Beretta ARX 160 in .22 LR

The Beretta ARX 160 in .22 LR is the company's fun version of their current military carbine that was designed in 2008.  The military versions come chambered in 5.56x45mm NATO, 5.45x39mm Soviet, 6.8mm Remington SPC and 7.62x39mm Soviet.  Along with the Italian Army it is also being fielded by Albania, Egypt, Kazakhstan, the Mexican Federal Police and Turkmenistan.  The U.S. was in the process of evaluating it as a replacement for the M4 before the replacement process of cancelled.

The Beretta ARX 160 in .22 LR is the December Featured Gun of the Month at Bill's Gun Shop and Range and I was fortunate enough to be allowed to take a brand-new-in-the-box specimen for a test drive that they were then going to use as a rental gun at their Robbinsdale range.

It was almost like Christmas morning getting to unwrap a factory fresh firearm and yes...it had that "new gun" smell.  (Please note that in the box the front and rear sights are flipped down while they are shown flipped up in other photos of the carbine.)  I have spent a lot of time recently perusing .22 LR military replica carbines and have found the quality of some to be excellent while others to be almost embarrassingly shoddy.  The Beretta ARX 160 rimfire falls into the "excellent" category and is almost indistinguishable from its combat born big brother.  One fact that is distinguishable from its big brother is that it is actually manufactured by Umarex in Germany for Beretta.

The ARX .22LR comes with a 20 round magazine and includes just about all of the features of it's military version including:

• Ambidextrous safeties and magazine catches
• The ability to change the charging handle to either side and determine from which side spent casings will eject
• Four sides of Picatinny rails

• A foldable telescopic stock

• An excellent rubber butt pad

• An adjustable rear dial aperture sight

• An adjustable post up front

The front end of this carbine is all military business...

including the flash hider.

Alright, enough of the photos let get down to how she shoots and handles and it handles great!  Light, less clunky than it may look, comfortable when brought to the shoulder, the action is smooth and the 200 rounds I fired through it went without a hitch.  No failures to feed, no failures to fire and no failures to extract.

The only .22 rimfire ammo I had was some standard Winchester white box 36 grain plated hollow point.

I have to admit that I am not an accomplished shooter with a military front post sight.  I really need a gold bead or an XS dot atop that post.  If I bought this carbine (and that vision has replaced the "sugar plums dancing" in my head) I would immediately take some yellow florescent sight paint and put a nice strip at the top of the post.

Here's a nice warm up target with 10 rounds at 21 feet:

And forty round at 40 feet:

And lastly 20 rounds at 75 feet:

Obviously the group opened up at 75 feet but I think the Beretta is capable of better accuracy than I can wring out of it at this distance.  

December is the perfect month for Bill's to offer this carbine as their Gun of the Month as plenty of kids (both young and old) will have a military replica .22 on their Christmas list.  The Beretta ARX 160 is a great choice and the holiday gives you the perfect excuse to buy one and act like it is a gift for your son or daughter.  Just be sure to bring them to the range and let them shoot it every once in a while.

Zombie Killers--S&W 629 V-Comp and Mossberg 464 SPX

Everyone knows that the Fall season brings out the Zombies, especially during the all important November Nielsen Sweeps Weeks.  That being said it's time to review some tools that will help keep the walking dead off your door step.

Specifically we will be reviewing the Smith & Wesson Performance Center 629 V-Comp in .44 Magnum and the Mossberg  464 SPX Lever Action 30-30.  So settle in because these are two fun firearms.

S&W PC 629 V-Comp .44 Magnum

Let's start with the 629's specifications:

• 6 round capacity
• 4 inch barrel with a removable compensator
• Overall length of 10 inches
• Adjustable dovetailed orange front sight
• Adjustable black rear sight
•  All stainless steel construction
• Chrome finish on the hammer and trigger which also has a trigger stop
• Performance Center tuned action

Upon first firing the revolver I felt that the Hogue grips that accompanied the 629 were too thin.  I wasn't getting a good grip on the revolver and the thin grips focused the recoil into the web of my hand.  I chucked them and ordered a set of Super Rosewood grips from Altamont.

