In the video below, the Vickers Tactical Channel reviews the rare MPiKM, the East German AK. This is a fascinating look at a unique rifle that just might be the only one of its kind in the entire United States.
A Rare Find
Larry Vickers says he found this rifle at Century Arms. Apparently, it had been found sitting on a pallet in Croatia in the back of a warehouse. There is evidence of rust and pitting on its exterior but according to Vickers, the internals are brand new and untouched, never having been fired. In fact, when Vickers fires the rifle on this video it’s the first time the rifle has ever been shot.
How the East German AK Differs from Russian AKs
Vickers explains that the MPiKM differs from the Soviet AKM mostly in aesthetics. (Photo credit: Vickers Tactical Channel)
The MPiKM is actually quite similar to the Soviet AKM you all know and love. Vickers describes the aesthetic differences:
“The main thing that sets it apart is the furniture…other than that it’s almost identical. Brown plastic furniture here is kind of a classic sign. When you see that, certainly it’s East German furniture and very possibly an East German firearm. [It’s] what Wilkinson called a lizard-skin buttstock back in the day; I don’t know why but that’s always stuck with me. It’s actually more of a pebble-grain finish. Pistol grip is brown plastic with checkered panels, front, and rear.
Now, moving up you have a plastic cover on the gas tube, but the handguard is Bakelite, you can tell by the look. And, the earlier ones were wood because clearly, the brown plastic did not work out real well for handguard material. Other than that…largely laid out like a Soviet AKM.”
That First Shot
Vickers fires the first shots ever through his MPiKM. (Photo credit: Vickers Tactical Channel)
Vickers ran Sellier and Bellot ammunition through his MPiKM for its first shots ever. Of course, he ran it full-auto, because why wouldn’t you? In his hands, the rifle looks like a smooth, flat-shooting gun. It appears to cycle flawlessly in semi-auto and full-auto.
Build Your Own
A closer look at the internals of Vickers’ MPiKM. (Photo credit: Vickers Tactical Channel)
The MPiKM featured in this video review by Larry Vickers is one of a kind; you’re not going to find another factory, unfired MPiKM on the market. What you will find, though, are parts, kits, and reproductions.
As Vicker said, the major differences in this model are aesthetic, which makes it simpler to create your own reproduction MPiKM. Plus one of the best parts of building your own rifle is getting the opportunity to learn how it works and why for yourself. Being a well-rounded AK owner is always a good thing. And remember, a well-made magazine is vital to your build because magazines are the first part to fail.
If you prefer a modernized build, check out these upgrade ideas for the AKM. You can never have too many guns.
Kat Ainsworth Stevens is a long-time outdoor writer, official OGC (Original Gun Cognoscenti), and author of Handgun Hunting: a Comprehensive Guide to Choosing and Using the Right Firearms for Big and Small Game. Der Teufel Katze has written for a number of industry publications (print and online) and edited some of the others, so chances are you’ve seen or read her work before, somewhere. A woman of eclectic background and habits, Kat has been carrying concealed for over two decades, used to be a farrier, and worked for a long time in emergency veterinary medicine. She prefers big bores, enjoys K9 Search & Rescue, and has a Master’s Degree in Pitiless Snarkastic Delivery.
The picture above is one of two posted by Matt Jacques of Victory First on his social media. Accompanying that image was the quote “Canopy lighting vs. direct lighting when discussed as a searching technique.” (The other image is below.) It goes on to address an aspect of high ready vs. low ready: one that has to do with the best use of a WML, i.e. a weapon-mounted light.
He made two main points:
• Opens up the “high gun vs. low gun” conversation. If you subscribe to “low gun”, when will you practice working rooms with light?
• You have to be proficient in a room with provided light and applied light.
High ready vs. low ready when it comes to applying your weapon light. [This is Surefire Scout weapon light on an LWRCI ICA5 carbine, fed by a Magpul PMAG + MagPod, used to clear a residence after a bump in the night. Further details below.
Well…that limited explanation is the instructional equivalent of physical activities that lead to unfortunate shades of blue. In fact, it opens up more questions than it answers (which was probably the point).
I reached out to MJ for some additional clarification. Read on to get your learn on.
A: “Canopy” lighting can be referred to as any of the following: Umbrella / Canopy / Bouncing. Whatever you call it, it all basically uses the power of your white light against the white ceiling of the room you are in (when speaking specifically on residential structures that primarily have white ceilings).
This technique allows more blooming of your light and gives a better, more natural casting of the light, and allows you to see more. You take in more optical information more quickly instead of merely looking where the pointed light is. That’s what traditionally happens when folks use direct lighting.
Q. What is direct lighting?
Direct lighting is where you are simply using all of the light and physically pointing it directly at an area or object. This is obviously what happens when you are addressing a threat or are deliberately searching a dark, specific area (outdoors, a basement stairwell, long unlit hallway, or the like).
Q. What is canopy lighting used for?
Canopy lighting is primarily used to take in as much information very quickly inside a room where you haven’t identified a specific threat that needs to be addressed. It allows you to enter a room, bounce the light off of the ceiling and observe more of the general space and any obvious people who are in the room.
You should be using a threat index of 1, bodies; 2, doors; and 3, hides. Canopy (or umbrella lighting) gives you the quickest optical advantage to identify those first two concerns very quickly.
Q: What is direct lighting used for?
Direct lighting is to fill a void space to ensure you can see as much as possible when you cannot use canopy lighting (think outside searching, dark spaces/voids, etc.). It is also used to address a specific threat.
It’s accomplished when you use all of your light directly on a threat or a smaller area. It is also used by depressing the muzzle slightly towards the ground to see as much as possible without obstructing any of your ability to see (any weapons and both hands, plus the surrounding area).
Someone using the direct lighting method should be aware that they are not only potentially violating a cardinal rule of firearms safety (pointing a weapon at something you do not intend to kill), but could also be violating the law – in many states, at least – by brandishing a weapon.
There are all sorts of “What Ifs” and “What About” scenarios that are not in that category, but that’s for another discussion.
Q: Why are you going “high gun” (high ready) here in that first picture?
High gun gives me the ability to utilize the ceiling for canopy lighting, In the two pictures, it is apparent that using high gun to accomplish canopy lighting is giving me more immediate information about the room than would have directly entering the room and driving direct lighting into a corner.
Q: Does canopy and direct light, and high ready vs low light, apply to both rifles and pistols?
Both canopy and direct lighting can be sued with a handgun or a rifle. And with a light-equipped shotgun. If you use a scattergun for home defense, you still need to ID your target, just like you do with a long gun or handgun.
With the handgun, the two lighting techniques apply to both a weapon-mounted flashlight and a handheld light for searching. This goes back to direct lighting for outdoors or hides, dark places, and addressing threats.
Also, the same principles apply to a handheld flashlight by itself if you’re not in a threat environment, i.e. just moving or searching. The canopy method is going to provide a greater ability to receive and process information than the direct method, but the direct method remains more effective when driving into deep places, corners, etc.
Q: Isn’t high ready unsafe?
High gun is only “unsafe” if you’re not taught the pros and cons of both high and low gun. As long as I am aware of what or who is above or below me as I wield the carbine or handgun, they are safe. Both positions have valuable benefits, for both weapons.
Q: When would you not go high ready?
I would not go high ready if that position muzzled something or could potentially cause harm to something I did not want to threaten. For instance, if I am searching outside of my house and I am moving towards it, I may not want to work from high gun because there are bedrooms on a second floor. I also may not want to work from the high gun if I the presence of any substrates on the ground could be used to assist in the lighting of an area.
Q: Is it okay to go “low gun” (low ready)?
It is ok to use low gun or high gun. When it comes to high ready vs. low ready, there are scenarios that can be laid out for either being efficient, safe, and effective.
Q: When would you not go low gun?
I may not use low gun if I need to drive the gun over a barrier/cover or another person. This could be team movement or working over/past a ballistic shield or another piece of cover or concealment. Similar situations could occur with “friendlies” in a home defense or other situations.
Q: Tell me about the rifle in that picture.
Suppressed LWRCI ICA5 carbine, equipped with Aimpoint CompM5, Surefire Scout light, Surefire SOCOM Mini suppressor, B.E. Meyers MAWL-DA laser, True North Concepts Gripstop, and Blue Force Gear sling. The weapon is using a Magpul PMAG with Magpod stabilizing base plate, loaded with Federal Premium 62gr bonded 5.56mm ammunition. Read more about or take a low light training class from Victory First: Victory-First.com.
David Reeder’s Wu Tang name is Lucky Prophet. He is a retired AF veteran, former Peace Officer, and current Tier 2.5 writer-operator. Over the course of his career, he has worked a variety of military and lE billets, served as an Observer-Controller at the National Homeland Security Training Center, a MOUT instructor, and an MTT tracking instructor – all of which sounds much cooler than it really was. Although he only updates his website once in a very great while, he can absolutely be relied upon to post to social media (@reederwrites) at least once a month. -Ish.
банан товарищ! If you’ve been wanting to add a banana magazine to your stockpile of AK goodness, you need wait no more. There are whole piles of AK 47 banana magazines stacked against the wall at GunMag Warehouse, and with each AK banana clip you get a banana mag morale patch!
*cue clip vs. magazine outrage comments here*
Banana mag, AK 47 banana clip…whatever you want to call it (or how it looks), this magazine works.
If you’re one of those who’re unfamiliar with the Kalash life, you might not recognize the term. I shall explain.
AK 47 Banana Magazine
A banana mag is a curved magazine for a firearm – typically, not always, used to refer to an AK 47 magazine (also referred to colloquially as an “AK banana clip”).
Banana magazines usually hold 30 rounds, though other options are available: like the Bulgarian 40-rounder, for instance.
You can buy a whole bunch of the US PALM banana magazine if you’d like. They’re in stock.
US PALM AK Mag
This particular batch of limited edition bananas comes from US PALM (not Ecuador or Costa Rica), having been freshly picked for your enjoyment. They’re manufactured using a proprietary banana-yellow polymer for the body and a blue version for the baseplate for the classic banana look. Functionally, the magazine is a sealed, one piece design, with a low-friction polymer follower inside and a stainless steel latch cage outboard.
In short, it’s a solidly built AK mag, though most of the folks buying one of ’em probably won’t be carrying one into a legitimate gunfight. Although that would be awesome.
Banana Clip Debut
Here’s the wording from the initial PR push announcing the banana clip design. It’s redundant, yes, but I need to increase the word count in this article for SEO purposes.
Instantly recognizable and forever dependable, this is the world’s most advanced AK-47 30-round magazine.
The sealed, one-piece design is built to endure with a proprietary polymer. A low-friction self-cleaning polymer follower keeps performing while the stainless steel latch cage ensures positive loading that won’t give way when you need it the most.
