells the story of the 1965 Battle of Ia Drang Valley, where American soldiers, led by then Lieutenant Colonel Harold G. Moore, first clashed with soldiers from the NVA. The battle lasted 5 days and resulted in almost 500 American casualties (237 KIA) and thousands of North Vietnamese Army casualties (559 KIA). The initial fight was 450 Americans versus almost 4,000 North Vietnamese Army soldiers. The book was written by Harold G. Moore and journalist Joseph L. Galloway, who was on the ground in the fight at Ia Drang.

In the movie Lieutenant Colonel Hal Moore was played by Mel Gibson. His second in command is Sergeant Major Basil L. Plumley, played by Sam Elliott. Hal Moore graduated from West Point and served until 1977, serving in both the Korean and the Vietnam Wars, eventually becoming a Lieutenant General. Sadly, he passed away in 2017. Basil Plumley first joined the Army in 1942 during World War II and saw combat in Operation Overlord (D-Day) and Operation Market Garden. He next saw combat during Vietnam, where he joined the First Battalion, Seventh Cavalry under Hal Moore. He served until 1974, but continued to work for the Army as a civilian. He passed away in 2012.

In the movie, Lieutenant Colonel Moore uses a Colt M1911A1, and Sergeant Major Plumley uses a Colt M1911 pistol. The M1911 was one of the greatest pistols in the history of the United States military, seeing service in World War I, World War II, Korea and of course Vietnam. It also saw service in the militaries of New Zealand, China and many others. It is still in service in a number of countries and some local police agencies in the U.S. It is popular with collectors and gun owners in the U.S. in general. The M1911A1 was “typed” in 1926 and was an upgraded version, with small changes having been made to make it more reliable and easier to shoot—a result of lessons learned from World War I.

 The M1911 shoots .45 ACP ammunition, generally with 230-grain ball projectiles. The ammunition is loaded in a seven-round magazine in the grip of the gun, though soldiers usually had an eighth round in the barrel or “one in the pipe,” as they called it. The gun uses two safety systems, a grip safety and a manual safety. The grip safety requires squeezing the lever on the back of the grip to shoot. The manual safety is next to the hammer on the left side of the pistol. The pistol weighs less than 3 pounds, including ammo.

Other guns used in “We Were Soldiers” include AK-47s used by the NVA, though they are seen using other guns like the SKS and even an MG34 machine gun. The Americans used the M16 rifle (XM16E1 configuration), M60 machine guns and M79 grenade launchers. At one point, helicopters in the film use GE M134 Miniguns. Early in the film, there is a sequence showing French soldiers fighting Viet Minh in 1954 in the same general area as the 1965 battle, called “French Mobile Force 100.” In this sequence, the French carry the MAS-36 rifle, Browning Hi-Power pistols, MAT-49 submachine guns and use Browning M1919A4 machine guns mounted on jeeps. The Viet Minh are seen using SKSs, ZB26s and PPSh-41s as well as PPS-43s.

“We Were Soldiers” is a great movie. It was well-received by critics and audiences alike and is considered one of the better Vietnam War films. The actors do a great job, especially Mel Gibson and Sam Elliott. Madeleine Stowe does an outstanding job as Hal Moore’s wife, Julia Moore. Barry Peppers is good as Joe Galloway, as is Greg Kinnear as Lt. Col. Bruce P. Crandall and Ryan Hurst as Sgt. Ernie Savage. The battle scenes in the movie are compellingly done and can be a bit brutal at times, so perhaps it is not a film to show children. In any case “We Were Soldiers” is a must-see for everyone who loves war movies.

Dan Shea’s Time On Set

I knew that my father (and father of Small Arms Review), Dan Shea, had something to do with this movie and asked him about it.

“I was invited out as Small Arms Review to cover the movie set at Fort Hunter Liggett in California,” he said, “which had terrain and basic vegetation very similar to the II Corps highland area of Vietnam in the Ia (river) Drang valley on the Cambodian border side near Pleiku. My good friend Mike Papac was lead armorer, and I had supplied him with some intel pamphlets from my library—1956 British Viet Minh reports with uniforms, tactics and equipment. Very helpful in the French Mobile Force 100 scene. We also spent a bit of time going over making all the M16s appear to be XM16E1s, which Mike was an absolute stickler for. Anyway, I was out messing around with Mike Dillon and Miniguns—he heard I was headed to the set—and he had four M134 Miniguns to ship to Mike Papac and decided to fly his vintage U.S. Army-painted Huey from Phoenix to Hunter Liggett, via LA. He and his son Chris flew with me as baggage, we stopped in LA and picked up Syd Stembridge and flew the coast of California at 50 feet over the surf, up over the redwoods; it took about 11 hours from Phoenix. Before we got to the Valley of Wind I was sidesaddle at the door and monkey-strapped on the side, and Mike said, “Close the door, no one rides like that.” I said, “Huh, imagine that” and came in. I guess slick jockeys don’t look back at “cargo grunts.” Coming in on the set just after the napalm scenes, with Mike scooting the Huey done up as U.S. ‘Nam-era paint, was something spooky! Anyway, we delivered, spent a couple of days, and here’s the most important thing: wherever I went, I found guys in the right age group, and they were all ‘Nam vets … undercover. They didn’t want anyone to know they were ‘Nam vets and all said, “I’m here to make sure they do this right for a change.” They damn sure did, great movie. Mike Papac’s attention to detail was exemplary, and everyone else doing costume and equipment was on the same page. I was blown away; been on more than a few “‘Nam movie” sets with all the baloney. What amazing detail all of them did on this one!”

Special Note: The movie does not cover the battle at L.Z. Albany that happened after the film’s ending. Here the American soldiers were almost wiped out in an ambush by the NVA. Over 130 soldiers died and 124 were wounded. Because of this, both Americans and Vietnamese claimed to have won the battle.

Knob Creeker Note: For those who knew the late “Big Dan” Robinson, Dan was in Delta company at LZ X-ray.

Special thanks to Mike Papac of Cinema Weaponry!

Smith & Wesson

The Smith & Wesson Corporation is one of the oldest firms in the United States and is still actively in business. Horace Smith and Daniel B. Wesson joined forces in 1852 to develop a repeating firearm. By 1857, the company employed 25 people. During that year, a total of four revolvers were manufactured. The U.S. Smith & Wesson Corporation has long been recognized for producing some of the finest revolvers in the world. Many served the United States and the Allies with distinction during World War I and World War II.

Smith & Wesson (S&W) began the development of their Model N Hand Ejector revolver in 1905. The large frame revolver was originally designed for the .44 Special cartridge. The first model was also known as the “Triple Lock;” the name referring to a third locking lug on the cylinder crane. The third locking mechanism was thought to be necessary due to the increased power of the .44 cartridge.

During World War I, the British Ministry of Munitions contracted with Colt and S&W in 1914 to manufacture revolvers chambered in .455 Webley in order to supplement a shortage of their Webley Mk VI revolvers. Smith & Wesson manufactured approximately 75,000 of its high-quality Second Model, Hand Ejector, double-action revolvers in .455 caliber for Great Britain and Canada. The S&W revolvers were adopted as “substitute standard,” designated as the “Pistol Smith & Wesson .455 with ​6.5-inch barrel Mark I.” The British considered the extra locking lug redundant and requested it be eliminated from the design. Subsequent orders, lacking the third locking lug and ejector shroud, were known as the Mark II. As the U.S. prepared to enter the First World War, there were no additional British contracts, as production shifted to the U.S. to arm a rapidly growing U.S. Army.

In anticipation of America’s eventual involvement in the conflict, the factory increased its efforts to develop a revolver chambered for the standard U.S. service .45 ACP cartridge. The U.S. Army tested a S&W Hand Ejector revolver configured to fire the standard .45-caliber round during 1916–1917. After testing, the revolver was deemed satisfactory for military use; with this endorsement, S&W began tooling up for large-scale manufacture of the U.S. Model 1917 .45-caliber, double-action, six-shot revolver.

Early Production M1917s

Early production of the S&W M1917 revolver featured hammers with fine circular grooves. The Army felt as though the milled grooves would collect dirt and possibly cause malfunctions. As per the Army’s request, subsequent production hammers were smooth. Other features of early production were wooden grips that were dished at the top; these were also eliminated, replaced by full-rounded wood grips. Early revolvers had a round top strap and a rear sight with a small U-shaped notch. Later manufacture, post-WWI civilian production, had a flat top frame with a square-shaped notch for the rear sight. The revolvers were finished in a low-gloss blue, with a color case-hardened trigger and hammer. A 5.5-inch-long, 6-groove barrel had a right-hand twist of one turn in 14.659 inches. A lanyard ring was placed at the bottom of the weapon’s butt. The overall length was 10.79 inches. The S&W revolver was slightly lighter at 2 pounds, 4 ounces than Colt’s 1917 model that weighed 2 pounds, 7 ounces.