While these grips were absolutely beautiful they also allowed my hand to slip down the the back strap during firing so I turned to Ahrens for a set of their Cocobolo tactical grips.

The Ahrens grips are still pretty good lookin'!  They are also wider so they disperse the recoil energy over a wider area.  The finger grooves also fit well and are deeper which helps hold your fingers in place.

Now one of the first things you'll notice about this handgun is the compensator at the muzzle of the 4 inch barrel.  

The compensator is removable...but why would you?  It's so damn cool.  At the rear of the top strap is Smith & Wesson's fully adjustable all black rear sight.  Up front is a drift adjustable blaze orange ramped front sight that is easy for my 58 year old eyes to see.  The hammer is in the classic "teardrop" shape and both the hammer and trigger are chromed with a trigger stop installed to prevent over travel.  The action has been tuned by the PC shop.  The Double Action pull is over 12 pounds which is the limit that my digital scale can measure.  It is extremely smooth and doesn't feel like many of the 12 + pound triggers I have handled in the past.  The single action has little take-up and a smooth 4.11 pound trigger pull.

OK, so it looks real cool...but how does it shoot.  

I started off with a little warm-up with some Black Hills .44 Special Cowboy loads at 15 feet and the light cowboy loads in the big 629 are very pleasant to shoot.

I then moved back to see what she could do at 21 feet.

Quite frankly, I was a little disappointed with the spread of this group and began to wonder if I had made mistake in picking up this revolver.

My fears were put to rest when I set up another target at 21 feet and fed the 629 some PMC 240 .44 Magnum ammo.

That's more like it!  But I do have to admit that after firing the first two rounds I retreated to my range bag to grab a shooting glove.

Bring on the Zombies

Nothing could be scarier than a gaggle of Zombified Nazis.  I let them get to 31 feet before I opened fire.

Fortunately the 629 V-Comp delivers some magic magnum medicine to put the Zombies out of there misery.

Colonel Klink suffered some major facial cavities from the .44 Magnum Halloween candy.

Sgt. Schultz lost both his right ear and eye.

The 629 zero'd in on Major Hochstetter of the Gestapo.  2 shots were fired at each target followed by another 2 rounds.  All four grouped together on the good Major.

General Burkhalter also received a pretty good group of 240 grain Zombie repellent.  

Mossberg 464 SPX in caliber in 30-30 Winchester

For longer range Zombie busting I employed the lever action Mossberg 464 which hold six rounds of popular and versatile 30-30 Winchester.  

Now, I have to own up to the fact that I have made fun of this carbine on more than one episode of "The Gun Nation" podcast but when I got to handle one I was sold, especially with the value price point of $459.00.

Probably the first thing you'll notice is the 6 position adjustable tactical stock.  

The fully extended overall length of the carbine is 34 inches but the tactical stock allows you to adjust the length of pull from 10.75 inches to 14.63 inches.  As bizarre as this stock looks I like the ability to make the overall length shorter as I prefer the stock in the third position.  

I find it to be more comfortable and the shorter length of pull allows me more leverage when cranking the lever down and back up.

The forearm of carbine is a synthetic material containing three picatinny rails for hanging flashlights, lasers, railroad lanterns, paint cans or whatever else feeds into your taticool fantasy.  The rails are removable if you want a more traditional feel to your carbine but the 464 also comes with ladder rail covers which gives you a wider surface to grip.  

While I don't care for the way they look, I do like the larger gripping surface. 

The sights are really good.  

The front sight is a red fiber optic pipe that is very easy to pick up on indoor ranges with spotty interior lighting.  Outdoors, if there is any sunlight at all, the sight glows like the red dot in a good optical sight.  The rear sight contains a u-shaped green optic pipe and provides good contrast with the front sight.

The sights are easy to pick-up, fast to get on target, and provide the necessary levels of accuracy.

I was surprised at how smooth the various mechanical functions are on this piece.  Inserting rounds in through the loading gate is much easier than the three lever action rifles I have owned in the past which consisted of one Rossi Puma and two Winchesters.  The lever action is smooth with nary a hitch in the movement and the trigger pull had no take-up and a crisp release.  

But how does she shoot?  Well as luck would have it a group Zombified Lady Gaga Concert goers stumbled onto the 25 yards line of the range.