The unique waffle and tread design that distinguishes the US PALM magazine provides a solid grip for the shooter during loading and unloading while providing rigid reinforcement.
US PALM is an icon among AK enthusiasts, and for good reason.
David Reeder’s Wu Tang name is Lucky Prophet. He is a retired AF veteran, former Peace Officer, and current Tier 2.5 writer-operator. Over the course of his career, he has worked a variety of military and lE billets, served as an Observer-Controller at the National Homeland Security Training Center, a MOUT instructor, and an MTT tracking instructor – all of which sounds much cooler than it really was. Although he only updates his website once in a very great while, he can absolutely be relied upon to post to social media (@reederwrites) at least once a month. -Ish.
Magpul, a maker of quality Go-Bang parts, just released its third arm brace, this one for the HK94 / MP5 pattern pistols. It’s sure to turn some heads, as this is a very popular firearm with dozens of variants and service all over the world And…well, it’s Magpul, and we’re always interested to see what new innovations the company comes up with. (Remember the Folding Gun and other new accessories they announced at SHOT this year?)
This new arm brace is designed to add stability to one-handed shooting.
Take a look.
Magpul’s new brace is designed to be used as a stabilizing accessory for shooting HK 92 / MP5 pattern firearms one-handed. Top left, extended. Bottom left, collapsed. Right, posterior view.
It’s easy on the eyes. The new brace doesn’t distract from the gun’s iconic aesthetics.
Here, the brace is in the collapsed position.
Another view of the brace in the collapsed position.
About the new MP BSL Arm Brace: the folks at Magpul advise that the brace is made of high-strength polymer, it’s lightweight and collapsible, and does not require tools for adjustments. The brace has a large surface area for lateral forearm contact, which increases stability while shooting. The brace also has a QD sling attachment as well as an MLOK slot for more sling mounting options. It’s available in black only, and at pricing just under $160, it won’t break the bank.
Note: the MP BSL Arm Brace is not compatible with HK91/G3 or SP89/SP5K/MP5K pattern firearms.
Here’s how Magpul describes the new Arm Brace
The MP BSL Arm Brace – HK94/MP5 is a durable, lightweight, collapsible arm brace designed to aid the single-handed employment of HK94/MP5-pattern pistols. The MP BSL incorporates Magpul design and engineering to enhance brace functionality and provide a robust feature set for MP5-pattern pistols, all while maintaining the iconic aesthetic of the platform.
Constructed of our proprietary polymer and featuring a tool-less adjustment system that makes it easier to deploy and collapse the brace, the MP BSL is extremely durable with enhanced ergonomics.
The integrated ambidextrous QD sling attachment allows sling tension to be applied. That, combined with ample surface area for lateral forearm contact, increases stability while firing one-handed. An MLOK slot is also included on the MP BSL for additional sling mounting options.
Here’s the product launch video.
Arm Brace Features
The MP BSL Arm Brace is designed and intended for use as a stabilizing accessory for one-handed firing
Tool-less, one-handed adjustment
Ambidextrous rear QD cup allows sling tension to be applied while firing to improve stability
High-strength polymer and metal construction
M-LOK compatible slot allows for additional sling mounting options
Compatible with HK94/MP5 pattern pistols. Not compatible with HK91/G3 or SP89/SP5K/MP5K pattern firearms
Available in Black
Price is $159.95 (at the time of this writing)
Made in the USA
Now shipping, only available online at Magpul.com.
Be sure to check out Episode 177 of The Mag Life Podcast, with Magpul Executive Vice President Duane Liptak, to learn more about the new product line up for 2021 and how Magpul is working to build a positive culture for future gun owners.
Stephanie Kimmell is the firstborn daughter of Missouri’s Pecan King, worthy scion of a Vietnam veteran sailor turned mad engineer-orchardist-inventor-genius. With a BA in technical writing, she freelances as a writer and editor. A Zymurgist greatly interested in the decoction of fermented barley and hops, she is in many ways a modern amalgam of Esther Hobart Morris, Rebecca Boone, and Nellie Bly. She hunts, fishes, butchers, and cooks most anything. When not editing or writing, she makes soaps and salves, spins wool, and occasionally makes cheese from cows she milked herself. Kimmell is a driven epistemophilic who loves live music and all sorts of beer.
It’s a helluva week for Springfield to reveal a new magazine for the oh so famous Hellcat. Sig Sauer has announced a patent lawsuit against Springfield Armory for infringement on the Sig P365 magazine. Yet, Springfield perseveres and has released their latest magazine for the Hellcat. The Hellcat, much like the P365, is one of the few micro-compacts on the market—micro-compact seemingly being what we are calling super small 9mms with a high degree of capacity. The latest Hellcat magazine holds 15 rounds of ammunition.
The Hellcat premiered with 11 and 13 round magazines for the pistol. The 11 rounder fit flush into the Hellcat, and the 13 round variant offered you a slightly extended option. For the longest time, Sig held a slight advantage with the P365 and the availability of a 15 round magazine. Now Springfield has closed the gap between the Hellcat and the P365. Springfield’s new Hellcat magazine gives users 15 rounds of 9mm on tap.
11, 13, and 15 round magazines allow the Hellcat to be customizable for easy concealed carry and gunfighting.
Breaking Down the Hellcat Magazine
The key to the success behind the Hellcat and Sig’s magazine design is the way it tapers. Near the top, it’s a single stack design for the first three rounds. Below that it tapers into a double stack design. The magazine has a chrome exterior coating and witness holes from rounds 4 to 15.
At the very bottom, we predictably get an extended finger rest also coated with the adaptive grip texture that the Hellcat wears. As a dude with big hands, I always preferred the slightly extended 13 round magazine for the extra grip length, so I can appreciate the extra grip the 15 round magazine offers.
A witness hole for every round makes eyeing capacity easy.
However, for concealment purposes, the 15 round magazine does get a little long. The 15 round Hellcat magazine adds an extra quarter-inch when compared to the 13 round magazine. It’s a half-inch longer than the 11 round Hellcat magazine when wearing the flush-fitting baseplate.
Like most extended magazines, the 15 round Hellcat magazine will make you choose between capacity and concealment, well, kind of. What’s the point of a super compact handgun if the handle has the same length as a Glock 19? I see Hellcat’s 15 round magazine being carried as a spare magazine.
Consider your grip formally extended.
Carrying the Hellcat with an 11 or even 13 round magazine keeps the weapon concealable, and packing an extra 15 rounds for when things go south makes a lot of sense. It’s easy to drop a magazine in a pocket and forget all about it.
Hellcat vs. Sig
I’m not making a full-on comparison of these two guns— it’s been done before. However, I want to talk about the two guns and their magazines. Specifically, I want to compare their 15 round magazines. Fifteen rounds of ammo is a ton for a subcompact, almost pocket pistol-sized gun. So who does it more efficiently?
Both the Hellcat and P365 now offer 15 round magazines.
I grabbed my standard P365 frame, a 15 round magazine, and compared it to my Hellcat and its 15 round magazine. The SIG magazines use side witness holes every five rounds, which isn’t a big deal, but I prefer the Hellcat style.
Oh look, my P365 magazine is rusting…again.
The SIG’s all-black magazines have this nasty habit of rusting. I don’t use the 15 round magazine often, but I wasn’t shocked when a good bit of rust developed on the rear of it. I store my handgun magazines together, and the P365 magazines are the only ones that consistently rust. I’ve never had any issues with rust with the Hellcat magazines.
The P365 15 round magazine is noticeably longer than the Hellcats.
Size-wise the Hellcat magazine provides a more efficient and slightly shorter magazine. When you measure from the top of the rear sights to the bottom of the magazine, the Sig P365 measures 5 ⅛ inches. The Hellcat measures 5 inches even.
The Hellcat’s main competitor happens to be the Sig P365, which already has a 15 round magazine.
From the bottom of the grip to the baseplate of the 15 round magazine, the Sig measures 1.25 inches. Measuring from the bottom of the grip of the Hellcat magazine to the bottom of the magazine is 1-inch. It’s a good bit shorter, and that matters if you plan to carry the gun with the magazine in place.
The Sig P365 magazines provide two points of grip to rip the magazine from the magwell if needed. The Hellcat doesn’t pack the same grip points.
Hellcat Magazine — Fit and Function
So does the magazine work? My previous experience with the Hellcat left me feeling confident enough that it’d work, but I needed to figure it out for myself. Loading the magazine is a feat of strength. The Sig has extra room to stretch and makes it rather easy to load.
Getting the last three rounds into the 15 round Hellcat magazine is a serious feat. I had to give my thumb a rest before I could load the final round. Holy crap, this thing is hard to load. When loaded, trying to get the magazine into the gun with the slide closed is another feat.
Not gonna lie, my big hands dig the extended grip.
As much as I’d love to do a plus 1 with this magazine, I’d probably just drop the +1 into the pipe directly. Once the magazine was loaded up, I wasn’t excited to load it again. The good news is that I got to unload it the fun way.
I emptied the magazine and committed a reload with a spare 13 rounder. I let the magazine hit the dirt, and this was the first reload of many I committed to. My range area is finely tuned sand, and sandhills are not uncommon in Florida. It’s fine white sand, and it’s coarse and rough and irritating, and it gets everywhere.
Sand sucks for firearms, but the magazine didn’t choke even after taking a few dives into this crap.
It will also disable most mechanical goodies, and magazines are simple mechanical goods. I did a dozen reloads, letting the magazine hit the sand every time. Sand infiltrated the magazine, and every time I loaded the magazine, I heard the follower grit and grind. Yet, it never failed or choked.
Size matters, but sometimes you want to be shorter than longer boys.
I completely loaded it two more times after it was exposed to sand, and it still functioned without issue. It also fed a good deal of sand into my gun, but no big problems to report.
Get Yours Now
15 rounds of 9mm provide you plenty of options to deal with nearly any threat. It’s a lot of ammunition and provides plenty of firepower for any concealed carrier. The Hellcat magazine design is rather efficient and quite reliable. I broke the gun and magazine down, and a little warm water and a rag cleaned it out, and we were back to being golden. It’s always nice to have more options than fewer. Does the 15 round Hellcat magazine appeal to you?
Would you carry in the weapon or as a spare?
Let us know below.
Travis Pike is a former Marine Machine Gunner, a lifelong firearms enthusiast, and now a regular guy who likes to shoot, write, and find ways to combine the two. He holds an NRA certification as a Basic Pistol Instructor and is the world’s Okayest firearm’s instructor.