The original government contract price for each revolver with two clips was $14.75. The price was later increased to $15.60. Spare barrels were priced at $5.58 each. S&W production ran from October 1917 until January 1919, with approximately 163,635 Model 1917 revolvers manufactured. Serial numbers were placed on the butt, cylinder, underside of the barrel, rear of the yoke and in pencil on the inside of the right wood grip. Along with the serial number, the butt was marked: “U.S. ARMY MODEL 1917.” The top of the barrel was roll-marked “SMITH & WESSON SPRINGFIELD MASS U.S.A. PATENTED DEC. 17, 1901, FEB 6, 1906, SEP 14, 1909.” The left side of the barrel was marked “S&W D.A.45.” The bottom of the barrel was stamped “UNITED STATES PROPERTY.” A provisional inspection mark on early component production was a letter “S,” reported to be the mark of Gilbert H. Stewart. Later production used the eagle’s head with a letter and number code: “S2,” “S3,” etc. The S&W trademark logo, normally stamped on its commercial firearms, was not used on the military contract 1917 revolvers.

Note: The number stamped on the butt of the S&W military M1917 is the weapon’s factory serial number. The factory serial number on the Colt-manufactured U.S. Army Model 1917 is stamped on the frame. A different, non-matching number is stamped on the butt; it is not the serial number but is a government control number.

Each assembled weapon and spare barrel were proof-fired in the presence of an Ordnance inspector, using a special high-pressure cartridge. After successfully passing the test, a proof mark was applied to each weapon by the person performing the test. Each revolver was function-fired with six rounds; three in double-action and three in single-action. Weapons were test-fired for accuracy at a range of 15 yards. A 2,000-round endurance test, using standard-issue ball ammunition, was performed on one revolver from each lot. The Army Inspector of Ordnance (AIO) acceptance stamp was “GHS” of Officer Gilbert H. Stewart on early production; later the “flaming bomb” ordnance or the “eagle head” insignia was used to designate government acceptance.

Holsters & Clips

There were three different leather holsters issued to carry the M1917 revolver. The earliest was the M1909 model designed at the Rock Island Arsenal. During World War II, the M2 holster was introduced which was similar to the M1909 holster, except the butt of the weapon was pointed rearward. The WWII M4 holster was similar but had a closed bottom to keep debris out of the muzzle.

Ammunition was issued on the 3-round half-moon clips. During WWI, a three-pocket canvas pouch was supplied to carry two clips in each pocket for a total of 18 rounds. During the post-War period, a handy six-round “full-moon” clip was designed by a S&W engineer. Although the clips are reusable, they can be difficult to load and unload. To eliminate the need for the clips, the Peters Cartridge Company introduced the .45 Auto Rim, also known as the 11.5x23R, in 1920. The rimmed version of the .45 ACP cartridge allowed the Model 1917 revolver to fire and eject all the spent cases without the clips.

During production of the M1917 revolvers, there were a few labor issues at the S&W factory that resulted in the government organization, the National Operating Company (NOC), taking over management of the S&W plant. After the end of WWI and subsequent production of the revolvers for the military concluded, S&W reassumed management of their factory in 1919. After the military contracts ended, there were a substantial number of unfinished revolvers and parts remaining. After the rebuild contracts were terminated, S&W purchased the parts from the government. During the 1920s, civilian production of the N frame revolvers resumed. The commercial 1917 first appeared as a regular cataloged model in “Catalog D-2,” issued in January 1921.

In 1937, Smith & Wesson sold 25,000 .45-caliber Model 1917 revolvers to Brazil, assembled with new manufactured parts and frames. There was a second Brazilian contract for 12,000 additional revolvers in 1946. Many of the components used to assemble the revolvers for the second contract were left over from World War I production; most of the frames and parts have military inspection markings on them.

John Dillinger

A stolen S&W 1917 revolver was used by infamous outlaw John Dillinger, with the serial number and all military markings carefully ground off. Like many of the weapons used by Dillinger, the revolver is in the custody of the FBI.

In the Movies and Television

The S&W Model 1917 revolvers have been featured in films and video games in the hands of both good guys and villains.

There were two different revolvers used by the hero Indiana Jones in the 1981 Steven Spielberg movie “Raiders of the Lost Ark.” The .45-caliber S&W 1917 used in the movie was not a U.S. military contract revolver, as evidenced by the S&W trademark logo on the left side of the frame, absent on military revolvers. The barrel was shortened down to a length of 4 inches. Interestingly, the serial number of that revolver, 172449, falls in the reported range of Brazil’s second 1946 contract for the Model of 1937, a copy of the M1917 revolver.

The other revolver used in the movie was a British-issued .455-caliber S&W 2nd Model Hand Ejector with a lanyard ring and a barrel shortened to a length of 4 inches. This was reportedly the revolver Indiana Jones used in the famous scene where he is confronted in the Cairo marketplace by a black-robed man with an over-sized scimitar. As the man began displaying his skill with his weapon, Indy, desperately preoccupied with finding his kidnapped love interest Marion, simply draws his revolver and shoots the swordsman.

Left: A World War I soldier with a holstered M1917 revolver and a three-pocket canvas pouch that held two 3-round clips in each pocket for a total of 18 rounds. Right: A U.S. Army Corporal from the 173rd Airborne Brigade armed with a .45-caliber, M1917 revolver on tunnel-rat duty during the Vietnam War.

Brad Pitt’s character, Sergeant Don “Wardaddy” Collier, in the 2014 Hollywood World War II movie “Fury” carried a S&W M1917 revolver as his personal sidearm. His revolver sported a set of plastic “sweetheart” grips with the image of an unidentified female. Other films of note that featured the S&W Model 1917: “The Highwaymen” by actor Kevin Costner’s character Frank Hamer; “Hacksaw Ridge”by characters Tom and Desmond Doss; “All the Kings Men”by actor Mark Ruffalo’s characterDr. Adam Stanton.

There is still quite a collector interest in the old .45-caliber 1917 military revolvers. Enough interest that S&W reintroduced a commercial slightly updated version of the 1917 for their Classic Series, designated as the Model 22. There is also a modern version .45-caliber revolver from S&W in stainless steel, the Model 625.

The newly created Bundeswehr (German Federal Army) received its initial equipment of weapons, vehicles and equipment mainly from U.S. stocks. Among them were M1 Garand rifles, M1 and M2 carbines, Thompson M1A1 submachine guns, BAR and M1919 machine guns, bazookas and much more. With the transfer of 9,572 Federal Border Guard members to the Bundeswehr in July 1956, numerous weapons and equipment of the former Wehrmacht complemented the Bundeswehr inventory.

Since the beginning of the 1950s, the once so-progressive German armament industry has been allowed to get back to developing new weapons. In the meantime, most manufacturers had kept their heads above water with civilian products or entered into cooperation agreements with foreign companies. The first thing to do was to orientate themselves on the market. Many of the early German post-War submachine guns showed little technical progress and were still very similar to their predecessors from the War period.

One of the first companies to get back into military weaponry was the former Thuringian company Erfurter Maschinenfabrik (Erma) at its new West Germany location in Dachau near Munich in Bavaria. In cooperation with the French designer Louis Bonnet de Camillis, a compact weapon in 9x19mm caliber was developed. Its pistol grip also served as a magazine well. Its official designation was MP-56, but unfortunately the exact processes in the background stay in the dark. Anyway, a foreign client financed the development costs and the production of 10 prototypes. Erma did not get more out of it, because the client also owned the rights to the design and sold it to the Mauser company in Oberndorf at the beginning of 1957.

At Mauser, the designer Ludwig Vorgrimler, who recently returned from Spain, reworked the weapon in some detail, but the basic construction remained largely the same. The official designation at Mauser was now MP-57. The weapon resembles a pistol in appearance, is very compact with only 16.8 inches in length and weighs less than 9 pounds with a full magazine. For the sake of simplicity, Erma used the 32-round magazine of the German wartime submachine gun MP 40, although these certainly had their weaknesses in the cartridge feed. Mauser stuck with this decision.

The MP is blowback-operated and fires from a closed bolt. Its simple receiver is cut from tube material, and the grip piece is riveted together from sheet metal parts. The breechblock encloses the barrel with its front half, so that a large part of its mass is located in the center of gravity. This saves on length of the receiver, and the weapon is more pleasant to shoot in fully automatic mode.

The “S” position of the fire selector lever and an additional grip safety, which only releases the bolt when the grip is firmly grasped by the shooter’s hand, serve as safety devices. Erma’s prototypes did not yet have a shoulder stock. A wire stock that could be folded upwards onto the receiver was added. Further, the foldable foregrip got a different shape and was now better adapted to the receiver. The sight is of a very rudimentary design: a fixed rear sight for 100m and an unprotected front sight. According to the test report the rate of fire was 700 rounds per minute (rpm).

In the years 1955 to 1959, extensive testing and comparisons of old and new submachine guns took place at the Bundeswehr test site for weapons and ammunition in Meppen in the Emsland region. The field of participants was international. Beside German manufacturers like Walther and Mauser, there were also competitors like the British Sterling, Swedish Carl Gustaf m/45 or the Italian Franchi LF-57. In the reports the Mauser MP-57 is only described technically, but nothing is known about its performance compared to its competitors. What is certain is that Mauser’s weapon did not make it onto the shortlist. After a total of four prototypes and 25 pilot series, Mauser stopped the production.

After this failure, Vorgrimler and  a technician named Kimmick   went to work again, and by 1960 the new MP60 was available for further trials. It looked clunkier and less pleasing than the MP-57. The foregrip was eliminated, the magazine was inserted into a separate magazine well in front of the grip piece, and the barrel was covered by a perforated jacket. But the new weapon was supposed to arouse the interest of the military with another special feature: It could launch rifle grenades. The distinctive muzzle flash hider served as a guide for the attached grenade. The weapon fires from a closed bolt, and by turning the fire selection lever to position “G” (Grenade), the bolt is locked in its forward position; this way the entire gas pressure of the propellant cartridge acts on the rifle grenade. In position “F” (Feuer) the weapon fired continuous fire. Semiautomatic fire was no longer intended. Mauser had also developed a new 36-round stick magazine especially for this weapon.