The Skipper took four 30-30 pills to the head although the one between the eyes probably ended his rampage.

Gilligan took three rounds into his vacuous melon above his left eye, right up his nasal cavity, and right through his front tooth.

Mary-Ann's face is frozen in awe as she was terminated with two shots to the forehead and right below her left eye.

And Ginger did not fare much better taking one round to the right cheek, one below her right eye, one just below her nose and one right in her zombie-screaming mouth.

So there you have it.  Two potent Zombie thumpers from opposite ends of the price spectrum.  The Mossberg 464 SPX can be found South of the $500 mark while the S&W PC 629 V-Comp will be a little North of the $1,000 line.  They are both loads of fun to shoot!

Won Gun Jeopardy

Won this Mossberg .22LR AR Flattop with a red dot scope playing Gun Jeopardy at Arnzen Arms this evening.

Contoured Stainless Base Plates for CZ 75 Pistols

I don't know much about the folks at ppdbillet.com but they produce really slick contoured CZ magazine base plates that turn the base of your CZ 75 from this:

To this:

A tip of Average Joe's hat to ppdbillet.com.

ATI 45 K and the .45 ACP Cartridge

Bill's Gun Shop and Range and Robbinsdale, MN recently gave me the opportunity to review the ATI (American Tactical Imports) model 45K.  First off I want to say that the available lighting from my portable light box did not providing me the proper lighting to capture the finish of this pistol.  If you go looking for this handgun expecting to find it with an OD greenish-gold finish, as seen above, you're going to be disappointed.  The actual color is a grayish-black.  Now I had the opportunity to look the pistol over, but I could not shoot it as they had none to spare.  But I am going to shoot this pistol at some point because I want to see if it as good as it appears to be.

ATI is an importer, not a manufacturer, so they are bringing this pistol in from the Philippines where it is made by S.A.M. Inc.

S.A.M. or Shooter's Arms Manufacturing, Inc. began life in 1963 as a firearm retailer and branched out into manufacturing in 1992.  Their current catalogue is extensive and contains 26 different models of the 1911 pistol, a polymer 9mm, a .38 caliber revolver, tactical shotguns, and AR and AK platform rifles.   S.A.M. Inc.'s stated goal is to provide affordable firearms with world class quality.  Along with the U.S. their products are currently imported to Australia, Thailand, Costa Rica, Italy, and Switzerland; where they know a thing or two about "world class quality" firearms.

This is a Commander sized pistol and right off the bat you'll notice that the pistol has a threaded barrel extending outside of the slide and an accessory rail.

Let's start by taking a look at the only problematic issue I had with the pistol, and I think it sounds like more of a problem than reality would prove it to be: 

the skeletonized aluminum single action trigger has a pull 7.8 pounds.  That is certainly a lot heavier than most 1911s I have every shot or examined.  Here's why I don't think it will be much of a problem: the take-up is only about 1/16 of an inch.  In other words the take-up before the trigger engages the sear is hardly noticeable.  Instead of have a long but light (or worse, mushy) take-up your trigger pull will start right out at the point where the 7.8 pounds of pressure is necessary.  With practice I think this will become very manageable and it should certainly alleviate any concern about accidental discharges due to a trigger pull that is too light. 

The ATI pistol does not contain the Colt Series 80 firing pin block safety system that many people felt ruined the trigger pull of their 1911's manufactured after 1980.  The frame is made of steel as is the 4140 stainless slide.  Weighing in at 39 ounces recoil from .45 ACP +P ammunition is not going to be much of a problem.  As is standard on higher end 1911's the .45 K sports a round Commander-style hammer, beavertail safety with memory bump, and slightly oversized ambidextrous safety levers.

The sights are of the Novak styled non-snag combat sights with a white dot up front and a serrated all black rear sight.  I used to think that three dot sights were the way to go but I have recently found that I prefer a white dot, fiber optic pipe, or night sight up front only.  I feel that it is quicker to acquire your target if you are only focusing on the front sight and not trying to line up three dots.  I have not noticed any accuracy deficiencies occurring from not having any dots on the rear sight.