Building a tactical lever-action rifle. You can do it with the Midwest Industries Marlin MLOK handguard, one of the Henry X lever guns, a Henry Long Ranger, even a Mare’s Leg — though like the Tac-14 vs. a Remington 870 it’s not going to be as effective as a Henry Big Boy X Model or Big Boy Steel Side Gate. As I see it (though I’m biased), the question isn’t whether you could or even should build a tactical lever action, it’s a question of how soon can you do it? Below you’ll find a collection of opinions on the “tactical lever action”, from how to build one yourself, to after-market accessories you might take advantage of, to reviews of particularly well-liked rifles and carbines. Editor
Make no mistake, I have nothing against the Henry’s Mare’s Leg. You can see mine here during a hike a couple of years back. It just wouldn’t be my first choice of lever guns (if I were offered one) to use if someone was shooting back. I’ve used several different loads in it, including some .38 +P defensive cartridges, though as of this writing I’ve yet to try any shotshells in it.
The lever gun was, back in the day, much like the AR-15 is today. Everyone had one to defend their home and land. We see people today still use them as hunting rifles or, in the case of Cowboy Action Shooting matches, they are used in competition. However, the lever-action rifle design has largely remained stagnant. There has not — until recently — been a way to accessorize one that works well.
Lately, however, some people have been making tactical lever-action rifles with the Midwest Industries MLOK handguard.
Tactical Lever Action Rifles: Early Versions
Mossberg released their Tactical 464 SPX several years ago. They took their 464 lever action and added a railed handguard as well as an AR-15 style carbine stock for adjustable length of pull and threaded the barrel.
The 464 SPX has undergone a slight change with the handguard. It no longer comes with the cheese grater tri-rail. As you can see from the stock image below, the handguard rails have been greatly reduced to just a few slots near the front end of the handguard.
While this ticks all the boxes as a “tactical lever action rifle” it was not widely adopted. I did not see Marlin or Henry Repeating Arms running to make a similar gun.
Midwest Industries To The Rescue
Midwest Industries designed an M-Lok handguard for the Marlin 1895. When used on the Marlin 336, you get something better looking and more functional than the Mossberg 464 SP. Although you do lose the length of pull adjustability. But do you see something that the Marlin does that the Mossberg can’t? The top Picatinny rail for optics. That was the biggest problem with the Mossberg. Sure you could get the right set of rings and scope but the Marlin 336 allows you to attach any optic of your choosing. Red dots seem to work the best on a lever action rifle.
The success of the Marlin MLOK handguard led Midwest to make a similar handguard for the Henry Repeating Arms lever guns however it is significantly more complex to install. While the Marlin handguard takes at most 10 minutes with simple tools, the Henry handguard almost requires a competent gunsmith. Below is a concept gun by Henry called the X1.
I Made My Own
Some people have gone the extra mile and modified their guns, or in this case handguards as well, to get a certain look and feel out of their rifle. Phil Rock aka @bufallodiller SBR’d his Marlin 1894 and threaded the barrel so he could suppress it with a SilencerCo Osprey45. The handguard was modified. He had to cut an inch off near the back of the handguard and reweld it back up. You can’t even tell anything happened.
Inspired by this build I tried to make one myself. Taylor’s Firearms offered up their 1892 Alaskan. This is a take down lever action rifle with short optic rail.
In order to take the barrel off the receiver, you have to flip open the locking lever on the end of the magazine tube. Unscrew the magazine tube until it is free and then pull it out about half an inch. The barrel has interrupted threads so you can rotate the barrel assembly 90 degrees and it will separate from the receiver. I wish the magazine tube also had interrupted threads, then I wouldn’t have to unscrew the entire tube. Just a quarter circle turn and out it comes.
This 1892 Alaskan is chambered in .44 Rem Magnum so I could suppress it with my Osprey 45. The barrel is only 16″ but that length is needed for suppressing .44mag. If the barrel was shorter, the pressure of the cartridge would be too much for the Osprey45.
The 1892 Alaskan is not like the Marlin 1894. It has similarities but attaching the handguard required gunsmithing. I acquired the help of my friend Keith and his machine shop. The first challenge was attaching the handguard since the attachment points do not line up the same as they do on a Marlin. This was a simple matter of just drilling two new holes that line up with the factory mounting point on the 1892 barrel.
Then we tackled the rear of the handguard and how it interfaces with the 1892 barrel end cap. The endcap had three set screws installed on the inside. I am not sure what they are for but they dont go all the way through so they only interact with the rear of the factory handguard. Maybe there are there to take up any slack in the handguard? Well we removed them and inserted longer set screws. Keith then milled corresponding pockets in the Midwest Industries handguard. So now the handguard plugs into those three elongated set screws.
Below you can see the factory mounting hole just above the sling mount on the side of the handguard. As you move a little bit rearward along the handguard, you can see the new screw position that bolts to the barrel attachment point.
I had Keith cut open the first MLOK slot on the bottom of the handguard near the muzzle so I can lift the locking lever of the magazine tube and remove it to take down the rifle.
Next up was to thread the barrel. This is a little more difficult. I couldn’t simply thread the barrel since the muzzle in flush with the magazine tube. The locking lever of the magazine tube actually indexes with an indentation on the bottom of the barrel. The other issue is that I will have to sacrifice the front sight. Since I will be exclusively shooting this with a red dot, I was fine with losing my front sight.
With the suppressor, the 1892 Alaskan is pleasant to shoot. Besides the fact that it is now hearing safe to shoot without earplugs or earmuffs, the Osprey45 actually helps to reduce recoil. I have never really noticed recoil reduction before on pistol caliber rifles or even while suppressing a 12ga shotgun or rifle in either 5.56 or .308.
However, I tried this setup with and without the suppressor and there was a remarkable reduction thanks to the suppressor.
I am very pleased with how this setup ended up. Not only do I have cooler looking rifle, it feels more ergonomic to hold the handguard further out toward the muzzle. I can add lights and lasers or even a bipod now. And of course, shooting suppressed is significantly more pleasant than unsuppressed. The only things I would change would be the make the magazine tube threads be interrupted so I don’t have to unscrew the whole thing to take down the rifle. I would also like a Magpul SGA-style stock rather than the old-timey stock it has now.
Also, I would like it if the loading port was on the left-hand side of the receiver rather than on the right. That way I don’t have to remove my shooting hand from the grip just to load the rifle.
However, a lot of those modifications are a lot more complicated and not something Keith or I could manage to do.
NC
Winchester Model 1886 in 45-90 Win
Kat Ainsworth Stevens
There is a permeating belief in the gun world that certain firearm platforms are superior to others. AR trumps shotgun, shotguns are better than bolts, and so on. One of the commonly overlooked platforms is the lever-action rifle, and it’s a shame. Lever-actions rock. Not only do they hold a legit place for usefulness, but they also have historical significance. For example, the creation of the Winchester Model 1886 marked a turning point in firearms and even today it continues to be an excellent lever to add to your collection.
Read on to find out how it impacted history and why it’s relevant today.
Note for the purists: Is this the best option for a tactical lever-action rifle or lever action for home defense? Not in the context of the common vernacular, but a more “tactical” capability (e.g. faster reloads, the potential use of an optic, etc.) can be readily achieved with very little work. The following overview is to help you make an informed decision about your particular choice of lever gun.
Image credit: Winchester.
History
Wandering off into the historical weeds is a favorite pastime of mine. In this case, it might be even more enjoyable thanks to the gun in question. Levers are the guns that won the Old West and the 1886, specifically, was designed to win wars and drop dangerous game (which it did and does).
As its model name suggests, the Winchester 1886 began production in 1886 as an updated and improved version of the old Model 1876. It was designed by John Browning and manufactured by Winchester Repeating Arms Company (of course).
The 1886 was a more durable and reliable model thanks to changes such as a better locking-block and a nickel-steel barrel, the latter of which was used for smokeless powder cartridges. It was chambered in bigger calibers, too, starting with the 45-70 Gov’t and moving on to 45-90 and 50-110 Express. Nearly two decades after its creation, it was chambered in .33 WCF, and then two decades after that it was offered in .348 Winchester. Eventually, 32-gauge shotshell was available by special order.
This model lever was used in the Spanish-American War and also early in World War I chambered in 45-90 Sharps. Apparently, it was needed in World War I so it could be loaded with incendiary ammunition to target airships. That order was placed by Great Britain and the guns were issued to gunners who used the levers to shoot hydrogen gas-filled German zeppelins.
Nothing says badass like using a 45-90 lever-action to set zeppelins on fire.
The Winchester Model 1886 was manufactured from 1886 to 1935 when it was discontinued. Luckily for us, it’s now back courtesy of Winchester. I was fortunate enough to get my hands on a model chambered in 45-90.
Winchester 1886 in 45-90. Photo: Kat Ainsworth Stevens.
Winchester Model 1886 Details
Right out of the box the Winchester 1886 Short Rifle is a beautiful gun. The stock and forearm are made using Grade I walnut with a well-done satin finish and the receiver, lever, forearm cap, and buttplate are blued.
It ships with a Marble Arms front sight and adjustable rear sight. Originally this model was made to handle the 45-70 cartridge but it was eventually chambered in 45-90 Win.
The Model 1886 45-90 has a 24-inch steel barrel with a Sporter contour and brushed polish finish. Its overall length is 43 inches and it has an empty weight of 8 pounds, 6 ounces.
The recoil pad is the classic curved style and made from crescent metal in keeping with the original design. This gun has a basic, clean design with no engraving or checkering (personally, I like it this way). Tubular magazine capacity is 8 rounds.
Winchester 18-86 Range Day
My first impression of the Winchester 1886, aside from its pleasing aesthetic appearance, was that it’s a reasonably well-balanced lever-action. With a 13 ¼-inch length of pull, it’s a good fit for my arms and the straight grip stock provides a solid cheek weld.
Stock
The one downside to sticking to its classic design is those aforementioned crescent points on the stock. Those will absolutely jab you in the shoulder to some degree so if you’re considering shooting the gun at some length keep those contact points in mind. Shouldering the gun securely will only get you so far.
The crescent buttplate of the Winchester 1886 is the classic design but does make extensive, non-stop shooting more challenging. Photo: Kat Ainsworth Stevens.
Safety
There’s a tang safety on the Winchester 1886, the handiness of which depends on personal taste. If you’re used to cross-bolt safeties don’t worry, it doesn’t take too much time to become accustomed to a tang safety.
The original Winchester Model 1886 didn’t have this feature but it only makes sense that it’s been added to the modern-day model.
Trigger
The trigger has a clean break and fairly short reset. You’ll have no trouble running this rifle quickly.
The Winchester Model 1886 has a good trigger with a clean break and a slimmer loop that streamlines the rifle but does make it harder while wearing gloves. Photo: Kat Ainsworth Stevens.
Sights
The Winchester 1886 has an adjustable rear sight. Photo: Kat Ainsworth Stevens.
The lever ships with a Marble Arms front sight. Photo: Kat Ainsworth Stevens.
Recoil
Recoil is probably at the front of your mind so let’s get that out of the way.