In the end, Mauser—just like many other German arms manufacturers—was denied success because the German Armed Forces had long since decided in favour of the Israeli UZI for political reasons. For Mauser, this was the end of their history of  designing and manufacturing submachine guns. The two weapons featured here are part of the collection of the arms museum located in the old Mauser factory called Schwedenbau (Swedish building) in Oberndorf.

Technical Data:                                 MP-57                             MP60
Caliber:                                              9x19mm                         9x19mm
Length (stock extended):              23.2in                              30.2in
Length (stock retracted):              16.8in                              19.9in
Length of barrel:                              10.4in                              9.8in
Weight (empty):                               7.23lb                              6.83lb
Magazine capacity:                         32 rounds                       36 rounds
Rate of fire:                                       700 rounds/min            750 rounds/min

The author would like to thank Mr. Kussmann-Hochhalter from the city archive and museum Oberndorf for his support.

With the proliferation of precision rifles and precision rifle competition, the race to meet market demand has become very competitive. Metal working machinery and processes have increased the depth of quality gunsmiths. Unfortunately, the demand has caused prices to skyrocket, alienating the less fiscally capable rifleman. So where do we go from here? What segment of the market is left for up and coming shooters? What about the beginning competitor who needs more than a factory rifle can offer but not ready to cash out their kids’ college fund? Windsor Armory has an answer for that. They call them Semi-Custom Precision Rifles. They are not alone on this concept, or even the originator, but that hasn’t stopped them from carving out a sizeable portion of the metropolitan Denver precision shooting market.

Small Arms Review’s Christopher Roberts sat down with Eric Croft, Owner of Windsor Armory, to discuss his concept for precision rifles.

Small Arms Review: Who are you?

Eric Croft: Eric Croft, graduated from Fort Collins High School in Fort Collins, CO. Longtime outdoorsman, hunter, hunting guide and avid snowboarder. Served in the Army from 2005–2013 as a sniper and machine gun squad leader with deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan. Worked diplomatic security for Triple Canopy from 2014–2017 and then opened my store Windsor Armory with an emphasis on custom bolt action rifles.

SAR: What’s the size of the company?

EC: Truly small business with only 4 employees, a handful of on-call instructors and a gunsmith that works through us.

SAR: How about the history of Windsor Armory?

EC: Windsor Armory started as a training company called “Croft Tactical” and grew into a store when the demand for our long-range training and equipment began to grow. 

SAR: How did the company start?

EC: The company started as an idea I had on one of the diplomatic security deployments. I wanted to build custom and semi-custom bolt actions rifles for the working man. A lot of full-custom bolt actions start at $5,000 and go way up from there; my goal was to have an available full custom that started around $3,000.

SAR: What is Windsor Armory’s mission?

EC: To bring dependable long-range accuracy, knowledge and strong customer service to all shooters. It doesn’t matter whether they are new to the long-range community or longtime shooting enthusiasts. 

SAR: What do you make? 

EC: We make and design custom bolt action rifles, improve off-the-shelf bolt action rifles, and design and build custom AR-15s and AR-10s. We also specialize in older firearms cleaning and restoring [them] to original condition. 

SAR: Tell me about your custom and semi-custom rifles?

EC: Our custom rifles are built off of Defiance or Big Horn actions and Shaw® Precision barrels. We have a variety of chassis that we use from MDT and KRG. We use TriggerTech and Timney Triggers and a wide variety of accessories and Cerakote options. We use U.S. Optics, Leupold and Vortex as our primary glass. When we do semi-custom rifles our gunsmith Zion from “Gunaholics” takes the rifle, trues the actions and does a variety of inspections to insure accuracy. Then we upgrade the rifles with new triggers, compensators, chassis and other upgrades. Bergara® rifles are our go-to for off-the-wall, semi-custom builds. 

SAR: Why did you decide to make certain things and not others?

EC: In the gun industry you have to be unique to survive anymore. A lot of generic gun stores will not build custom rifles but just sell you one off of the wall. We wanted to do it all and offer a wide variety of services from gunsmithing to training and security consulting. 

SAR: Where have your products been used / won competitions?

EC: Being that we are still young in the industry, our rifles have been mainly used all across the state of Colorado and some bordering states in Wyoming and Utah. We cannot to speak to if any of them have won any competitions at this point. Our rifles were on display at the annual Army/Marine sniper gathering this year. We have received nothing but positive feedback from our customers on our bolt actions. Several of our customers have brought us their 100-yard zero targets to show us how pleased they are with the accuracy and some pulling groups as small as .355 of an inch with factory ammo. 

SAR: What makes your product different / better?

EC: Our product is different in that each rifle tends to be very unique to the customer, and it comes at a price that is affordable to the common man. Each rifle we make is different in one way from another. It can be a unique Cerakote color or barrel contour combo that no one else has. Our rifles get it done even with factory ammo. For example, our custom 6.5 Creedmoor rifles are shooting groups of anywhere from .355 to .465 of an inch off bi-pods, in the prone with factory ammo. Groups are shooter-dependent of course, but we test our rifles in real-world conditions. We don’t just lock it into a sled and touch the trigger; we get down in the prone and shoot it like someone actually would at a competition.

The Grand Power P40L is a rotary breech, polymer-framed 10mm pistol produced in Slovakia. Designed by Jaroslav Kuracina, the inventor of the new rotary action with the K100 Army pistol, this gun lives up to the company brand name with 14+1 rounds of hot 10mm Auto ammunition on board. Why would a 10mm handgun be called a “P40L?” The “L” part is obvious for the “long slide” containing the 5-inch barrel, but why “40?” Turns out P40L is a multicaliber system capable of running .40 S&W with the switchover of the barrel, the recoil spring and the shorter magazine, and the same mag and recoil spring can be used with a .357 SIG barrel.

The 10x25mm Automatic is a cartridge designed around 1983 to fix all the perceived deficiencies of the 9mm Luger. It retains a lively following among hunters and outdoorsmen wanting to anchor venison or to stop a bear charge, but the recoil was judged as excessive for self-defense. Adopted by the FBI in 1989, the 10x25mm Automatic is in current use by their SWAT teams only. The reduced-power 10mm loads were later turned into the shortened .40 S&W loads. The original full-power 10mm is still loaded by numerous ammunition makers large and small, and quite a few autoloaders, revolvers and carbines are chambered for it. The main issue with it remains the heft required to tame the recoil: A Nighthawk® Custom 1911 with a 6-inch barrel shoots comfortably, but the length and the weight of that gun make it a carry choice for the tall and the strong only. Smaller weapons, like the compact GLOCK 29 with a 3.8-inch barrel require some effort to control on recoil—for a weapon that may have to be fired one-handed in a defensive scenario, that’s a downside. Enter Grand Power (GP) with its unique rotary lockup.

The chamber end of the thick barrel has a machined raceway to fit a solid cross-pin in the frame. Upon firing, the barrel recoils back with the slide for 10mm and then turns against that pin to unlock from the slide. Compared to the conventional tilt-barrel, locked breech that unlocks from the slide almost instantly, Jaroslav’s design requires 40% less recoil spring weight. It also generates about 40% less felt recoil through a much longer unlocking cycle. Compared to the old tab and groove rotary breech design started by Steyr Arms over a century ago and used since by many other gun makers, this mechanism requires significantly less lubrication, allows a lower bore axis and resists wear better to avoid the progressive accuracy-destroying end-shake that plagued older rotary breech guns. A very low friction solution, the GP rotary breech survived 112,000 consecutive test rounds in its 9mm K100 interaction without any perceptible component wear. The 10mm version is suitably beefed up, so it should serve just as long.

My first experience with the GP 10mm was firing the 4-inch P40 version side by side with a GLOCK 6-inch G40. Both were pleasant to shoot, but I noticed that the shorter and lighter P40 was behaving similarly on recoil and shot every bit as accurately as the GLOCK target model. The long-slide version with a 5-inch barrel, slightly heavier at 38 ounces than the GLOCK, ought to be even easier to shoot well, I thought. Turns out, that was true.

The trigger is a double action/semiautomatic (DA/SA) with a cocked and locked option. For those who find the low-profile ambidextrous safety too slick, extended paddles are available, similar to what’s used on the competition GP X-CALIBUR. The SA breaks at 5.5 pounds, with very light pre-travel and a crisp let-off. Reset is short at about 3mm and quite pronounced, making rapid fire easy. The DA breaks at about 8 pounds, but the trigger bow is too far forward for my index finger to get enough leverage. People with large hands can pull a DA comfortably, the rest of us would be using the cocked and locked option.

The sights are low-profile notched and post with painted white dots. They are adjustable for windage only. The sight picture is sharp, but I have habitual misgivings about the polished surface of the snagless, rear sight frame that might catch reflections from the sky above. Fortunately, replacement sights of several types are available, including a fiber-optic front, a plain and illuminated rear and even the HIVIZ® H3 Tritium and fiber-optic combination designed for CZ but compatible with GP slides. Half-way between the G20 and G40 in terms of sight radius, the P40L proved more accurate than either in my hands. Felt recoil was also less pronounced, to the point where I could run 150 rounds in a session without discomfort. This 10mm resembled a conventional 9mm service pistol in terms of recoil.

