The Outdoors Guide

When Bill Wilson and his crew set out to build a lightweight AR-10, they wanted to make it accurate, reliable, handy, and light. Moreover, this being Wilson Combat, they also wanted a design that would allow shooters to have it built with the options they want: finish, colors, muzzle devices, rail lengths and so on. The result is the Wilson .308 Project rife. Uppers and lowers are Wilson’s BILLet-AR receivers, which are CNC-machined in-house from billet aluminum. The standard here is 7075 T-6, which is easy to machine, a snap to have anodized, and tough as you can get without going exotic. Rather than slavishly imitate the contours of a forged upper and lower, engineers took out weight from places it didn’t need to be and left aluminum in areas where it keeps the receivers strong. The result is a slab-sided but trim upper, with a built-in case defector and no forward assist. The upper also has a machined-in full-length top rail, MIL STD 1913, where you can mount the optics or ...

 As the rife cycled, I could feel the bolt lock back, indicating I was empty. With more rounds yet to fire in the drill my class was running, I immediately began to reload. I had to slow down and think while doing this. The handy carbine I was shooting wasn’t a member of the AR or AK family or anything I was familiar. Instead, it was an ARX 100 from Beretta—and a lil’ bit different. Distinctive looking with a definite Italian edge to it, the ARX 100 is very much a child of the 21st century. As such, it has a number of interesting features. The ARX 100 is a semiautomatic version of Beretta’s ARX 160, which was originally developed for the Italian Soldato Futuro (Future Soldier) program. The ARX 100 is a modern gas-operated design that employs an adjustable short-stroke piston system and a carrier-controlled rotating bolt. In its standard configuration, it is chambered for 5.56x45 NATO, feeds from common STANAG magazines, and features a 16-inch barrel with a 1:7 twist. I...

What’s in a name? Gamo could not name their new Co2 revolver the Striker as they intended, so they added a ‘c’ for its full title of GR-Stricker. It’s a revolver so it has a swing-out cylinder and an exposed hammer, and it shoots lead pellets as opposed to the BBs normally found with Co2-powered pistols. The gun is very modern-looking thanks to the molded-on accessory rails on top of and below the barrel, as well as the open sights, which have high visibility add-ons. The pistol grips add to a very modern look. They are the rubber, super-grip-type fitted to most top-end revolvers these days. The plastic cylinder takes eight pellets, and to gain access to it there is a spring-loaded latch under the barrel. Do not be fooled by the faux cylinder release catch molded onto the metal casting of the main frame. The plunger has to be held forward in order to swing the cylinder out to the left, and please note that this can only be done when the gun is not cocked. The gun has a safety ...

We’ve gone big on Weihrauch this month, and you’d be forgiven for thinking that the HW100KT LA featured on the cover and in the editor’s test is the most important airgun to carry that famous German maker’s name. You’d be wrong, though. This HW30K, junior-sized, break-barrel springer kit is every bit as ‘big’ a product, and perhaps even more important, thanks to the role it plays in our sport. THE HW30K KIT Let’s see what the Weihrauch HW30K Kit contains, before we evaluate its importance or anything else it may provide for its £200 price tag. For that money, or very possibly a bit less, you get the HW30K rifle in .177, a neat little 4 x 32 scope with finger-friendly turrets and a duplex reticle, and a set of two-piece mounts. Most importantly of all, the rifle is a proper Weihrauch, with all of the build quality and performance that brand carries. Along with the Weihrauch quality comes a pride of ownership that will make any junior shooter feel as important as the rifle, ...

I’ve said it before, and I’ll be saying it again, but Weihrauch always sits back and considers its options, rather than blazing trails and kicking open new doors. Mind you, this world-renowned German company has already changed the entire air-gun game with the launch of the Rekord trigger unit way back in the 1950s, so it could be said that its established stance of ‘evolution not revolution’ came about after it had already done the ‘revolution’ bit. There’s another fact about Weihrauch of which I’ve become personally aware, and that’s the company’s extreme reluctance to reveal any sort of prototype, but I’ve managed to extract one for this test, albeit one that is definitely 95% the finished item. What we have here, is the latest, and I’ll already declare it the greatest, incarnation of the HW100 side lever, multi-shot, pre-charged pneumatic, the HW100KT LA. The full name of this rifle is the HW100 Karbine Thumbhole Laminate Adjustable, and it’s the best part of that name ...

Like most firearm companies, Remington burns a lot of midnight oil coming up with ways to convince hunters and shooters they need to buy more than just one of a particular model. Among the enticements are styling changes and limited editions produced only during a specified period of time, a year being typical. It has to be that way in order for most firearms to survive. A Model 700 BDL built in 1962, its first year of production, is still one of my favorite rifles, but had the Model 700 stayed exactly the same and had never been offered in other variations, it might not be with us today. Instead, the same basic rife has been available in about three zillion different styles, variants and calibers, and for that reason, along with the fact it was a good design to begin with, it remains the most successful sporting rife of American design. The Model 700 Classic wearing a stock of true American classical styling appeared during the 1970s and is an example of a subtle change in market...

THE Sabatti factory is located in an area that has a rich heritage in gun making, the Brescia (Gardone Val Trompia) region is located in north central Italy on the southern fringe of the Alps. Sabbatti has made and still makes all manner of high-end shotguns, double rifles, combination guns and bolt action rifles. It must be over a decade since I last handled a Sabatti Rover bolt action and I was looking forward to seeing what Aqusport, the Queensland distributors would be sending me. I wasn’t disappointed since I found the latest Sabatti Rover Inox had been considerably improved over the old model. The only criticism I can come up with concerns its weight; field-ready with scope and mount, sling and three rounds in the magazine, the outfit tipped the scale at 4.3kgs. That’s a lot of weight to be lugging up into the high sierras and rather hefty for a rifle in .270 Winchester which by my rule of thumb should weigh no more than 3.6kgs all-up and 3.3kgs would be better. This wou...