The Winchester 1886 in 45-90 does have noticeable felt recoil because it is, after all, a lever-action chambered in a hefty cartridge. That felt recoil isn’t problematic, though.
This is where shouldering the rifle properly and maintaining a solid shooting stance matter. As long as those bases are covered you’ll be fine. Felt recoil is best described as manageable.
This is a top-loading lever. Photo: Kat Ainsworth Stevens.
Ballistics
Ballistically the 45-90 Win is the perfect round for hunting large game. Depending on the load you can exceed 4,000 foot-pounds of muzzle energy. It’s a great cartridge for deer hunting but it’s worth remembering you’re not just going to shoot the deer, you’re going to blow a substantial wound cavity in its vitals.
If meat preservation is of the utmost importance to you, levers are probably not going to be your thing for deer. That said, they do get the job done handily and are fun to hunt with.
The 45-90 chambering came after the 45-70. Photo: Kat Ainsworth Stevens.
Greg Mead of Mead Industries provided the bulk of the ammunition used in my Winchester Model 1886 45-90. In fact, this review came to be because of his own interest in the cartridge. This was a case of the ammunition coming before the firearm and I’m glad he piqued my own curiosity.
Mead’s loads are 45-90 300 grain RNFPs. This cartridge can be difficult to come by so aside from suggesting you go through Mead Industries I suggest this gun makes a great case for the need to handload your ammunition.
With its button-rifled barrel and recessed crown, the 1886 is an accurate rifle. Seated at the bench from a distance of 100 yards the 1886 loaded with Mead Industries 45-90 300 grain RNFP delivered average 5-shot groups of 3.6-inches. You’ll have no trouble dropping deer—or hogs, bears, or what-have-you—with this rifle.
How Practical is a Lever Action Rifle?
If you think that lever-action sitting in your safe is only good for a lazy walk in the woods, guess again.
Heavy bullets and big chamberings make levers viable options for hunting, but they will also work for home defense and as truck guns. Levers have just as much use for defense of self as any other gun out there.
And, if you’re facing the obvious guns-and-ammo shortage by willfully ignoring the levers in your collection or available on the racks of your local gun store—you’re missing out.
These are well-made platforms and can in fact be run quickly and accurately in practiced hands. There’s no reason to work that lever clumsily and slowly. Get some practice in and you’ll discover just how fast it can be.
One key to loving levers is understanding their limitations.
Guns like the 1886 in 45-90, or 45-70, are capable but do not have incredible range. The bullets drop quickly leaving you with an effective range of approximately 150 yards. You may be able to push past that to around 200 yards depending on the load.
Just like with any gun you must be familiar with the drift and drop of your rifle with its specific ammunition. Adding a scope like the Skinner Optics 1-6×24 scope is highly recommended to improve range and accuracy.
The Skinner Optics 1-6×24 scope was designed with levers in mind. Photo credit: Kat Ainsworth Stevens.
The reason I’m naming the Skinner scope specifically is that the owner of the company, Andy Larsson, is well-versed in lever-actions. He knew how to design a slim scope with a broad field of vision to suit their design. There are other options available but consider taking a moment to check out the Skinner Optics 1-6. This model is not drilled and tapped for a scope so you’ll need to have that done by a competent gunsmith before properly mounting an optic.
Winchester Model 1886 Review: 10/10
Yes, 10/10 I recommend the Winchester 1886 in 45-90.
Having levers in your collection not only broadens your firearm skills but also expands the possibilities in a market where the uber-popular calibers are all but impossible to come by. (Again, get on the handloading and reloading, guys.)
This is a well-made, quality lever-action rifle that’s proven itself to be reliable and accurate. The biggest drawback is that crescent stock but that’s the classic design and comes with the territory.
No, you’re not going to get mind-blowing sub-half-MOA precision out of a lever, but who cares? This gun performs well, impacts targets accurately, and hits hard enough to get the job done and then some.
If you’re not so sure of the chambering, Winchester also offers it in 45-70 Gov’t—which just might be my favorite lever cartridge in existence.
Don’t make the mistake of dismissing the lever-action rifle for personal defense. It would be a tragic error to discount their efficacy when your life or the lives of your loved ones are on the line.
Winchester Model 1886 Specifications
•Caliber: 45-90 Win
•Barrel length: 24 inches
•Overall length: 43 inches
•Length of pull: 13 ¼ inches
•Drop at comb: 1 ¼ inches
•Drop at heel: 2 inches
•Weight: 8 pounds, 6 ounces, empty
•Magazine capacity: 8 rounds
•Twist rate: 1-in-20
•Barrel Finish: Brushed Polish
•Stock finish: Satin
•Wood Grade: Grade I Walnut
•Receiver finish: Brushed Polish
•Chamber finish: Polished
•Barrel: Steel
•Barrel contour: Sporter
•Recoil pad: Crescent Metal
•Pistol Grip Cap: None
•Checkering: None
•Engraving: None
•Sling Swivel Studs: None
•Receiver Material: Steel
•Trigger finish: Brushed Polish
•Bolt slide finish: Brushed Polish
•Magazine: Full-length tube
•Trigger material: Steel
•Trigger guard material: Steel
•Trigger Guard Engraving: None
•Drilled and Tapped: No
•MSRP (as of this writing): $1399.99
Kat Ainsworth
Henry Long Ranger
A .223 option mag-fed option for your tactical lever-action rifle build
David Higginbotham
The Henry name is synonymous with lever-actions. Almost all of their guns are tube-fed and highly traditional in their design. The Long Ranger line, though, changed the game for Henry.
Henry fans long clamored for a gun that could offer more reliable long-range accuracy, and one that was faster to load, and the company responded with the Henry Long Ranger.
See what they did there?
Art Fuente, staring down the barrel. The irons on this Henry .223 come standard. This configuration doesn’t look particularly “tactical” but don’t let the looks fool you. The features of this Henry rifle make it an excellent choice for an old-school/current school precision rifle — and .223 ammunition is typically (though not always) relatively easy to come by.
Henry Long Ranger
The Long Ranger line is, as its name implies, meant for long-range shooting. Most of them, anyhow (more on that in a moment). With no magazine tube hanging off the barrel, the gun is free to move as it wants. Free floated barrels typically offer much more in the way of long-range accuracy than barrels that are bound up by gas tubes or mag tubes, so the Long Ranger has that going for it.
The bolt’s travel can take some getting used to, particularly if you’re more accustomed to sitting behind a bolt gun chassis or traditional AR frame rifle.
The box mags of the Long Ranger are also faster to reload. They’re not as fast as an AR mag, but these will drop free with the push of a button. They have bright red followers that are easy to identify. The follower can even be seen under the bolt when it is closed, which is a great indicator of an empty mag and an almost empty rifle.
With the bolt closed, you can still see the red follower in the Henry. Barely.
Vital Versatility
The mag-fed design also allows for a wider variety of ammunition. Think of the .30-30. This round has a big flat nose that’s meant to be fed into a tube mag. It also isn’t known for its super-long-range reliability. With a traditional box mag, you can load any number of pointy calibers–rounds that would be damaged or potentially dangerous if stacked up in a tube.
The magazine is built like a tank and fits flush.
Henry’s making the Long Ranger in .223, like this one, .243 Win, .308 Win, and 6.5 Creedmoor. In each of these, you now have the option of carrying a spare magazine or two.
If you’re looking to go from field to table, you have options. With the .308, you may want an FMJ to drop a boar at 300 yards or a soft point for whitetail. Maybe you want a mag or two full of surplus rounds for plinking. Multiple mags make it easy to switch out.
If you’re building it for more tactical purposes, i.e. as a defensive rifle, those ammunition choices might change.
Henry is offering these in two factory set-ups. One comes with scope mounts. If you know you’ll be shooting long distances, this may be the best option.
Two Henry Long Rangers. One version comes with sights, the other with scope mounts. The latter could be used for a “fighting” optic like your favorite LPVO if you wanted it to. There are a variety of after-market solutions for your WML or other needs, too.
If you want versatility, pick one of the three models they offer with irons. You can still mount a scope on these, but they don’t come from the factory with mounts. Henry sells those as an extra.
Not a bad group for iron sights. The smaller holes are from a Henry 20 gauge. The latter is not, unfortunately, mounted underneath the Long Ranger a la the Masterkey. Which is too bad, really. That would be almost as cool to have on a tactical lever action as it would be to sport a (37mm or 40mm) tube.
Why a .223 lever action rifle?
I hunt in Arkansas. Hunt with a .223 is legal here. The caliber is ideal for whitetail and for hogs, and I rarely get shots that are more than 200 yards. Most are under 100. For a brush-gun, nothing beats the speed of good iron sights. Maybe a red dot. Possibly a fiber optic 1-4.
But this is a lever action. Even jocked up to be a tactical lever action it would have that feel of tradition, the way my uncles used to hunt in the 60s, only better.
And I can put down some effective groups with the iron sights. The group above is from 100 yards, off a bench rest. You can see I’m not hitting exactly where I want, but the consistency lets me know that all I need to do is adjust the sights.
When released the Henry Long Ranger in this form had an MSRP of $1,066. That’s not bad for a gun that will long outlive you.
DH
A vintage ad for Marlin lever-action rifles.
The Lever Action for Home Defense
Jim Davis
In this day and age, with a plethora of semi-auto rifles and carbines available to choose from, why in the world would someone in his right mind choose a lever-action rifle with which to defend hearth and home?
Everyone knows that lever guns are antiquated and useless, don’t they?
Rifle options for home defense. As you can see, the Marlin 336Y is actually shorter than many popular semi-autos. Here you can see it compared to the M-1 Carbine, Marlin 336 Youth Model, an underfolder AK, and an AR-15 Carbine.
Let’s not be so fast to dismiss them. Perhaps…just maybe…they still have something to offer to the masses. To be certain, they do have their drawbacks (what firearm doesn’t?). Conversely, maybe they have enough advantages for us to revisit them for defensive purposes.
To be clear, this isn’t a hit piece on modern firearms. I love semi-autos of all sorts. AR-15s, the M-1 Garand and carbine, the M-1A, a good HK-91…all very sexy! But there’s something about a lever gun, and not just its low-key nature either.
I live in Pennsylvania, a state where deer hunting is practically a religion. I’ve often joked that the lever-action rifle is practically an issued firearm for hunters in my state. The .30-30 Winchester is far and wide the most popular game-getter in these parts where many deer are taken in the woods where shots don’t typically stretch for hundreds of yards.
Without going painstakingly into the ballistics, it will throw 150 and 170-grain factory projectiles out to around 200 yards (give or take) effectively enough to put a deer down. It will also take a black bear if necessary.
The .35 Remington is a distant second to the .30-30 in popularity. Other favored rounds include the .44 and .357 Magnum.
Popular defensive rifle rounds: 5.56mm, 7.62x39mm, and .30-30. Photo credit: Rebecca Davis.