Disassembly / Reassembly

Disassembly is quite simple: Pull down two takedown tabs on the sides of the dust cover, rack the slide back and then lift it up to disengage from the frame tabs in the rear. The back of the slide lifts in the manner that is familiar with the Walther PPK and the Marakov pistol. The articulated recoil rod is attached to the frame. The assembly is where the Browning scheme comes out ahead. The barrel has to be placed in the slide and oriented in a particular way in order to engage the locking roller bearing in the steel frame that’s hidden inside the polymer grip frame. The physical effort required for reassembly is less however. The guns stays very clean for several reasons: The chamber pressure drops more by the time extraction begins, the locking surfaces are further from the chamber, and the pistol runs with less oil than other rotary designs. It’s also an inherently safe design, with the thick barrel featuring a fully supported chamber.

Ammunition Round-Up

Five inches is enough for 10mm Auto to realize most of its potency. On the low-power end, we have 180-grain practice ball ammunition barely more energetic than .40 S&W, and on the high end a vast variety of options from hyper-velocity hollow points to heavy cast hog penetrators. Lucky Gunner® did extensive testing of its ammunition offerings and found that Federal 10mm JHP in 155 grain and 180 grain performed more consistently than the slower .40 S&W with the same weight projectiles, producing 0.64- to 0.68-inch mushrooms and just enough penetration for stopping humans. All-copper Steinel 140-grain comes out at 1,530 fps and expands to 0.70 inch with sufficient penetration. Steinel’s super-dense, 220-grain hard cast lead only trucks at 1,170 fps but will punch through all manner of gristle plate and skull bone … or auto glass and bodies. Compared to the standard 9mm Luger, the 10mm expands more and penetrates deeper. All that comes at the cost of slowed follow-up shots … but the unique Grand Power action reduces that disadvantage. A 10mm GP is still slower than a 9mm GP, but on par with the tilt-barrel designs of other brands.

Drop-free metal magazines hold 14 rounds. The magazine release button is stiffly positive and can be activated from either side. This author lacks the thumb strength to drop the magazine without shifting my hand for leverage, and the button is fenced by a grip ridge which means no accidental mag drops ever. The empty magazine gets launched from the grip with a healthy initial velocity. The slide stop lever is ambidextrous and accessible without being in the way. The grip isn’t adjustable in any way; fortunately, I found it a perfect fit—the sights line up just right upon presentation. The grip is textured just enough to promote retention without abrading the skin on recoil.

P40L’s Accuracy

Practical accuracy is limited mainly by the steadiness of the shooter’s hand and by the precision of the sight alignment. Fifty yards on a full-size silhouette is an easy shot with the P40L. One hundred yards can be achieved, it just takes some experience with the specific ammunition in the gun—points of impact at that distance can vary by nearly a foot from the weakest to the strongest loads. I would recommend zeroing for the carry ammo and accepting minor deviations from the point of aim with practice ball.

While relatively few companies make holsters, Falco offers numerous nylon, leather and Kydex options, with or without room for lights. With the proven record of reliability and durability, Grand Power P-series handguns are good sidearms. The 10mm, the most energetic of the lot, is plenty controllable and can be used for daily carry, as well as for extensive range practice. At the time when 9mm Luger is hard to find, the 10mm Auto is still available. And you get to carry the caliber designated by science fiction writers David Weber and L. Neil Smith as the choice of the future spacefarers!

Recent events illustrate what a dangerous world we inhabit with terrorist attacks growing in frequency. If there were only one piece of advice conveyed to readers, it is to receive professional firearms training. This especially applies to all civilian practitioners of concealed carry no matter perceived skill level. If a hostile situation is encountered, the civilian will most likely be defending herself or himself with a handgun. A handgun is definitely not the optimum choice, especially when compared to a rifle. A handgun is a compromise between portability and performance. A compact concealed carry handgun is even a further compromise along this continuum; i.e., not your preferred full-size, high-capacity blaster. What if there were ways to maximize potency of your personal defense handgun?

GLOCK handguns have evolved into the benchmark for personal defense, law enforcement and military handguns. GLOCK handguns are ultra-reliable, accurate, tough and simple to operate. A stalwart in the GLOCK product lineup is the GLOCK 19 (G19). It was one of the earliest offshoots of the G17. The G19 is effectively a reduced-size G17. It was first produced in 1988, primarily for military and law enforcement. The G19’s barrel and pistol grip are shorter by about .5 inch than the G17, and it uses a magazine with a standard capacity of 15 rounds, yet still can accommodate the G17’s 17-round magazine. When aficionados are asked to give their opinion on the best all-around personal defense weapon, the GLOCK 19 is inevitably mentioned. Why? The G19 can handle most conceivable defensive scenarios. It is a prime example of the modern combat pistol. It can serve as a duty weapon while still compact enough for concealed carry and inside the waistband (IWB).

The GLOCK Slimline 9mm has been around approximately 4 years in the form of the G43 with over 1 million sold. Not resting on its laurels, GLOCK listened to consumers’ requests for other Slimline models with increased round capacity. The G43X was the result approximately a year ago. The increase in capacity from 6 to 10 rounds resulted from lengthening the grip approximately ¾ of an inch—well worth it. This makes a surprising difference in terms of balance and recoil management. The G43X maintains a minimal profile of approximately 1 inch. This is important for concealed carry consideration, especially with IWB. The slide for the G43X is the same sub-compact length as the G43’s at 6.06 inches.

The G19 and now G43X were surely responses to the U.S. concealed carry market that continues to expand and generate firearm sales at a prodigious pace. All civilian practitioners of concealed carry want to carry the most potent handgun they can handle proficiently. Unfortunately, constraints caused by weather, clothing or social environment can preclude this, at times forcing a compromise in terms of size and caliber.

Suarez International

Suarez International has emerged as a leader in customizing handguns to better deal with concealed carry personal defense and tactical situations. While complete handgun packages are available, Suarez recognized the need to allow users to upgrade their existing GLOCKs via specific accessories consisting of triggers, magazine wells, control levers, match barrels and ultimately complete upper slide assemblies that can be installed on existing GLOCK frames. This is the path followed in this review which features a new G43X and a well-used Gen 3 G19.

Suarez International began work on the red dot handgun concept years ago when seeking answers to questions posed by many of their students as to how best enhance their primary method of defense—the handgun. Suarez International will never be confused with advocating gear as a substitute for skill ingrained by training and practice. However, CEO Gabe Suarez felt gear enhancement could assist in this particular quest. Suarez quickly established himself as a leader, driving the handgun-mounted, red dot sight concept both in theory and application.

Proficiency with a handgun is one of the most perishable weapon skills. This is further impacted as we get older due to changes in our vision causing difficulty in transitioning focus between front/rear sights and target. Suarez’s solution to this was the same as what most had already opted for with their rifles. While a little more challenging technically due to size restrictions with a handgun, adding a red dot sight to an AK or M4 generally improves one’s shooting skill in terms of accuracy, speed and proficiency when engaging moving targets. This is what Suarez decided on as the best course of action with handguns.

Suarez Super Match Slides

Mounting Suarez Super Match slides featuring Trijicon RMR® red dots immediately enhances stock G19 and G43X performances. The dovetail for the Trijicon RMR is cut to exacting detail during the manufacturing process with two locating bosses  used to keep the RMR centered and securely zeroed. “Blood groove” slide serrations and the Suarez logo indicate something out of the norm is present. Suarez Super Match slides are not merely flashy; tighter tolerances and custom touches increase accuracy, reliability and performance. The slides are manufactured from heat-treated, 17-4 aerospace stainless steel. The aesthetically pleasing slide serrations are ergonomically angled and shaped for ease of use under duress. Suarez’s U.S.-made match quality barrels with polished bores and fully supported SAAMI match spec chambers combined with tighter to the frame lockup are capable of 1.25-inch accuracy at 25 yards. The ejection ports on Suarez Super Match slides are lowered by .100 inch and contoured for reliable and predictable ejection of spent cases.

The Suarez Super Match slide for the G43X kicks everything up a notch with its ingenuity. The ability to mount a Trijicon RMR on a G43X slide sets Suarez apart from most other custom slide shops. The Suarez Super Match-fitted G43X has the slide cut for the Suarez Narrow Slide Adaptor 2.0 (NSA2) mount. The NSA2 mount is designed to mount a Trijicon RMR to slides that would normally be too narrow to accept that red dot unit; e.g., Slimline GLOCKs. The NSA2 mount allows for Trijicon RMR use with the GLOCK 43X and other Slimline models just like the full-size GLOCK-compatible slides. The Trijicon RMR is recognized as the gold standard for pistol red dots. The ability to adapt it for use on the G43X is important. Notable with the Suarez NSA2 is that you retain slide-mounted, independent front and rear sights. This is a crucial attribute if you truly want to co-witness iron sights with the red dot—a must for a red-dot-equipped personal defense handgun. There are many reasons for this. Anything electronic can fail, no matter how rugged; it’s important to have backup sights ready. Secondly, Suarez International’s training efforts have discovered the fastest way to get on target is quick location of the front sight with the red dot soon to follow. Another advantage of the Suarez decision to retain elevated irons around the red dot is that it provides instant verification of red dot zero.

