#brownellsinc

Throwback to my first AK

@brownellsinc

“I GET TO BE DING CHAVEZ AGAIN!”

I have been a huge fan of the .300 Blackout cartridge! For anyone that’s actively in the suppressor game, a rifle cartridge like the .300 Blackout is a no brainer. Yes I do realize that many pistol calibers can be ran subsonic in AR style rifles and pistols, but the .300 Blackout shares all of the common parts of its 5.56 counterpart except the barrel of course. This makes the .300 Blackout make much more sense than a pistol caliber AR that uses a bunch of different parts and more chance of not running correctly. Late last year I cobbled together yet another .300 Blackout from some parts I had leftover form previous projects and picked up the remaining needed parts from Brownells. My Brownells BRN-180 .300 Blackout has been one of my favorites as well. This makes the 4th .300 Blackout I own, so there’s no mistaking that I’m a fan of the caliber. But is it still the KING? 

In the past few years there’s been a number of other newer calibers coming into the market that are kinda following in the .300 Blackout’s footsteps. One of those is the 8.6 Blackout caliber that was developed by Q. This is of course a larger .338 diameter projectile than the .300 diameter projectile used in the .300 Blackout. The parent case is also that of the 6.5 Creedmoor. Barrel wist rates are considerably different as well. Most .300 Blackout are 1:8 twist and the 8.6 Blackout is a 1:3 twist rate to get the most out of the shorter barrels and heavier projectiles. The 8.6 Blackout’s advantage is the availability of much larger weight projectiles and therefore a more devastating effect on the intended target. The disadvantage in my opinion is the need to use an AR-10 sized receiver increasing the overall weight of the firearm. There’s no free lunch as they say, so you can’t gain something without giving up something else. And if you think that .300 Blackout ammunition is pricey, you’ve not taken a look at the 8.6 Blackout yet. But wait there’s even another newer cartridge on the horizon that claims to beat out both the .300 Blackout and the 8.6 Blackout. 

Introduced by Hornady is the new .38 ARC which is supposedly bale to deliver over one and a half times the energy of the .300 Blackout. Once again the advantage of this particular caliber is the ability to load with bullets much heavier than .300 Blackout. With over 300 grains on tap, the .338 ARC eclipses the maximum 225gr loads of the .300 Blackout by a huge margin. The .338 ARC uses the same pattern magazines and bolt as the 6.5 Grendel and doesn’t require the use of the larger frame AR-10 receiver to run. This is literally the best of both worlds with subsonic performance of the .300 Blackout, 1.5X the energy and the ability to maintain a similar weight of the firearm. Since the .338 ARC is totally new, only time will tell how much it takes off. As expected the ammunition is out of this world expensive at the moment, but if popularity takes off, expect the prices to come down a bit once supply matches demand. 

So is .300 Blackout still the subsonic king? I’d say for now due to the popularity and availability of the caliber, but be on the look out for these 2 other new calibers, especially the .338 ARC. Brownells has you covered on all 3 of these calibers if you’re looking to pick one up. 

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you may have noticed that lever guns have been gaining in popularity the past 3-5 years. Some companies have started to even ,market more “tactical” style lever rifles. Not sure exactly what’s caused the increase in popularity but I think it’s a great thing! I’ve wrote a few articles on some of my lever guns in the past, but let’s kind of analyze where I think this is going and why I don’t think it’s a fad. 

So I had been wanting a more tactical style lever gun for a couple of years. Henry rifles to my knowledge was the first company to actually offer a factory tactical lever rifle and since I already have a couple of heirloom traditional lever guns, I had wanted a Henry X model. Those Henry X models were rather scarce, so I picked up man all-weather .44 magnum from Brownells early last year and between MidPigCustoms and Ranger Point Precision, I created what could be considered a better version of what could be a Henry X All-weather rifle in .44 Magnum. Midwest Industries has been making lever gun goodies for some time as well. 