Some will reach out farther than others, obviously, but all of those cartridges will take game. They will also put aggressive humanoids down, and that is the main focus of this article.
Lever Action Rifle Drawbacks
Limited Capacity
First, let’s look at some disadvantages of the lever-action rifle.
The magazine capacity of a lever gun is probably the most obvious drawback. Its capacity isn’t typically high, especially in rifle calibers.
My personal favorite rifle caliber lever gun in .30-30 is the Marlin 336Y (the Marlin Youth Model 336) with a 16 ¼ -inch barrel and an overall length of 33 ¼ inches. Weight is 6 ½ pounds. This carbine holds five rounds in the magazine plus one in the chamber. Most standard-sized model 336 carbines hold six rounds plus one in the chamber.
That is not a lot of rounds (as if you needed me to point that out to you). The question is, what are you going to be using the weapon for? Will it be to repel a robber in the night? Deal with civil unrest? Zombie Apocalypse? Realistically, how many targets might I need to engage in a short time? That’s certainly an important question to answer, and one that should be considered with any defensive firearm.
Lever Gun Rate of Fire
The lever gun lags behind the semi-auto again here, and in more than one way. Not only is a lever-action rifle’s actual rate of fire lower than a semi-auto, but it will also (for most users) be at least somewhat more difficult to reacquire the target for an accurate shot after the trigger break. And that’s assuming they maintain a cheek weld throughout.
The rate of fire of a lever action rifle will be typically be lower than that of a semi-auto like the AR15…for most people. It’s not going to be as big an issue for an Ash Williams, Josh Randall, Lucas McCain, Jerry Miculek, or other such mythical shooter.
Now, How About the Advantages of a Lever Gun?
The Tubular Magazine Has Its Points
Some might see the tubular magazine as a drawback, but that might not necessarily be the case. Consider that the magazine will never be lost since it’s an integral part of the carbine. You don’t need to buy additional magazines, which can be costly. Detachable magazines can become damaged or lost, but the tubular magazine is not likely to suffer such maladies. The tubular magazine can be topped off one round at a time during a lull in the action, which is also an advantage that we don’t enjoy with detachable box magazines.
The tubular magazine can be topped off one round at a time. Try that with a detachable magazine! Photo by Rebecca Davis.
With a lever-action, there are no detachable magazines to be lost or create malfunctions. Photo credit: Rebecca Davis.
It’s Easy to Maneuver
The overall length of the Marlin Youth carbine is pretty close to that of an AR-15 carbine, which makes it pretty handy and easy to maneuver, especially indoors, where a defensive arm is likely to be used. The little rifle is fairly maneuverable in hallways and such.
Marlin 336Y beside an M1 Carbine. The M-1, widely known for its hardiness, is small and maneuverable, but the Marlin 336Y is even shorter. Photo by Rebecca Davis.
It’s Less “Scary” Looking
The old lever action is pretty socially acceptable. After all, it is the gun that the cowboys used, and is very unlikely to cause terror in the local populace if seen. These days, the sad truth is that people tend to get panicky if they see a black rifle, and that can work against us in certain situations. Unfortunately, perception is a huge factor in these modern times, and any opportunity we can take advantage of to not have people freak out is to our credit. Does that mean you shouldn’t own an AR? Of course not. But the “low-key” perception people so often have of a lever gun can definitely be an advantage.
Slicing the pie around corners is easy given the short length of this lever-action — a weapon that is less likely to provoke an over-the-top anti-gun response than those scaaaary AR15s. Photo credit: Rebecca Davis.
A Lever Action Probably Won’t Break Your Wallet
Cost is also a factor with many folks, considering we’re not all rich. On the secondary market, a lever-action might set us back a couple hundred bucks, if that. Maybe you already have one, or maybe a relative has one that he’s not really using. In my area, they are in every gunshop at very reasonable prices. Even new ones aren’t very expensive, so availability is not an issue. As an aside, ammunition for lever actions is typically very available too.
Make no mistake, if you want, you can spend several months’ wages on a lever gun. There are models out there that are sufficiently fancy to drain your account faster than Bernie Sanders would love to. Accessories abound, including lights, optics, suppressors, rail systems, etc. Personally, I take a minimalist approach for a few reasons, primarily because I can’t afford all that stuff!
Beyond that, when you begin adding accessories galore, that streamlined handiness of the carbine quickly is lost. Weight increases, and again, the handling characteristics go to hell fast.
These Might Be Your Best Accessory Choices
Any weapon intended for defensive use should have a light on it if at all possible. That’s as true with an old lever gun as it is with a brand spankin’ new Glock.
Another accessory that might help a lot of people would be an optic. My aging eyes do not appreciate the buckhorn-style sights on most lever guns. A red dot sight or LPVO sure does help me out a lot.
For extra tight spaces, the carbine can be pulled back as you slice the pie. Notice that the muzzle does not extend past the distance that a pistol normally would. This cannot be done as easily on rifles equipped with a pistol grip. There are a number of after-market accessories available to turn your lever gun into a “tactical lever action”, including some intended to mount a weapon light and a red dot. Photo by Rebecca Davis.
Courtroom Advantages
The legal factor cannot be ignored, either. Certain states or locales make it very difficult to own semi-autos and other “exotic” firearms (I’m using exotic there the same way a defense attorney might use “military-grade”).
But I’m not aware of any (yet) that prohibit hunting-type rifles.
And after a shooting, when you go to court and a lawyer holds up that firearm to a potential jury, your humble, low-key lever-action rifle is going to appear much more reserved and reasonable than an AR15 with a red dot, red dot magnifier, offset red dot, bipod, and light-laser combo on it.
A lever gun says, “Hey, I’m just a reasonable guy trying to defend my family.”
Is that necessarily right, accurate, or just? Of course not. But appearances matter, particularly when gun-related litigation is the context. That’s another advantage.
In any case, those cost and legal factors alone might dictate that we have to use what is at hand as opposed to what is on our “wish list.”
Don’t Disregard the Lever Action for Home Defense
Would I feel confident taking on a home invader (or more than one) with a lever-action carbine? I think so.
I’d feel okay about repelling attackers in my house with one if that’s what I had ready to hand and I’d trained and rehearsed with it..
I’d say it would be quite premature to write off the lever-action carbine just yet. It’s been effective since the 1800s and it’s soldiering on well into the next millennium.
Not only is it effective, but it also offers a nice bit of nostalgia for those who enjoy that sort of thing.
JD
A Rossi Ranch Hand, held at (and for shooting from) the hip. Custom leather rig (effectively a single point sling) made by Ranger Leather.
Tactical Lever Action Rifle Accessories
David Reeder
I’m going to use the word tactical in that title and in some of these parts and after-market accessories below out of simple pragmatism. That’s what many people are searching for on the interwebz, whether they’re building out their lever gun to fight/defend or hunt with.
It’s also at least a partially accurate term. Few people are going to put a weapon light, red dot, and certain other accouterments on a new-schooled old-school rifle if they aren’t assembling it with defensive purposes in mind.
And, frankly, some folks — myself included — will add certain accessories more for the aesthetic of things than an actual need.
There’s nothing wrong with that, as long as the look-cool part doesn’t replace a more functional part on a gun that might actually have lives depending on it. But I digress.
The following sections will all be works in progress. We intend to update it as often as possible.
Optic Mounts for a Lever Action
We’ve received more than one email here at TML asking our opinions about optics for a lever action. Some folks wonder if a lever gun takes a different red dot sight, LPVO, etc. than a bolt gun or semi-auto like the AR15 platform guns. Barring some niche purpose that we might not know about, that’s not the case. The best scope for a lever-action rifle is going to be the one that best suits that rifle’s mission, just like every other weapon platform.
That, then, leads us back to the far more common debate about the relative value and quality of pretty much all optics…almost any of which will be superior to a typical lever gun’s “buckhorn” style, ghost ring, or peep sight arrangement. And all of which, unfortunately, will be more likely to interfere with any use as a saddle gun, if that’s your goal.
Regardless of your personal optic choice, you have to mount it, and that is lever-action specific. A Marlin 336 and Winchester 1873 will each require a different mount than an old Winchester M94, for instance, due to the way they drilled and tapped (or not) and where they eject. Similarly, the grooved receiver case on a Henry 45-70 or Savage 99 may make it easier for you to add the RDS you prefer than, say, Henry’s Mare’s Leg.
Below we’ll lay out some options. First, consider the following questions:
• What make and model is the lever-action carbine or rifle?
• What is the intended purpose and operating environment of the weapon?
• Does the weapon have an integral rail, e.g. the Pedersoli Boarbuster, Henry All Weather .45-70, or Marlin Dark Series 1895?
• Is the weapon’s receiver drilled and tapped? If so, is it for pistol caliber or rifle caliber?
• Does the weapon have a fixed stock (most of them) or adjustable (ex. the Mossberg 464 SPX)?
• Will you need to add a padded cheek rest?
Phoenix Weaponry Red Dot Sights for Lever Guns
Initially designed for Henry Repeating Arms rifles and carbines, this is a lightweight low profile direct mount for H006 and H012 rifles using factory mounting holes for several brands of red dot sights (see below).
As of this writing, it is available in clear or gold and black and compatible with:
Diversified Innovative Products Henry Scope Mounts
The DIP H001 and H003 adapters are 3/8 in. dovetail rail “upgrades” cut for use with both Picatinny and Weaver attachments. The manufacturer advises that no drilling and tapping is required. As of this writing, these are made for .22 Henry lever guns only.
• Made with USA 6061 T3 billet aircraft aluminum
• Secured by six (6) 1/6 in. Allen drive set screws
• Height approximately .21 in., weight 2 oz, length 4.625 in.
• Mount described as having 5MOA built in to allow zero from 15-160 yards
This adapter for dovetails to Weaver rings or Picatinny rails is shown on a pump-action Henry, but is available for lever guns as well.
Taylor’s 1873 Lever Action—Easy on the Eyes
David Higginbotham
I had an old Colt Python, once, and a Colt 1911 that was made in 1913, and both of those were exquisite guns. I even felt bad shooting them. There’s a historical quality to this rifle, but this Taylor’s 1873 Checkered Straight Stock Rifle is—hands down—the most handsome rifle I’ve ever had the pleasure of reviewing, and it is built to be used, too.
The guts of the 1873 are under the plate.
Stepping back
When did we, as American gun buyers, decide aesthetics didn’t really matter? We have some attractive guns, yes. And there are some independent craftsmen still doing solid work—but pick up a Taylor’s 1873 Lever Action and you’ll see what I mean. This gun is stunning.
Taylor’s has mastered the refinement of guns that are just as fun to shoot as they are to look at.
The case hardening is likely to be the first thing you’ll notice. The mottled colors range from gold to purple to black, all in rather muted shades. There’s a depth to the finish that is both protective and hypnotic.