The Suarez-equipped G43X and G19 are a perfect blending of concealed carry compactness with red-dot producing capabilities that exceed weapons of such compact size. The Suarez Super Match-enhanced G43X and G19 are superior covert carry handguns that excel in gunfighting; not just reactive defense most associate with smaller framed handguns. Users of the Suarez Super Match slide fitted with Trijicon RMR find that they no longer have to switch their focus from target to sights, which invariably eliminates the “front sight focus” so difficult for older shooters. They can now do as nature intends for them to do, focus on the threat. Moreover, because the indexing of a red dot is far easier than three pieces of steel, they find they can take shots beyond what was considered feasible with iron sights. Hitting steel at 100 yards on the first shot is very possible with the Suarez-enhanced GLOCKs, as well as running close-quarters battle (CQB) drills at times that were considered impossible to achieve before—all simply because the concept uses the eyes in a more normal manner.

Does It Meet Expectations?

Range testing of the Suarez-slide-equipped G43X and G19 took place at Echo Valley Training Center. This author’s T&E priorities were to ensure that GLOCK reliability was not compromised, and the Trijicon red dots proved to be worthy additions, increasing capability beyond what was expected from a compact, normal, iron-sighted GLOCK. Another concern was being able to find the Trijicon dots just as quickly as what is expected with the traditional iron sight front post, especially in quick/fast close-range affairs. Suarez’s orientation of the suppressor-style iron sights around the red dot acts as both backup sights and quickly orientates the shooter’s eye to the red dot stationed above the front post.

It was determined that the Trijicon RMRs assisted in engaging targets at close distances, with the red dot easy to pick up rapidly, and the RMRs facilitated shooting with both eyes open. The Trijicon RMR offers the capability to engage multiple targets in rapid sequence with faster transition between targets compared to open sights; at the same time providing adequate accuracy out to at least 100 yards due to the red dot. This is achieved because the RMR superimposes an aiming point on the target while still not totally obscuring the target, due to the dot not being that large. As expected, the RMR sight withstood the recoil and heat generated by repeatedly long strings of fire.

Holsters with generous open cut tops were the easiest to use with the Suarez RMR-equipped slides. Even then, gentle persuasion via a Dremel tool was required with the G43X due to a slight increase of width caused by the RMR install. Drills consisted of drawing from concealment to see if the RMR red dot was easy to obtain when operating in haste. Various scenarios engaging targets from behind cover or on the move were also utilized. Magazine change drills were done for the dual purpose of getting a feel of manipulating the G43X and G19 with the Suarez slide installed and seamlessly picking up the RMR dot once reload was complete and back on target. It was quickly determined that the Suarez-enhanced GLOCKs have great potential in terms of accuracy, speed and extending effective engagement distances.

Point shooting with the Suarez Super Match slide GLOCKs is still very possible by using the RMR’s window as a ghost ring—albeit a large ghost ring—if forced to react spontaneously to a threat. The Trijicon RMRs came into their own for precise fire at any range desired by placing the dot on the target and applying correct trigger control. Speed drills involving plate racks and dueling trees were run with times superior to iron-sighted GLOCKs. The advantage offered in using red dot sights in the competition environment is well-known. The ability to place the red dot on the plate and not having to align front and rear irons proved much more adept at moving rapidly from plate to plate.

It is never good to have favorites within a family. The Suarez G43X proved irresistible. The G43X’s slim profile and Suarez’s engineering called out like a Greek siren. This was only compounded when using a Shield Arms flush-fitting, 15-round magazine which proved trustworthy in the G43X. The enhanced G19 is certainly a solid choice; however, the extra capacity offered by the Shield Arms magazine produces an equal-capacity 43X with less weight, length and width of a G19. Here is an ideal everyday carry handgun equipped with a red dot that pushes the envelope of performance. The Suarez Super Match slides increase the effectiveness of the compact G43X and G19 concealed carry handguns beyond what many thought was possible.

One of the most comprehensive and well-researched magazine features on the WWII German Panzerfaust (“tank fist)” was written by Leszek Erenfeicht, titled, “Panzerfaust! A Fist to Knock out Tanks” in the June 2013 issue of Small Arms Review.

While a very good selection of photos accompanied his feature, we believe our readers will appreciate seeing even more of the historical images that show this remarkable weapon in combat action.

With the generous assistance of Erenfeicht himself and a deep dive into his own and other photo collections, Robert Bruce provides a remarkable selection of images that bring this almost 80-year-old tank buster to life through the mists of history.

“Men Against Tanks,” a dramatized but deadly serious German wartime training film found on YouTube (search: “Männer gegen Panzer”), compelled this author’s examination of the first of two extraordinary infantry anti-tank weapons used by the Third Reich.

Departing from the usual chronology, we introduce the Panzerfaust (Pzf) at the end of the War when its unique characteristics proved indispensable.

March 10, 1945, Berlin, Germany. As Hitler scraped the bottom of the manpower barrel to mount a “fight to the last ditch” defense of the Fatherland’s capital city, this trio of stoic oldsters shoulder late-model Pzf 100 anti-tank weapons. In a declared “Defense Area” where barricades are erected and positions and anti-tank trenches are being dug, they are standing by during the construction of a road block at a railway underpass. Drafted into the Volkssturm (People’s Storm), their civilian attire is inadequately made into some semblance of uniform by merely adding armbands reading, “DEUTSCHER VOLKSSTURM WEHRMACHT” (German People’s Storm Armed Forces). After receiving no more than a crash course in operating the Pzf, they will take defensive positions awaiting almost certain death. BUNDESARCHIVE VIA WARALBUM.RU

“Männer gegen Panzer” is a 1943 German film, produced by Lehrfilm, which was used as a training film by the Wehrmacht. Its purpose was to show German soldiers the different types of infantry anti-tank warfare. The film consists of three parts. The first shows a staged combined Soviet tank and infantry attack against entrenched German infantry. The attack is preceded by artillery and air strikes. The tanks, several T-34 models and a KV-1, are dealt with and destroyed by different means of improvised and dedicated anti-tank weaponry.
Right and wrong approaches to destroy a tank single-handedly are displayed. At the end of the attack, Wilhelm Niggemeyer, a holder of the Knight’s Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves and four tank destruction badges, is shown in action destroying the KV-1 with a mine.
The second part of the film shows how rear-service troops must be prepared for anti-tank warfare, as they too can encounter enemy tanks. The third part pres-ents the Grosse Gewehrpanzergranate, Kampfpistole 42LP, Raketenwerfer 43 Püp-pchen, Panzerfaust and Panzerschreck, their use and their effect against tanks.

April 1945, Berlin. Having spearheaded the Soviet assault on Berlin, a long column of formidable Stalin IS-2 tanks has paused on a rubble-strewn street in the decimated capital city. Mounting a 122mm high-velocity main gun, this 46-ton monster was the most heavily armored tank in the world at the time, protected by 120mm/4.7 inches of sharply sloped frontal armor. But thinner armor on the flanks, rear and engine deck could be punched right through by a well-placed Pan-zerfaust hit. U.S. ARMY CENTER OF MILITARY HISTORY

February 1945. Understandably dirty and weary soldiers of a combat group in retreat while fighting off Soviet tank and infantry formations on Germany’s eastern border front. Noting the tubular firing mechanisms atop the main launch tube, they are all carrying the first-generation Pzf 30 Groß (large), still being issued at this late time of the War. Despite having shorter effective range—30m—than Pzf 60 and 100 models that followed, all of their high-explosive, shaped-charge warheads had essentially the same 200mm / 8-inch maximum armor penetration when hitting straight on. BUNDESARCHIV VIA WARALBUM.RU

November 12, 1944, Berlin, Germany. Following the ceremonial swearing-in of volunteers of the Berliner Volkssturm, these militia troops march past Reich Minister for Public Enlightenment and Propaganda Dr. Josef Goebbels. Noting their squared-off trig-ger mechanisms, the Panzerfäuste (plural) are Pzf 60 type. That’s an MG 34 machine gun in the foreground.

BUNDERSARCHIV VIA WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

June 1944, Targu Mures, Romania. A Pan-zerknacker (tank cracker) of the Panzer-Fusilier Regiment Grossdeutchland watches with relief as a Soviet T-34 tank goes up in flames. This excellent medium tank, first encountered in 1940 and produced in astonishing numbers, forced urgent development and fielding of the Pzf. Caption information indicates there is another soldier of the two-man team in the original photo whose Pzf must have hit the tank. German soldiers fought valiantly but could not stop the Red Army’s advance into the Fatherland.

The dramatic cover illustration with rhyming text for a merkblatt (instructional leaflet) on the Pzf assure new Panzerknackers (tank crackers) that—loosely translated—“The heaviest tank goes on fire when you take the Panzerfaust (armor fist) to hand!” Because the panzerfiend (enemy tanker) can’t see well through small vision slots, the knif-fliger hund (tricky dog) wins.

April 1945, Berlin, Germany. Following declaration of Berlin as a “defense zone,” new soldiers of the Volkssturm are being taught to use the Panzerfaust. Look closely to see that the launch tube appears to be a standard Pzf 60 with its squared-off sight and firing mechanism, but the warhead is wood; a necessarily prudent measure when dealing with inexperienced recruits.