While the barrel is black in color both the interior and exterior of the chamber has been hard chromed.  This is obviously done to ensure reliable feeding from magazine to chamber and the feed ramp was a smooth as any I had examined on any other 1911 pistol.  

All in all I think this will be an excellent shooter.  The pistol is solid as a rock and the frame to slide fit is excellent.  I tried rocking the slide laterally and the pistol would have none of it.  

This is a lot of pistol for an MSRP of $719.95.  Even better is the fact that it is going to be Bill's "Gun of the Month" for November.  While they had not set the actual price at the time I examined it you can rest assured the ATI 45 K will be south of the $700 price point.  Given the attention to detail in the design and manufacturing of this pistol, the features added to it, and its .45 ACP chambering I think this will be a great defensive handgun.  

While we're talking about the venerable .45 ACP let me give you a little history on how this cartridge came to be.  The .45 ACP has a stellar record in the service of our nation that began in 1911 and continued until 1986.  Even after ’86 the GI .45 lived on with special units that needed a more effective pistol.  I’m sure you’ve all heard that the .45 ACP and it’s original platform, the John M. Browning designed Colt 1911 pistol, were chosen by the military after the disastrous performance of the Colt .38 Military revolver in actions in Cuba and the Philippines.

All of this is certainly true but the military was also interested in an automatic self-loading pistol like the European armed forces were adopting.   Albeit they wanted one in a larger caliber than the Europeans were choosing.  During the evaluations to select the successor to the .38 Long Colt revolver the Army tested 950 Luger pistols chambered in .30 Luger (7.65mm) and 50 Luger’s chambered for the new 9mm round.  The Army was not impressed.  Shortly thereafter it was announced that the evaluation team wanted pistols in .41 caliber or larger.

But what the Army was really looking for was a round that could knock down a horse.  Remember, this was 1904 and mechanized warfare did not enter its embryonic stage until the middle of World War One.  The mounted cavalry charge still provided the “shock and awe” at the turn of the 20^th Century and the one way to suck the wind out of the cavalry charge was to shoot the horse.  Doing that usually took care of two problems; it took out the horse, which was a valuable asset to the opposing side, and it usually took out the rider as well.  Frequently when the horse went down the rider went down too and wound up with a crushed or broken leg when the horse fell on it.  If the rider was lucky enough to have survived the fall he had usually dropped his weapon and was stunned or in shock.  This made him easy pickins’ for the defenders.

In order to find that horse stopping round the Chief of Army Ordnance, General William Crozier, assigned Infantry Captain John T. Thompson and Major Louis Anatole LaGarde of the Medical Corp to go to the Nelson Morris Company Union Stockyard in Chicago, IL to shoot some livestock with various caliber handguns and log their results.  Over a two-day period they shot 13 head of cattle all weighing between 950 and 1300 pounds.  The calibers used were as follows:

·       476 Eley	·       7.65mm Luger
·       .38 Long Colt	·       .38 ACP
·       .45 Long Colt	·       .455 Man-Stopper

There were no one stop shots.  On the first day of testing they found the .38 Long Colt and the .38 ACP to be completely ineffective and inhumane to the animals.  Here are the results from the second day of testing:

Caliber	Animal Weight	# Of Rounds Needed to Kill the Animal
.45 Long Colt	950 Pounds	6
7.65 Luger	950 Pounds	After 10 shots the cow was killed with a blow from a hammer to it’s head
9mm Luger	1100 Pounds	After 10 shots the cow was killed with a blow from a hammer to it’s head
.476 Eley	1150 Pounds	6
.455 Man-Stopper	1150 Pounds	12

One can certainly find fault with the way these tests were conducted but it was 1904 and Thompson and LaGarde were carrying out orders.  The result of their finding were simple:

• · The pistol’s caliber should not be less than .45 with a bullet weight of not less than 230 grains.
• · The pistol should have a capacity of not less than 6 rounds since that’s how many rounds it took for the .45 Long Colt to kill a cow.

I have often heard it said that the Military selected the .45 ACP because it could drop a horse.  While this is what they wanted their testing occurred before the .45 ACP cartridge was developed and available to anyone.  As far as I know the question of horse versus .45 ACP has never been answered but .45 ACP versus man has been answered in numerous military engagements over its illustrious 102 year history.