The Taylor’s 1873 Lever Action. This classic homage is a great way to experience history first hand.
The bluing on the barrel is also really deep. Bluing is easy enough to do. Achieving a uniform finish to the steel underneath requires more effort.
If you want a polished, almost glass-like blue, you have to sand down the surface. It goes beyond bead-blasting or machine work and has to be done by hand.
The checkering on the stock is functional and aesthetically pleasing, even if it can’t hold a candle to the steel.
The wood on this gun is walnut. Walnut, especially the American kind, isn’t likely to have strong quilting or flame in the wood. It is a rather pedestrian grain that works easily, yet remains hard enough to prove durable.
Walnut is one of the best options for woods that show wear—it may ding and scratch, but each mark will add to the gun’s character. And walnut is strong enough to take a solid beating.
The right side of the Taylor’s 1873 Lever Action. This gun is as nice to look at as it is to shoot.
There are versions with more pistol-shaped stocks, and with different finishes on the gun. Some are blued, but others are left in the white. And some have an intentionally weathered look. Some have round or half-round barrels, too.
This is Taylor’s 18″ 1873. The stock is straight and checkered. The barrel is octagonal all the way down. It is chambered in .357 and will fire .38 spl. The gun also comes in .45 LC.
The finish on Taylor’s rifles is really superb. Even the muzzle is highly polished.
A Useful Tool
Consider where you are now. If I’d lived in Fort Smith, Arkansas (as I do now) back in 1873, I’d likely have a hard time finding a ready supply of ammunition. Granted, it would likely be easier than it is now—in 2021, but still. I would have access to a couple of stores—but hardly the selection.
Many of the early Winchesters and Henrys were chambered in common pistol calibers. These weren’t the first pistol caliber carbines, but they were solid examples, and remain so today. If your revolver was chambered in .45 Colt, your rifle could be, too. We think of .45 Colt, and .38 and .357, maybe .44 and .44 Magnum, but there were many other calibers that were available that have fallen out of fashion.
The caliber is clearly marked on the barrels. As these came in a wide variety, and still come in several, it can be a useful designation.
The theory remains, though. I have a Kel-Tec Sub 2000 that runs off of 9mm Glock mags and a Glock 19. This is the same idea. If you have an 1873 Army and a 1873 rifle, both in .357, then you don’t have to overthink ammo.
1873 was a really good year for guns.
There was a before and an after. I doubt most of the humans alive saw it then, but the year changed the course of history. Winchester and Colt. The practical pairing was appreciated by many historical figures, but the pair dominates Hollywood to this day. Movies like “Winchester ’73” starred the rifle alongside icons like Jimmy Stewart.
And that, in a roundabout way, is where Taylor’s & Company come in. I could write a dissertation about how these guns crossed the pond in the 50s and 60s and ended up in the hands of European storytellers. The Spaghetti Westerns gave these rifles and revolvers their complicated history back while continuing to elevate their mythical status.
When Sergio Leone and his cohort moved on, the guns stayed. Italian gun makers build some kickass American reproductions. And before we delve too deeply into the simulacrum that is The West, I’ll just say this; they are keeping these guns alive.
Taylor’s is keeping the dream alive.
As I was working on this review, I talked with Rob Girard, Vice President of Sales at Taylor’s. I wanted to know if Taylor’s was increasing their imports and expanding their lines to meet the new crush of demand for lever-actions. Not as such, he said. Taylor’s is more concerned with the quality of their guns than the quantity they can get out the door.
The Taylor’s Alaskan Takedown.
That’s how the company maintains its reputation. It would be easy to make set-about guns (the kids you like to look at), and it would be equally easy to cater to the SASS crowd only—but Taylor’s also sells to customers like me.
And that’s where their modern twist on the lever-action came from. The Taylor’s Alaskan Takedown, Girard said, shows Taylor’s dedication to quality and functionality–with only an homage to the history.
So are there more like this coming? Girard wouldn’t talk about what’s coming but hinted at the fact that there are definitely big plans for Taylor’s future. They’re making waves across the board right now with virtually all of their single-action revolvers and premium lever action rifles.
And their new Schofields. Talk about good-looking guns.
Girard and the rest of the crew at Taylor’s are facing the same difficulties many importers and manufacturers are because of the pandemic. The slowdowns, though, haven’t changed anything about the way Taylor’s responds to their customers. Taylor’s, Girard noted, is ideally suited to bring in a wide variety of guns, make sure those guns are flawless and functional, and provide the individualized attention to the customers that makes the company a go-to for the cowboys, the historians, and those of us who just appreciate the beauty and craftsmanship of a well-made gun.
So what does Taylor’s do?
This rifle began life as an imported Italian 1873, a Uberti. Taylor’s brings them into Virginia and makes them even better. Some of the guns Taylor’s imports are more historical in nature. Some are exclusives that are only available through Taylor’s and their distributors.
The one place where Taylor’s leaves their mark. No missing it. But the magic is inside.
The highlight, though, is the guns that come out of Taylor’s that are “Taylor Tuned.” This is a performance refinement that is meant to ensure that these imports live up to the expectations of Taylor’s customers.
Taylor’s refinement process is just that. They begin with addressing some of the parts that are most stressed on high-use guns. By replacing some springs and polishing parts, Taylor’s takes these working reproductions and creates fine-tuned rifles and pistols that are far more reliable.
Old-school texture.
On the 1873 rifles, Taylor Tuning includes a custom, hand-polished action, custom hammer and lever springs, a custom magazine tube spring, and an overall lightened action. The custom actions have a noticeably smooth hammer and trigger pull.
This dust cover works in the same way as on an AR-15.
That isn’t to say that there’s anything wrong with a Uberti. The guns are robust, but the designs are antiquated. I’m not a gunsmith, but I’ve spent my fair share of time with YouTube videos and replacement parts trying to keep some high-mileage Ubertis on the range.
Under the dust cover, you can see the lifters and the bolt of the 1873. The action likes oil.
The Taylor Tuned rifles and pistols I’ve shot have yet to need the same kind of attention.
On the range with the Taylor’s 1873
If you’ve not run a lever-action rifle, I’d suggest you give it a try. I mentioned that Hollywood influence, and it will hit you. I find it takes me a few minutes to get over the desire to fan the action and shoot from the hip.
The 1873 Lever-Action from Taylor’s & Company is a solid pistol-caliber carbine, even if it is 147 years old.
The 18″ barrel sounds long, but the whole package is extremely compact. With no optics up top, no magazine protruding from the bottom, and no controls on the side of the gun, the 1873 feels like a weedy supermodel.
The notch in the rear sights is for when you slow down. The horns are for speed.
The sights are intuitive, though. They’re adjustable for elevation, in that old-fashioned way, and windage is left to guesswork. In truth, I love these kinds of sights. They’re so rewarding. If the gun performs well, which this one does, you’ll learn to use the sights. The more you shoot, the better you’ll get.
The front sight on the Taylor’s 1873 isn’t fancy. Yet the thin blade is a classic design.
Taylor’s 1873 Performance
There’s a place for lever-action rifles, even the historic ones, in a modern arsenal. I think the potential is real.
First, this is a .357. The .357 Magnum from an 18″ barrel produces some seriously compelling ballistics—averaging around 2,000 fps. It could be a decent self-defense package, close-range hunting rifle—even good for hogs. If you learn to shoot like some of the old codgers that rule the SASS matches, it would be a very capable caliber.
At 100 yards, I’m hitting off to the right with .38 spl. Not bad, though—almost all in the black.
The capacity isn’t what you’d get from a 30 round AR magazine, but it isn’t likely to upset the sensibilities of many Californian politicians, either. It is advertised at 10 rounds. loading happens through the side gate and can be hell on your thumbnail—but it is what it is.
The gun weighs in under 8 pounds, too. The barrel makes up much of that weight, so muzzle rise is minimal. Even in .44 Magnum, recoil from this design is negligent. All of this adds up to fast follow-up shots. You’re not likely to get a second shot on a whitetail, but you could on hogs.
How does an 1873 work?
There’s a reason why cowboys wore hats with wide brims. I’ll leave that one hanging. As I mentioned, these load from the side. The rounds stack up in the tube (so lead-nosed bullets are a good choice). When you open the lever it runs a block up that extracts and ejects a spent shell straight up through the receiver. As you return the lever, it loads the new round. The motion also cocks the hammer.
From this head-on angle, the Taylor’s 1873 Lever-Action looks really compact—almost like a pistol. It isn’t.
In order to fire the gun, you need to squeeze the lever against the stock. That’s the only manual safety to speak of. The hammer can be lowered onto a live round slowly to make the gun marginally more safe. To fire, you’d simply cock it like a single action.
The mag tube on the 1873 has a clean band that holds it to the barrel.
A couple of notes. Thumbing in rounds is hell on your nails. There’s a sequence, though, that requires that you push one round in almost all the way before using the next round to finish the push that makes the process easier.
And if you don’t shoot the rounds in the magazine, you can use the lever to eject them, or—if it came to it—take apart the magazine tube. But be safe and watch the trigger.
End of the Trail
As conclusions go, this gun refuses to ride off into the sunset. While the historicity may be harder to see in some of the contemporary homages, it is still there. And Taylor’s is keeping the originals alive and kicking.
If you are looking for authenticity and functionality—history you can shoot without ruining the value—this is a great place to start. And, if you’re anything like me, you’ll have just as much fun looking at it and cleaning it as you do shooting it.
David Reeder’s Wu Tang name is Lucky Prophet. He is a retired AF veteran, former Peace Officer, and current Tier 2.5 writer-operator. Over the course of his career, he has worked a variety of military and lE billets, served as an Observer-Controller at the National Homeland Security Training Center, a MOUT instructor, and an MTT tracking instructor – all of which sounds much cooler than it really was. Although he only updates his website once in a very great while, he can absolutely be relied upon to post to social media (@reederwrites) at least once a month. -Ish.
What do you do when you need to engage a target at night or in another low-light setting? There are many schools of thought about how to engage a light source — either weapon-mounted or stand-alone — but either way, you need a light and need to know how to use it.
Engaging targets in a low-light situation requires unique skills and practice using the light and weapon in conjunction to both illuminate your target and hide your own position so the enemy can’t use that knowledge to shoot back accurately.
In the videos below, Travis Haley takes us through three effective uses of weapon-mounted lights and handheld lights in various tactical situations.
Applications of White Light
Often we find ourselves engaging in a gunfight in dark or low light conditions because crime happens all times of day and night. How do you effectively deploy a handheld light to help you find your target? Travis takes us through the basics with a few principles that apply following his saying “Time in the light is time as a target.”
Key takeaways
•Consider what you look like from the threat’s viewpoint.