The cover of the small instructional leaflet (D 560/3) for the new Pzf 60, entering service in 1944, shows a Teutonic knight’s armored fist (pan-zer-faust) smashing a Soviet T-34 tank. “The Panzerfaust is your anti-tank gun! You can use it to shoot down any tank up to 80 meters. Read this leaflet correctly then nothing can happen to you when it matters.” With essentially the same warhead as the Pzf 30 Groß, it is readily identified from its predecessors by a squared-off trigger/sighting mechanism with significant improvements in safety, simplicity and reliability. A more powerful black powder propelling charge (treibladung) of 4.9 ounces doubles its effective range to 60m with 80m maximum.

This is a late-War pictorial instruction sheet for the Pzf 60, produced in the largest numbers right up to the end of the War: Remove the warhead (kopf), insert the smaller booster charge first and then the primer, couple the warhead to the launch tube, remove the safety pin, lift up the sight (visier), push the safety’s crossbolt forward, and the weapon is ready to fire. Estimating the range to your target, use the correct sighting window for a stationary target and lead for a moving target. Holding the weapon in one of these positions, press down on the trigger (abzug) to fire. Beware the fire jet (feuerstrahl)—“nobody within 10 meters behind the launcher!”

While the Panzerfaust’s daytime firing signature has considerable smoke but little flash, at night it’s a different story. This photo print had no information on when and where, but it’s likely part of U.S. Ordnance Corps testing.

1945, Berlin, Germany. Wincing a bit from the black powder propellant blast and smoke, a Volkssturm militiaman launches a Pzf 60 warhead from the underarm position in a live-fire training demonstration. Note how the onlookers are carefully grouped to the weapon’s left side to avoid the severe back blast while the brave photographer is front right. Interestingly, this still photo comes from a newsreel sequence showing the whole firing sequence. We’ve found no reference to how loud the firing detonation is, but the other trainees seem unbothered. That said, detonating 4.9 ounces of tightly packed propellant inside a 50mm diameter steel tube can’t be inconsequential. There’s no sign of any eye protection that would seem to be prudent but is apparently unnecessary.

1945, Germany. All available Panzerfaust models were in use in these final days, so this aspiring Volkssturm Panzerknacker is apparently getting instruction in the finer points of the arming and aiming procedures for a rough and well-worn—almost certainly safely inert—Pzf 30 Groß (“gross” is “large” versus the diminutive “Gretchen” version). Both models are identified by
a distinctive tubular firing mechanism, spot-welded above the large main tube (rohr). The triggering mechanism inside is a bit complicated but quite cleverly contrived, described by some as akin to that of a retractable ballpoint pen. The sight latch pin dangles from its retaining chain after being pulled out, allowing the sight bar to be swing up into place for aiming, clearing a path for the striker bar inside the firing tube. That rod sticking out of the back of the firing tube is then pushed forward, compressing a spring coiled around the striker. When that’s done and the red knob at top rear of the rod is rotated to the left, the red trigger button pops up (hidden under the firer’s thumb), and the weapon is armed and ready. Pushing the trigger down releases the striker to fire the primer, detonating the black powder propelling charge inside the main tube.

1944, Frankfurt an der Oder, Germany. Hauptmann (Captain) Peter Kiesgen instructing straw-camouflaged Hitlerjugend in proper employment of the Pzf 60. But wait, if that youngster’s right leg isn’t moved away from the backblast, there won’t be much left of his boot and everything in it. In addition to the Iron Cross, this Panzerknacker superhero’s uniform sleeve carries multiple awards of the coveted Tank Destruction badge. Bestowed to exceptionally brave soldiers using hand-held weapons at close range to destroy enemy tanks, Kiesgan is all the more exceptional for having survived even one such encounter.

April 1945, Berlin, Germany. In more of a posed propaganda photo than practical, tactical training, this well-decorated German Army officer is said to be overseeing Volkssturm defensive positions in Berlin’s Marzahn district. If the bespectacled oldster were to fire his Pzf 60 as seen, the fiery back-blast deflected from the back of the trench would be a disaster to him and his kamerad. Note the old bolt-action rifles; most anything that could shoot was pulled out of storage.

1944, Berlin, Germany. A non-commissioned officer of the Panzer-grenadier Division Großdeutschland conducts a lesson with a teenager from the Hitlerjugend (Hitler Youth) with a wooden model of the first production, small warhead Pzf 30 Gretchen. Its distinctive hourglass-shaped sight cutout is for this model’s optimal 30m range. Noting the soldier’s Iron Cross medal, he is probably a Panzerknacker hero, bringing great authority to the task of inspiring and training a young boy who will need to grow up fast.

November 1944, Germany. A Luftwaffe (Air Force) officer, another Iron Cross recipient, demonstrates the proper underarm firing position for sighting and firing a Pzf 30 for a group of German teens who have been conscripted into the Volkssturm. Because at this late stage in the War the German Air Force had been devastated, most of its officers and men were assigned to ground defense roles.

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October–November 1944, Berlin, Germany. Clearly illus-trating the vast age difference in Volkssturm draftees, this dapper oldster and his youthful companion are said to be get-ting “training in weapons skills in Berlin.” With a Panzerfaust at the ready between them, the serious teen is armed with what is probably a standard German Army 7.92mm K98k rifle. His apparently bemused senior partner in the trench has what’s identified as a 9mm Erma EMP 35 submachine gun. This com-bination is well-suited to strike at long and close angles against what they’ll soon face from Red Army infantry and armor.

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March–April 1945, Berlin, Germany. Preparing for the defense of Berlin, a Obergefreiter (Chief Corporal) of a panzer (tank) unit teaches a Hitlerjugend how to shoot a Panzerfaust. Owing to nearly identical external features including the same size warhead, the weapon could be a Pzf 60 or 100, differing mainly in effective range. The squared-off sheet metal firing mechanism of both weapons is simpler and safer than earlier models. In its down position, the sight locks the safety/arming slide on SAFE, while raising the sight clears the way for thumbing the slide forward into FIRE position, and the prominent abzug (triggering lever bar) tips upward. Quite prudently for this staged training photo session, the Panzerfaust is seen in SAFE mode—sticking out at the sight base is one side of the safety slide’s round rod crossbolt that must be thumbed forward, allowing the abzug to rock upward, arming the leaf spring striker for firing. Pulling the slide back immediately restores it to SAFE.

March–April 1945, Berlin, Germany. In this companion photo, the aspiring Hitlerjugend Panzerknacker must be seriously contemplating what his fate will be as the Soviet horde closes in. With an enemy tank in sight, he will use the correct sight window on his Panzerfaust depending on range to target—top for longer to send the warhead in a high arc, bottom for closer. In the center is the large rectangular aperture for optimal range (60m or 100m depending on Pzf model). Those V notches at the bottom are to align with a small front sight stud at the 12 o’clock position on the warhead’s rim. It can be pulled rearward to re-safety the weapon.

March 20, 1945, Berlin, Germany. Seen in the garden of the Reich Chancellery in one of the most famous photos and newsreel segments from World War II, Adolph Hitler, der Führer (the Leader) himself, has emerged briefly from his elaborate bunker to con-gratulate 12-year-old Hitlerjugend Alfred Czech, awarded the Iron Cross for heroism in battle action against Soviet forces. Standing to Czech’s right is 16-year-old Wilhelm “Willi” Hubner, also an Iron Cross recipient. Panzerfaust weapons in combat figured prominently in the reasons for these boys being honored. Miraculously, both survived the War, and the incredibly brutal Soviet retribution and occupation that followed.

March 1945, 1st Ukranian Front, Germany. Guard Senior Sergeant Ilya Amelin from the Red Army’s 15th Guards Rifle Division with a captured German Panzerfaust grenade launcher. While the one he’s holding has the safety forward and is ready to fire, being so close to the ground at this downward angle of the rear of the tube would be spectacularly bad from backblast. Amelin was decorated for heroism after using one of these weapons to destroy a German self-propelled gun. Having no equivalent weapon, Soviet soldiers were quick and eager to use every Panzerfaust they could get against their hated enemy. American and British soldiers became enthusiastic panzerknackers too.

April 7, 1945, Germany. A British soldier from the 11th Armoured Division guards two youthful German prisoners and a haul of Panzerfaust anti-tank weapons secured to the front forks of their military-issued TF38 bicycles, commonly used for mobility of tank hunting squads. The Brit-ish soldier is armed with a British 9mm Mk III Sten submachine gun and has slung a captured German 7.62x33mm Sturmgewehr (assault rifle) from his right shoulder. The boys are lucky to have been taken by the British; Soviet tankers were far more likely to shoot on sight.

March 28, 1945, Neupotz, Germany. The Army caption states, “Panzerfaust 100 on a remote launching platform.” Note the simple expedient of positioning an ordinary door hinge so that a tank running into its attached tripwire would pull the lever down on the triggering bar. According to the WWII U.S. Army’s TM 5-223C, all types were being encountered, rigged as “ambush” anti-tank mines. While the one seen here is secured to a wooden cradle, they were equally effective when attached to a handy tree or other suitable mounting place.