Last year Rossi introduced their version of a tactical lever gun and the new Ruger/Marlin introduced theirs. Then at SHOT show 2024…a whole slew of companies unveiled their new tactical lever rifles. Companies that we never even thought would start making lever guns jumped into the arena. I suspect since the demand has been so high for the Henry, Rossi and Ruger/Marlin lever guns, others saw an opportunity to join in. Aero Precision had a prototype lever rifle that looked really cool. I’ve been a long time fan of what Aero Precision brings to the table. Also Stag Arms released their lever rifle and out of nowhere, Smith & Wesson decided to release their 1854 lever rifle in .44 magnum at an outstanding price point. Smith & Wesson is known for their high quality revolvers as well as newer modern pistols. Since they’re probably the go to for revolvers, it only made sense that they decided to bring back a lever gun. This was their first lever gun offering in over 100 years. 

So other than a void in the market caused by high demand, what other factor could be driving this? Well unfortunately, many places here in the U.S. have rifler restrictions that outright ban tactical rifles such as the AR-15, but don’t affect lever guns. Plus the American tradition of a lever gun is appealing to a lot of folk. Let’s face it, lever guns are also effective at many roles as well as downright fun to shoot! I don’t think this is a fad that will fade away, but rather grow over time. Many folk are also quite tired of AR-15s and this gives them a new firearm avenue to explore. 

So in closing, do you plan on picking up a new lever gun this year? Brownells always has a number of lever guns in stock which is where my Henry came from. I’ve got my eye on the new Smith & Wesson myself, but we will see. 

Recently I talked about a new CZ Pistol that I picked up from Brownells, the CZ shadow 2 Compact. With a few hundred rounds down range of a variety of ammunition… both Federal 115gr and S&B 124gr, I’ve been quite impressed with one of CZ’s top of the heap offering. CZ has long been a company with a strong following from firearm enthusiasts and finally I could say that I’m starting to see what all of the fuss is all about. So what about CZ’s more budget friendly options? The P10 series has been around for quite a few years and folks really seem to like those. The P10 series is a polymer framed striker fire pistol that’s priced a decent amount below the comparable Glock offerings. When I got to looking at an additional CZ pistol, of course just a bare bones CZ-75 was an option, but that’s basically a blank slate for the CZ Shadow series. CZ does offer polymer framed SA/DA pistols, both the P-07 and P-09. So which one would be my next CZ pistol acquisition?

Enter the CZ P-07. The CZ P-07 is a compact sized polymer framed SA/DA pistol with a de-cocker or a safety that can be configured. The P-07 pistol is comparable in size to the CZ Shadow 2 compact and a Glock 19. Price wise it comes in $100 or so less than a Glock 19 depending upon the deal you find. IUt comes with 2 15 round magazines. Unfortunately those magazines aren’t compatible with the CZ Shadow 2 compact as far as I can tell. The CZ P-07 also isn’t cut for an optic which is kind of a bummer as I believe that all pistols manufactured today should come optics ready. It can of course be milled for an optic, but I’m planning on running it as is. The sights are a common fixed metal 3 dot sight system with a small trick…the dots are luminescent meaning they glow at night. These are not night sights, but give you some dot glow in low light. I’ll most likely swap them out at some point for a proper set of night sights, but these will do. The pistol also ships with a 9MM dummy cartridge for dry fire practice as well as 3 different grip back straps. CZ has put a lot of value into this pistol. The DA trigger pull is quite heavy, off my scale at probably in the 12lb range and the SA trigger pull is right at a consistent 5lb. A spring swap can make a difference here and I’ve already ordered a new spring set.

So what do I think of this pistol so far? 100 rounds down range just the other day and it’s a really nice pistol for the money. It- doesn’t shoot quite as good as the CZ Shadow 2 Compact, but for a duty or EDC pistol, this one would fit into that role very nicely. I plan on spending much more time with this pistol and will probably throw it into my carry rotation at some point. If you’re on the fence like I was about picking up a CZ pistol, just do it! Head over to Brownells as they typically have a decent collection of CZ pistols.