•Be like a firefly – it appears and the next thing you know it’s somewhere else.
•Use the light as you search through the environment at random heights and different spaces.
Handheld Light Practice
What are the various ways you can hold and operate a hand-held light while operating a weapon? Travis shows various techniques using range drills.
Key takeaways:
•Never leave home without a handheld flashlight — even if you have a weapon-mounted light.
•It can be used as either back up or primary depending on the situation.
•Travis demonstrated three techniques: the Roger’s SureFire, Harry’s but modified for box stance, and Neck Index. Be sure to pay special attention to keeping the flashlight pinned against your cheek so the light, eyes, and gun all move together.
Light Discipline
So you have a light in a lowlight situation and need to see your target. When do you turn it on and off? When should you work the light vs working the shadows?
Travis Haley takes us through situations where the light should come on and come off based on movement, cover, and action required to win the fight. Remember that it’s a combat light, not a utility light to just turn on and compromise yourself everywhere. So you don’t want to let your light become a target. Like Travis says, “You gotta turn that thing off, man.”
Key takeaways
•Light goes off during reloads and location changes so the enemy doesn’t see what you’re doing and where you went.
•Use a momentary-on light so you can quickly and easily operate the on/off switch with your support hand and maintain your firing grip on the gun.
Whatever grip you choose, be sure you can manipulate both the light and your weapon effectively.
Want more Gun Mag Warehouse? Follow us on Instagram @gunmagwarehouse and subscribe to our YouTube channel.
David Workman is an avid gun guy, a contributing writer to several major gun publications, and the author of Absolute Authority. A logophile since way back, Workman is a quickdraw punslinger and NRA RSO and Certified Pistol Instructor. He helps train new shooters on basic handgun skills and CCW requirements and is a strong advocate for training as much as practicable. “Real-world shootouts don’t happen at a box range.”
Sig Sauer is producing a wide variety of products these days. Back when I was a kid, Sig made the P series all-metal pistols, and that was it! These days they make everything from pistol braces to optics. One of their lowest price point optics is the SIG Romeo-MSR. The Romeo5 used to be the budget optic, but somehow Sig brought out an even lower cost optic in the MSR. The question we have to ask ourselves is this, is the Sig Romeo MSR worth a damn? Well, let’s torture one!
Breaking Down the Sig Romeo-MSR
The Sig Romeo-MSR presents you with the most basic of red dots. It comes with a 1.41 M193 skeletonized riser, is powered by a CR1632 battery, packs 20K hours of battery life, and gives you a 2 MOA red dot reticle. It’s very simple, but surprisingly you get ten daylight settings and two-night vision settings.
The turret that controls the brightness level is stiff as hell, but it seems to loosen up the more it’s used. It’s all very simple and efficient. You don’t have to be super fancy when it comes to red dot optics, and the Sig Romeo-MSR keeps things basic to drive down the price and provide a high-quality optic at less than $150.
The EPC served as the testing platform for our torture test.
I zeroed it and did a little shooting with my Aero Precision EPC. I wanted to get to know the optic a bit. Take it on a date, get some drinks, become friendly with it before I showed it to my dungeon. If I wanted to see the optic fail, I needed to know how it worked and to have a basic baseline for the optic. I found mounting, zeroing, and shooting to be easy with the Romeo-MSR. This isn’t a full review, but I did find the Romeo-MSR to excel in the basics of being a red dot sight.
I could hit my target, and I could see the dot in all lighting conditions, and had zero issues mounting or zeroing it.
Let’s Mess the Romeo-MSR Up
Let’s go gentle at first; really, take our time introducing the SIG Romeo-MSR to its brutal but inevitable fate. I loaded up my Blackwater Sentry 12 shotgun with some full-powered buckshot. It’s a 1300 FPS Rio load that throws back some serious recoil in a pump-action shotgun. I didn’t re-zero the gun to the shotgun.
Can a shotgun’s recoil knock the zero off?
I just wanted to see if the recoil could toss the zero off. I notated that I mounted the optic between my T8 and T4 slots on my EPC. I spent to next 20 minutes blasting through this cheap, crappy buckshot, and my shoulder felt the pain. After ten mags worth of buckshot, I popped the Romeo-MSR off and plopped it back onto my EPC.
The zero remained perfect.
What About a 308 Pistol?
Let’s try something with a little more ass to do it. I grab my Springfield AR-10 pistol. It sports a very short barrel, and the stubby little bastard is basically a battle ax. It jumps, bucks, and recoils, but holy crap, it’s fun to shoot. With that much recoil, I thought it might be a fun contender to see if the Romeo-MSR maintains itself.
Let’s se ehow the MSR holds zero after 50 rounds of 308 on an AR 10 pistol.
I loaded up a few 20 round mags and the Magpul D50 and let loose with it. I zeroed it first, but after that, it was all about rapid-fire drills. We hit all the classics like the Mozambique drill, the VTAC 1-5 drill, Snap Drills, and Box drills. All requiring you to fire fast and firing fast with a 308 caliber semi-automatic pistol isn’t exactly easy, but holy crap, is it fun.
The Saint Victor harmed the optic nigh.
Of course, I also did a 20 round mag dump. It wasn’t my ammo, so I didn’t mind wasting it. At the end of the day, I backed off to 100 yards, took a stable benched position, and took aim at a 10-inch rifle gong. I heard the song of my people, and its instruments are lead and steel. The Romeo-MSR held zero without issue.
(Holy crap, did that handguard heat up, though.)
Drop Test
Alright, so it survived the recoil of both a shotgun and 308 caliber pistol. Not a big deal, but also not bad for a budget optic. It’s not too surprising when an optic this affordable loses zero when faced when lots of recoil in a short period of time. I was out of 308, so I tacked the Sig Romeo-MSR back to the EPC, re-zeroed it, and notated what rail sections it occupied. It wasn’t going to stay there for long.
Watch it fall and suffer!
I popped it off the EPC and tacked it on to an ASP Red Gun. Specifically an HK 416 red dot with plenty of in-spec optic rails. I took that mother trucker and threw it! I tossed it across my driveway, then dropped it from shoulder height. I did both a dozen times. I tried my hardest to drop and throw the gun at a variety of angles.
The Romeo-MSR bounced, thudded, and skirted across the ground. After that, I popped the Romeo-MSR off the red gun and placed it back on the EPC. I put it on the exact section of rail I zeroed it on. I loaded a few 9mm pills into the EPC and let it go. It held zero without issue.
Excuse the dad wear, it was leg day and I’m a nerd. However, the Romeo-MSR took all the falls and throws I tossed at it.
Outside of some basic scrapes and dirt, the Romeo-MSR remained untouched. Nothing was broken, cracked, or challenged. At this point, I was quite impressed by this little budget optic. I won’t lie; I wanted it to break. I wanted to find the stress point that would make this thing crack. Recoil and drop tests didn’t do it, so what about water?
Going for a Swim
The Romeo-MSR brags about an IPX7 rating. This means it can be submerged. I did just that, in my wife’s nice Tupperware. I learned two things. One, there is such a thing as nice Tupperware, and two, the Romeo-MSR can swim! Well, it can sit its ass in water for half an hour.
Let’s take the MSR for a Swim.
I dunked it, let it sit, and carried on with my business. My alarm went off thirty minutes later, and I retrieved the potentially waterlogged optic. The Sig Romeo-MSR worked without issue even after its bath.
The Heat Gun Vs. the Romeo-MSR
Remember when people discovered that Eotech had a zero-drift when the optic got too hot? Well, that inspired me to grab my heat gun and give the Romeo-MSR a little warm-up. I couldn’t find operating temperatures from Sig, so I used the operating temperatures of Aimpoint. Aimpoint makes a much more expensive optic than the MSR, so it seemed to be a high standard to meet.
Let’s see those temperatures rise…to Aimpoint standards.
Aimpoint says their optic works up to 160 degrees, so I wanted to heat the MSR up to 160 degrees and see what happened. I propped the gun and optic up and rotated the heat gun around the optics hitting all three sides.
My Romeo-MSR- has a fever.
I periodically used a digital thermometer to check the pulse of the Romeo-MSR. I hit 160 to 168 on three sides of the optic. I let it cool for a few minutes as I reloaded the EPC. I sighted in on a 6-inch gong, dead center, and missed.
Yep, all three shots flung to the right of the gong. It wasn’t just me. I grabbed the zero target I used previously and fired two groups of three rounds. Both groups hit to the right of my initial zero.
Red was my first group, green my shots post zero, and blue was the zero divergence from the heat gun.
This photo illustrates the zero drift. The red group was my initial shots fired while zeroing, the green group was my gun zeroed, and the blue groups were after the heat gun applied pressure to it. A quick rotation of the windage turret dialed it right back to zero.
Freezer Test
If I heated it up, I had to try it against the ice, right? Well, I didn’t have the capability to drive the temperature down to -40 degrees. I could freeze it, though! I tossed it into a zip-lock bag and threw it in the not-nice Tupperware, and let it freeze completely.
Can ice kill it?
I went to bed, had a great night, and woke up the next morning. At this point, I fully expected it to be off, dead, and gone. I pulled out the frozen optic, and through the glass, I could see that it was still functioning, still on, and ready to work. So I made coffee and defrosted the thing.
Look closely, you can see that frozen bastard still working.
Guess what? That mother trucker still works. Not only that but there was no noticeable zero shift when I reattached it to the EPC and hit the range.
Is It Bulletproof?
I wanted to break the Romeo-MSR through conventional means or as close as I can get to conventional means. I couldn’t, so guess what? I’m going to shoot it. With a shotgun. Specifically with birdshot. I backed off to 15 yards, set the optic up on a box, and let it have it.
I’m trying to kill it, I really am.
Seeing my enemy fly off of its cardboard perch as birdshot impacted it brought a feeling of joy to my heart. That had to kill it, right? No way it still works.
I shot it, and it still works and holds zero.
I skipped down to the range, fished the Romeo-MSR out of the dirt, and peered through it. That little red dot teased and touted me, insulting me without words. It still worked. I put it on the EPC and tested it’s zero.
So I broke the glass, but couldn’t kill the optic.
It held freaking zero. The rear lens cracked and broke, and the outside of the optic had pellet impacts all over it. But it held zero and still functioned. Sorcery, SIG Sorcery.
A load of birdshot took it right off its perch.
I’m Done
I’m done; I give up. This thing is literally bulletproof. It’s an optic that costs less than $150, and the only thing all my abuse did was make it lose zero via heat. Even then, the zero was lost, but not that bad. It wasn’t a big enough shift to makes its way off a B8 target. Sig’s little Romeo-MSR might be the most durable budget optic on the market.
Travis Pike is a former Marine Machine Gunner, a lifelong firearms enthusiast, and now a regular guy who likes to shoot, write, and find ways to combine the two. He holds an NRA certification as a Basic Pistol Instructor and is the world’s Okayest firearm’s instructor.