March 14, 1945, Germany. Lieutenant John Reller, 9th U.S. Army in another widely pub-lished photo from WWII that can be mined for all sorts of interesting information about the Pzf 60. First off, the kopf (head containing the shaped charge warhead) has been uncoupled and removed as required for inserting the primer and booster charges in its stem. Handy step-by-step arming and firing instructions are provided on a paper sheet glued to the head with a drawing showing a proper over shoulder aiming and shooting position. Moving to the left we see the sheet metal cup protruding from the rohr (launch tube) that is the front end of the tailboom assembly inside. It has a coupling notch that locks the warhead in exact position on insertion so that its small front sight stud (seen in line with the base of the vorsicht arrow drawing on the warhead) is at 12 o’clock for sighting. A rectangular sheet metal tab, riveted to the warhead, is snapped in place to a stud on the front cup to further secure the whole warhead and tail-fin assembly. The latch pin securing the top of the sight to the tube at the base of the cup has been pulled and the sight lifted into upright position. This frees the safety slide at its base so it can be thumbed forward immediately before firing. With the safety forward into the fire position, the abzug (trigger bar) rocks upward, providing a generous surface for even a thick, winter-mitted hand to press it down to fire. Stenciled red paint markings on the rohr (tube) read right side up to warn the firer: Starker Feuerstrahl (Strong Jet of Fire!) Vorsicht! (Caution!) Smaller lettering on the other side warned that the launch tube is loaded even when the head is removed.

May 1945, Berlin, Germany. At the bitter end of Hitler’s Thousand-Year Reich, this Soviet T-34/85 (85mm main gun) medium tank with crewmen and protective infantrymen aboard is seen at the capitol city’s famous Brandenburg Gate. Most notable for the purpose of this feature is the addition of apparently improvised wire screens—perhaps even some bed spring frames—hoping for protection against the dreaded Panzer-faust. In ideal circumstances, these standoff screens would provide enough resistance to detonate the hollow charge warhead before it could hit the tank’s armor; an idea that has been brought forward right up to today.

March 1945, Germany. Ever more desperate measures
in the last days of the War inspired the valiant but quite impractical attempt at adapt-ing the Panzerfaust as arma-ment for a tank-killing aircraft. Here we see an example of Germany’s anti-armor combat plane, one of just a handful of Büker Bü 181 trainers fitted with two Pzf 100s on each wing. Aimed by a crude wire sight for the pilot and fired by thin steel cables leading into the cockpit, it was not only sadly inaccurate, but it was found the top ones would set the plane’s plywood and fabric wings on fire.

March 16, 1945, Bad Neuenahr-Ahrweiler, Germany. U.S. 2nd Infantry Division Combat Engineers examine a forward-area Panzerfaust supply dump, abandoned by hastily retreating German forces. Production figures for all Pzf types indicate that more than 8 million were manufactured between 1943 and 1945. Despite Allied bombing raids on the three primary factories, coupled with strafing and rocket attacks on supply trains, a substantial number of these made it into the hands of Germany’s soldiers. Additionally, Germany supplied its allies with considerable numbers; mainly Finland, Hungary and Italy.

December 1945, Southern Netherlands. In a photograph accompanying a report on the dangers to children at play from mines and ammunition left behind at the end of WWII, this youngster has found what appears to be a Pzf 60 dud, complete with its 1.6 pounds of Cyclonite/Pentolite high-explosive, shaped-charge filling! This is what the complete projectile looks like when fired, with its sturdy wooden tailboom and thin sheet metal fins covered in soot from the black powder propelling charge. Failure to detonate is not uncommon for a number of reasons including a faulty impact fuze or even a battle-stressed firer forgetting or improperly inserting the booster and primer.

Panzerfaust Epilogue
German improvements and experimentation continued right up to the very end, beginning with 150m and 250m range versions. These were also intended to be reloadable with some special purpose warheads including fragmentation, caseless, incendiary and chemical. Everything stopped when Germany formally surrendered on May 4, 1945.
U.S. Army Ordnance Corps considered further development but ultimately abandoned the effort in favor of its existing 3.5-inch “Super Bazooka.” Post-War Ger-many adopted the reloadable Panzerfaust 44mm DM2 Ausführung 1 Lanze (lance), reportedly a further develop-ment of the Pzf 250.
While it is commonly asserted that the Soviet RPG-2 was based on the German experimentation, experts dis-count the idea, citing development work starting years earlier. But without a doubt, the WWII German Panzerfaust inspired a host of similar man-portable tank killers that followed.
References

Book
Panzerfaust and Panzerschreck by Gordon L. Rottman, 2014, Osprey Publishing.
YouTube Videos
“Männer gegen Panzer,” youtube.com/watch?v=3L0LffV2obA “Panzerfaust—Close Combat Training,” youtube.com/watch?v=puguQI1hIUA

Next Time
In the next installment of Männer gegen Panzer, we’ll provide an extensive photo feature on the Panzerschreck (tank terror), Germany’s powerful answer to America’s “bazooka.”

The gear we carry into the field is almost always a compromise. Despite how far we’ve come from the days of muskets, there are few differences in practical reality. The hunters of years past faced the same game and the same terrain challenges we do today, and the hunting was done at roughly the same ranges. Despite our technological advances, most medium to large game today is still hunted inside 300 yards. However, things are changing, and there is a trifecta of variables that are allowing this evolution, those being advanced materials, projectiles and cartridge designs. Enter Mesa Precision Arms.

The Field Never Forgives

While we will certainly get to a review of the spectacular Mesa Precision rifle, what needs to be discussed first is the relevance it has and just how important this class of arms is to our continuing advancement in small arms and ammunition.

The foremost thing to understand is what limits a shooter to a given range. The most pressing concern is that of ethics in hunting, where longer ranges are not just more challenging but also ethically questionable. The further out you get, the more external factors become involved. The realistic limit for most quality hunting rifles in the last 100 years was extended through the use of optics, but even then bullet technology had not advanced far enough to make shots at considerable distances feasible. Thus, we are not looking at the gun itself as the sole focus of the hunt, but only a single factor in the struggles of the field.

Hunting rifles in years past were a completely separate type of rifle from target guns or precision rifles, the latter encompassing sniper rifles in military service. The general idea was that lightweight rifles were ideal for use in hunting, as the hunter, especially the pack-in hunter, would want to save as much weight as possible. To accomplish this, a modern class of “mountain” rifles were developed that featured skinny barrels, skeletonized parts and composite stocks. These rifles were often bare-bones and plagued with problems.

What sort of problems would such a light gun face? More than you’d imagine. The idea of making a hunting rifle super light using traditional materials and cartridges meant that, given the same cartridge, the light rifle would overheat and rapidly lose accuracy and recoil much more as a simple matter of physics. This in turn made these rifles hard to master, difficult to be consistent at the range and generally unpleasant to fire. All of this resulted in a specialized tool to get into hard-to-reach places but with few redeeming characteristics outside of those conditions. The ergonomic situation in years past was also abysmal, as the stocks used were often too thin in the wrist and offered little as far as rigidity in the name of weight savings.

Left: The muzzle comes with a flush-fit thread protector. Because the rifle is light, a muzzle brake is not necessary to tame it, though the option is there. Center: SIG SAUER 130-grain Elite Hunter Tipped loads provide a great balance of weight to velocity and can be used on game up to elk and moose in appropriate settings. The load is suitable for varmints as well, making it a one-stop solution for a mixed-tag trip. Right: Traditional lines meet with modern materials in the carbon fiber stock.

To get an accurate rifle, a hunter needed to look at guns built for accuracy. Accurate rifles intended for precision shooting typically used thick, heavy barrels to fight off heat and increase rigidity. Adjustability and ergonomic quality came with the territory here. Making hits at long-range was all this game was about, but who in their right mind would want to carry a 13-pound hunting rifle to follow game in the mountains? The weight penalty for an accurate rifle made it so that it generally ruled out field use. Offhand or unsupported shooting is not something that can be readily accomplished with so heavy a rifle.

Next was the problem of the balance of accuracy and weight. Gun manufacturers have struggled for years to introduce the perfect balance, but all have generally failed by way of compromise or simply missing the mark in the commercial market. There have been many fine designs that have come and gone, but there is no true right answer for this because the special features of a given rifle in one environment are not always applicable to another climate or region.

The cartridges used in these rifles also play a critical role in determining the end utility of a gun meant for the field. The major struggle is that a cartridge needs to be powerful enough to take game but also pleasant enough to become proficient with. Rounds like the .300 Winchester Magnum and .30-06 have long dominated the field for their relatively high bullet mass and good velocity, but place those rounds in light rifles, and they become completely unenjoyable.

Going smaller has its benefits, but the .308 Winchester, a perennial favorite, only saved the shooter on action length over the .30-06 for the same general power level given the identical bullet weight. The old classics like .243 Win and 7mm-08 were good for their time but did not offer bullet choices suitable for ranges past 200 yards on medium game. The bullet mass was just not there for those ranges nor were the bullets themselves designed for performance at lower velocities seen as ranges extended. Going light in this case also meant sacrificing distance, which was a major consideration when that trophy elk appeared at 600 yards across a ravine.