Sig Sauer is producing a wide variety of products these days. Back when I was a kid, Sig made the P series all-metal pistols, and that was it! These days they make everything from pistol braces to optics. One of their lowest price point optics is the SIG Romeo-MSR. The Romeo5 used to be the budget optic, but somehow Sig brought out an even lower cost optic in the MSR. The question we have to ask ourselves is this, is the Sig Romeo MSR worth a damn? Well, let’s torture one!
Breaking Down the Sig Romeo-MSR
The Sig Romeo-MSR presents you with the most basic of red dots. It comes with a 1.41 M193 skeletonized riser, is powered by a CR1632 battery, packs 20K hours of battery life, and gives you a 2 MOA red dot reticle. It’s very simple, but surprisingly you get ten daylight settings and two-night vision settings.
The turret that controls the brightness level is stiff as hell, but it seems to loosen up the more it’s used. It’s all very simple and efficient. You don’t have to be super fancy when it comes to red dot optics, and the Sig Romeo-MSR keeps things basic to drive down the price and provide a high-quality optic at less than $150.
The EPC served as the testing platform for our torture test.
I zeroed it and did a little shooting with my Aero Precision EPC. I wanted to get to know the optic a bit. Take it on a date, get some drinks, become friendly with it before I showed it to my dungeon. If I wanted to see the optic fail, I needed to know how it worked and to have a basic baseline for the optic. I found mounting, zeroing, and shooting to be easy with the Romeo-MSR. This isn’t a full review, but I did find the Romeo-MSR to excel in the basics of being a red dot sight.
I could hit my target, and I could see the dot in all lighting conditions, and had zero issues mounting or zeroing it.
Let’s Mess the Romeo-MSR Up
Let’s go gentle at first; really, take our time introducing the SIG Romeo-MSR to its brutal but inevitable fate. I loaded up my Blackwater Sentry 12 shotgun with some full-powered buckshot. It’s a 1300 FPS Rio load that throws back some serious recoil in a pump-action shotgun. I didn’t re-zero the gun to the shotgun.
Can a shotgun’s recoil knock the zero off?
I just wanted to see if the recoil could toss the zero off. I notated that I mounted the optic between my T8 and T4 slots on my EPC. I spent to next 20 minutes blasting through this cheap, crappy buckshot, and my shoulder felt the pain. After ten mags worth of buckshot, I popped the Romeo-MSR off and plopped it back onto my EPC.
The zero remained perfect.
What About a 308 Pistol?
Let’s try something with a little more ass to do it. I grab my Springfield AR-10 pistol. It sports a very short barrel, and the stubby little bastard is basically a battle ax. It jumps, bucks, and recoils, but holy crap, it’s fun to shoot. With that much recoil, I thought it might be a fun contender to see if the Romeo-MSR maintains itself.
Let’s se ehow the MSR holds zero after 50 rounds of 308 on an AR 10 pistol.
I loaded up a few 20 round mags and the Magpul D50 and let loose with it. I zeroed it first, but after that, it was all about rapid-fire drills. We hit all the classics like the Mozambique drill, the VTAC 1-5 drill, Snap Drills, and Box drills. All requiring you to fire fast and firing fast with a 308 caliber semi-automatic pistol isn’t exactly easy, but holy crap, is it fun.
The Saint Victor harmed the optic nigh.
Of course, I also did a 20 round mag dump. It wasn’t my ammo, so I didn’t mind wasting it. At the end of the day, I backed off to 100 yards, took a stable benched position, and took aim at a 10-inch rifle gong. I heard the song of my people, and its instruments are lead and steel. The Romeo-MSR held zero without issue.
(Holy crap, did that handguard heat up, though.)
Drop Test
Alright, so it survived the recoil of both a shotgun and 308 caliber pistol. Not a big deal, but also not bad for a budget optic. It’s not too surprising when an optic this affordable loses zero when faced when lots of recoil in a short period of time. I was out of 308, so I tacked the Sig Romeo-MSR back to the EPC, re-zeroed it, and notated what rail sections it occupied. It wasn’t going to stay there for long.
Watch it fall and suffer!
I popped it off the EPC and tacked it on to an ASP Red Gun. Specifically an HK 416 red dot with plenty of in-spec optic rails. I took that mother trucker and threw it! I tossed it across my driveway, then dropped it from shoulder height. I did both a dozen times. I tried my hardest to drop and throw the gun at a variety of angles.
The Romeo-MSR bounced, thudded, and skirted across the ground. After that, I popped the Romeo-MSR off the red gun and placed it back on the EPC. I put it on the exact section of rail I zeroed it on. I loaded a few 9mm pills into the EPC and let it go. It held zero without issue.
Excuse the dad wear, it was leg day and I’m a nerd. However, the Romeo-MSR took all the falls and throws I tossed at it.
Outside of some basic scrapes and dirt, the Romeo-MSR remained untouched. Nothing was broken, cracked, or challenged. At this point, I was quite impressed by this little budget optic. I won’t lie; I wanted it to break. I wanted to find the stress point that would make this thing crack. Recoil and drop tests didn’t do it, so what about water?
Going for a Swim
The Romeo-MSR brags about an IPX7 rating. This means it can be submerged. I did just that, in my wife’s nice Tupperware. I learned two things. One, there is such a thing as nice Tupperware, and two, the Romeo-MSR can swim! Well, it can sit its ass in water for half an hour.
Let’s take the MSR for a Swim.
I dunked it, let it sit, and carried on with my business. My alarm went off thirty minutes later, and I retrieved the potentially waterlogged optic. The Sig Romeo-MSR worked without issue even after its bath.
The Heat Gun Vs. the Romeo-MSR
Remember when people discovered that Eotech had a zero-drift when the optic got too hot? Well, that inspired me to grab my heat gun and give the Romeo-MSR a little warm-up. I couldn’t find operating temperatures from Sig, so I used the operating temperatures of Aimpoint. Aimpoint makes a much more expensive optic than the MSR, so it seemed to be a high standard to meet.
Let’s see those temperatures rise…to Aimpoint standards.
Aimpoint says their optic works up to 160 degrees, so I wanted to heat the MSR up to 160 degrees and see what happened. I propped the gun and optic up and rotated the heat gun around the optics hitting all three sides.
My Romeo-MSR- has a fever.
I periodically used a digital thermometer to check the pulse of the Romeo-MSR. I hit 160 to 168 on three sides of the optic. I let it cool for a few minutes as I reloaded the EPC. I sighted in on a 6-inch gong, dead center, and missed.
Yep, all three shots flung to the right of the gong. It wasn’t just me. I grabbed the zero target I used previously and fired two groups of three rounds. Both groups hit to the right of my initial zero.
Red was my first group, green my shots post zero, and blue was the zero divergence from the heat gun.
This photo illustrates the zero drift. The red group was my initial shots fired while zeroing, the green group was my gun zeroed, and the blue groups were after the heat gun applied pressure to it. A quick rotation of the windage turret dialed it right back to zero.
Freezer Test
If I heated it up, I had to try it against the ice, right? Well, I didn’t have the capability to drive the temperature down to -40 degrees. I could freeze it, though! I tossed it into a zip-lock bag and threw it in the not-nice Tupperware, and let it freeze completely.
Can ice kill it?
I went to bed, had a great night, and woke up the next morning. At this point, I fully expected it to be off, dead, and gone. I pulled out the frozen optic, and through the glass, I could see that it was still functioning, still on, and ready to work. So I made coffee and defrosted the thing.
Look closely, you can see that frozen bastard still working.
Guess what? That mother trucker still works. Not only that but there was no noticeable zero shift when I reattached it to the EPC and hit the range.
Is It Bulletproof?
I wanted to break the Romeo-MSR through conventional means or as close as I can get to conventional means. I couldn’t, so guess what? I’m going to shoot it. With a shotgun. Specifically with birdshot. I backed off to 15 yards, set the optic up on a box, and let it have it.
I’m trying to kill it, I really am.
Seeing my enemy fly off of its cardboard perch as birdshot impacted it brought a feeling of joy to my heart. That had to kill it, right? No way it still works.
I shot it, and it still works and holds zero.
I skipped down to the range, fished the Romeo-MSR out of the dirt, and peered through it. That little red dot teased and touted me, insulting me without words. It still worked. I put it on the EPC and tested it’s zero.
So I broke the glass, but couldn’t kill the optic.
It held freaking zero. The rear lens cracked and broke, and the outside of the optic had pellet impacts all over it. But it held zero and still functioned. Sorcery, SIG Sorcery.
A load of birdshot took it right off its perch.
I’m Done
I’m done; I give up. This thing is literally bulletproof. It’s an optic that costs less than $150, and the only thing all my abuse did was make it lose zero via heat. Even then, the zero was lost, but not that bad. It wasn’t a big enough shift to makes its way off a B8 target. Sig’s little Romeo-MSR might be the most durable budget optic on the market.
Travis Pike is a former Marine Machine Gunner, a lifelong firearms enthusiast, and now a regular guy who likes to shoot, write, and find ways to combine the two. He holds an NRA certification as a Basic Pistol Instructor and is the world’s Okayest firearm’s instructor.
The coolest thing about the Shield Arms SA-15 FLR isn’t that it’s a folding AR15 (although that’s pretty cool). The coolest thing about the Shield Arms SA-15 FLR is that it’s an integrally folding AR15: meaning no after-market thingamawhatsits to get it thataway.
Hence Folding Lower Receiver (FLR). Funny how that works eh?
Anyway, the Shield Arms Folding Lower Receiver (FLR) is now available in pistol, rifle, and stripped lower configuration and (as of this writing) it’s in stock. As originally reported on Soldier Systems Daily, the SA-15 FLR is a fully-folding lower receiver that does not require an adapter.
It’s a patent-pending billet AR-15 lower receiver with a folding stock mechanism machined and built directly into the receiver, allowing the stock or pistol brace to fold without the need of an aftermarket folding adapter.
The various SA15s feed via standard (i.e. unmodified) AR15 magazines.
Here’s what it looks like when locked in place and set up with some other cool toys for Insta:
An SA-15 folding AR pistol in FDE build on the Shield Arms folding lower receiver. Keeping it company; Glock 43X with extended S15 mag, SA hat, and a G10 Pugio dagger (w/IWB kydex sheath) in coyote tan. Or coyote brown. Or whatever we’re supposed to call it now.
Each respective configuration is detailed below.
SA-15 FLR
A 16 in. folding Rifle built on Shield Arms folding lower.
Brock Trautman is the senior news anchor for The Mag Life, the official publication of GunMag Warehouse. He’s also a cartoon, so…don’t get butt-hurt about anything he says. He’s not making subjective judgments on things, or reviewing anything – he’s just passing along the news.