Bullet technology is the last factor in this equation, and it has, even more than rifle and cartridge technology, allowed the hunter and shooter to do more with less. Bullets have improved so much in the last 10 years that we’ve practically reinvented what rifles can do in many cases. Rounds like the 6.5 Creedmoor, the first commercially successful round designed for long-range shooting in this era, took advantage of not just advanced case design but also new science about bullet shape and design. The 6.5 Creedmoor is not especially fast or heavy, with a 140-grain bullet at a nominal 2700 fps, but it is extremely efficient thanks to the bullets used that offer a high ballistic coefficient, thus allowing for it to cut the air and buck the wind with ease. The 6.5 Creedmoor has drop and drift characteristics similar to 200-grain class .300 Win Mag but with less recoil than .308 Win. This is huge, as the bullets for 6.5 Creedmoor are not just good for targets: hunting bullets developed alongside target bullets took advantage of the latter’s superior flight characteristics while being made tough enough to perform on game at ranges previously reserved for high recoil magnum hunting cartridges.

The field has remained the same, unforgiving and inhospitable, but thanks to our modern technology, today’s rifleman can bring in a rifle that is lighter than the specialty guns of years past but one as accurate as a target rifle and as rugged as a military sniper rifle. This is what Mesa Precision Arms has delivered.

The Perfect Blend

The question of weight has plagued the hunter for centuries. Everyone loves an accurate rifle until they have to lug it up and down a leaf-covered ravine; everyone loves a light rifle until they fire it. The market was clearly missing something, and the folks at Mesa Precision Arms (MPA) sought to dive in and fix that. The author sat down with the crew behind the rifle to discuss just what makes this rifle fit in the sweet spot.

“We started out in mid-2017 after we noticed a niche in the market. More have come to see the same gap we did, but we approached it from the angle that there wasn’t a suitable lightweight, long-range hunting rifle available at the cost we wanted to see,” according to MPA.

MPA jumped into this market with the idea that there shouldn’t be a compromise given how far we’ve come with materials and cartridge design. Because of how much we know about accuracy and how to make bolt-action rifles, there was really no excuse that there couldn’t be a rifle both light enough to carry all day and rigid enough to shoot all day; a regular do-all rifle that can hunt and compete interchangeably. This rifle is Precision-Rifle-Series accurate, but so light it feels like it is a papier mâché replica of a real gun. How is this accomplished?

The short answer is that the rifle makes extensive use of carbon fiber and titanium in its construction. These materials are not new in the manufacturing world, but they are not exceptionally common in the firearms world. The application of these materials has often been overlooked as the processes and machines necessary to work with them are outside the scope of average manufacturers. Indeed, carbon fiber parts are still relatively rare, with only a handful of companies making stocks and barrels out of these materials.

These carbon fiber parts are extremely light, shaving not just ounces but full-on pounds off a given rifle. The carbon fiber stocks alone can save a few pounds over a fiberglass or wood stock, which is nice, but the real savings comes from the barrel. The profile of the rifle discussed in this article is a full-blown M24 heavy contour and is 24 inches long. A steel barrel of the same profile weighs more than this complete rifle! A Brownells Premium, 6.5 Creedmoor, 24-inch M24 barrel alone weighs a few ounces more than the complete MPA rifle at 6.25 pounds, which is remarkable considering that from a distance they are identical in profile.

The manufacturer of this barrel is PROOF Research, a company known for the quality of their products. They are a premier and very popular maker of all sorts of carbon fiber barrels in various contours and bores.

MPA’s CRUX Ti action itself is made of titanium, which offers a notable weight savings over steel. It is comparable in weight to aluminum, though far stronger. Titanium actions have been around for a while, but they are not very common, and most are custom affairs. This would not do for MPA, as its vision included no cut corners; a carbon barrel and stock on a steel action would just be too pedestrian.

“Titanium is a hard material to work with; most people won’t touch it. We are one of the only companies to produce a complete rifle off our own special action designed for the end use of the rifle—in this case long-range hunting. Our stocks and actions were created from the ground up to reflect this purpose. We went with the 75-degree bolt throw—it is more user-friendly and offers a faster cycling speed. The bolt itself is easy to disassemble, unlike a Remington 700 stock model, and is simple to maintain in the field should dirt or debris become lodged in it.”

If you have not yet handled a titanium action, you should at least try to get your hands on one. The feel of the action is different than steel; it feels very crisp and smooth to the point where it gives the impression of being frictionless. The bolt glides and locks up very easily. When it closes, the locking process begins and ends in about 1 degree of rotation. It can be closed with the flick of a finger, though unlocking takes a bit more effort thanks to a strong firing pin spring and the fact that there is less throw as opposed to a traditional 90-degree action.

As far as ergonomics, the carbon fiber stock compromises on nothing. It is extremely comfortable and modern while resembling traditional hunting stocks. MPA hand-fits these with precision: “We CNC the correct fit into the stock for a given action, usually [a] Remington 700 footprint. We designed our stocks to suit the modern hunter. It has a semi-vertical grip angle and a slightly raised comb. We wanted to keep it right at 24 ounces while maintaining those classic lines.”

They also bed the stocks to the action along with their AICS-style bottom metal that can take any standard Accuracy-International-pattern magazines. Several were tested in the rifle to include Accurate-Mags, original Accuracy International, Alpha Industries Mags and Magpul, and they all worked flawlessly.

Other features of the rifle include a 20 MOA scope mount, a threaded muzzle and thread protector, a Trigger Tech single-stage trigger, optional QD sling mounts and your choice in camo finish.

Range Time

For testing purposes, a lightweight Leupold VX-3i LRP 6.5-20x50mm scope was installed in Warne rings. This is a type of optic that a hunter would use in the field at just 21 ounces, making the total package just over 7.5 pounds. Other than this, the rifle was unmodified except for the addition of a sling to see how well it carried. Support gear used in the field was all from Hill People Gear and it, especially their Umlindi pack with rifle butt pouch attached, allowed effortless carry of the rifle. Several miles of hiking while out after coyote proved that this was an exceedingly easy rifle to tote … but how about accuracy?

The science of accuracy is easily understood with this rifle. The rifle was tested with several 6.5 Creedmoor loads at both 100 yards for accuracy and out to 1,050 yards to see how well the rifle handled against heavy target rifles.

One-hundred-yard accuracy was as expected from a high-end premium rifle. The average five-shot group at this range was .8 MOA for all factory loads tested. That should impress, considering that .8 is the average of all loads. The best accuracy was produced by Black Hills Gold 143-grain ELD-X at .22 MOA average of five, five-shot groups. SIG SAUER 120-grain Elite Hunter Tipped produced the lowest accuracy at .95 inches for five, five-shot groups, but you’d hardly call that bad by any stretch. SIG SAUER 140-grain Elite Match, SIG SAUER 130-grain Elite Hunter, Federal 130-grain Gold Medal Berger, Federal 140-grain Gold Medal Sierra MatchKing, Hornady Precision Hunter 143-grain ELD-X, Hornady 147-grain ELD Match and Hornady 140-grain American Gunner all produced an average of .5 MOA for five, five-shot groups. The performance was extraordinary.

While it is safe to say that the vast majority of all hunting takes place at about 100 yards, this rifle is not limited to that distance. The author traveled to the famous Marksmanship Training Center (MTC) range in Lake City, Michigan, to test the rifle on steel plates out past 1,000 yards. This test is not just a test of the rifle, but also of the ammunition and optics. Several loads were selected that the author felt would be a good representation of what hunting ammunition can do at long-range, so target loads were omitted for the sake of authenticity.

The Black Hills 143-grain ELD-X, SIG SAUER 130-grain Elite Hunter Tipped and Hornady 143-grain Precision Hunter were tasked with field duty. Using a Kestrel weather station, the author calculated wind and drop for each load and went about shooting steel. What proceeded was perhaps the most uneventful range trip in recent memory, as each of the three selected loads provided a 100% hit rate at ranges out to 500 yards, which is probably the limit of the 6.5 Creedmoor cartridge on medium game for ethical shots.

The author moved to field positions and shot off the pack and some barricades. All the same story. If the rifle was stable and weather conditions monitored, hits came as easy as pointing and firing.

But how did it do at long-range with that hunting ammo? The average five-shot group at this range for all three loads tested was again around .5 MOA to .75 MOA, so only about 5 to 8 inches at 1,050 yards! This is performance on par with many dedicated target rifles with the same accuracy as the author’s heavy-class target rifle that weighs three times as much. To have a rifle so light that is capable of such extraordinary accuracy is nothing short of amazing.

Over 800 rounds of various types were fired in this rifle, and it was also used in a competition. It performed with no feeding issues or any issues of any kind, even in rigorous circumstances.

No Compromises

Mesa Precision Arms is a small shop, but it delivers something that the largest and most well-funded companies have failed to do time and again. MPA delivers a rifle 30% lighter than most hunting rifles and a full 60% lighter than steel rifles with the same barrel profiles. As stated earlier, it is lighter than some target barrels, not counting the rest of the rifle it attaches to.

Not only that, MPA delivered a complete product that is as accurate as a dedicated target rifle, which is truly a feat when directly compared to how poor accuracy and heat resistance are on lightweight steel rifles. Because of the carbon fiber construction, it bleeds heat faster and remains rigid and consistent for much longer, thus allowing the hunter to become proficient with less of a learning curve or having to wait for the gun to cool enough to group well again.

When combined with modern factory hunting ammunition and modern bullets, this is a combination that allows for true extended range performance without having to go to a magnum chambering or specialized load.

While this article covers Mesa Precision Arms and its product, what must be noted is just how far we’ve come technologically in terms of materials and craftsmanship. MPA stands apart in this sense in that it was among the first to realize the potential of all these lightweight materials, not just as individual advances, but as a true step up when combined.