Remington Wins Bid For Army M4’s

The Army awarded Remington Arms Company an April 20 contract to make tens of thousands of M4A1 carbines. By outbidding Colt Defense — the original maker of the M4 — Remington may end up being the only winner in what many gun makers have labeled as the Army’s well-intentioned but doomed effort to arm soldiers with a better carbine.

On the upside, the award means that more soldiers will go into combat with the M4A1, a SOF version of the carbine that features a more durable barrel and a full-auto capability. The Army’s decision to dump the three-round burst setting will give soldiers a more consistent trigger and better accuracy.

It’s part of the service’s dual-path strategy to improve the individual carbine. Army weapons officials recently completed phase one of the service’s Improved Carbine Competition and will soon announce which companies proved they have the infrastructure and production capacity to turn out thousands of new weapons. Gun makers that advance to the second and third phases of the competition will have hundreds of thousands of test rounds fired through their prototypes before the Army announces one winner.

Many small-arms firms believe the endeavor is a waste of time since the Army has shown no interest in new calibers or features that would increase modularity. In the end, the winner of the competition will likely lose when the Army conducts a business-case analysis comparing it to the new-and-improved carbine that emerges from the parallel effort known as the M4 Product Improvement Program.

Questions have already started to surface over just how successful the PIP will be since the Army recently canceled a search for an improved bolt and bolt-carrier assembly. Companies such as LWRC International, Remington and Smith & Wesson that competed for the bolt and bolt-carrier assembly portion of the PIP were notified by the Army April 10 that none of the submissions offered enough improvement over the M4’s existing bolt and bolt-carrier assembly. It will be interesting to see if similar efforts to improve components such as the selector-switch assembly and the forward-rail assembly suffer the same fate.

News from Russia — Izhmash Goes Bankrupt!

Izhmash, the manufacturer of assault rifle AK-47, or Kalashnikov, officially went bankrupt over unpaid debts, according to the Russian Ria Rovosti news agency.

More than 100 million AK-type rifles are estimated to have been built since they were first introduced by inventor Mihail Kalashnikov in 1947.

Izhmash is a unit of the Russian Technologies Corporation, a state holding company with mining, arms and automotive assets.

A court has given the green light to Izmash factory being wound up, following a lawsuit issued by a creditor owed 814,000 rubles ($275,000). The Kalashnikov maker is now in receivership, and an administrator has been appointed by the court.

The bankruptcy is part of the re-organization procedure that was launched last year by Kalashnikov’s parent company, Russian Technologies State Corporation. Its director Maksim Kuzyuk said the bankruptcy procedure would help save the brand and most of the company’s property.

Izhmash, which has 5.3 billion ruble loan debts, registered 2.4 billion rubles of loss in 2011. Its production volume decreased by 45.5 percent last year. A major blow for Izmash came when the Russian Defence Ministry announced that it would not purchase the newly-created rifle the AK-12, which was unveiled in February.

April/10/2012

This is an article from a Turkish newspaper. The rumor of the company going under has been swirling since 2009. This time it’s the real deal. Will they re-organize and stay in business? It is Russia so it’s anyone’s guess at this point.

I’ll try to keep everyone up to date as I hear updates.

Century Arms Coach Gun

Century Arms is known for giving shooters a good value for the money. The 12 Gauge Coach Gun is no exception. For those of us who grew up in the heyday of the western tv shows and movies you’ll be very familiar with this powerful gun.

For you youngsters out there the name coach gun came from the guard on the stagecoaches of the old west. If you ever wondered why people holler shotgun when they pile into a car that’s where it came from. Most double barrel shotguns were used for hunting and general use with longer barrels but the guard on a stagecoach always used a shotgun with short barrels for easy aiming at targets 360 degrees around the coach.

The Century Coach shotgun is true to the older shotguns of the era with double “Rabbit Ear” hammers as well as a manual safety between the hammers.The Coach Gun also has double triggers. This is by far my favorite configuration for a double barrel shotgun. This model has 20 inch barrels and a thick pad to cushion recoil. There are also sling attachments on the stock and between the barrels.

This shotgun has nicely finished wood with a standard blue finish. Now it’s not a $2000 Browning but for a shotgun of this type and use as a fun gun or home defense gun it’s just right. At $250.00 I don’t worry about an occasional scratch from walking the woods or practicing on the range.

One thing I noticed as soon as I unpacked the shotgun is the barrels are choked down pretty tight. In fact the owner of the gunshop asked me why I got a 20 gauge:-) What this means for the shooter is a tight group of approximately 4 to 5 inches (depending on the load) at 15 yards. This shot spread is fine with me since most of my shooting is done from fairly close range. You can fire any load with this shotgun with the exception of slugs. The manual cautions users not to fire slugs period! The reason of course is the barrels are choked down for a tight grouping with buckshot.

This shotgun also breaks down into three pieces. The front grip is removed by releasing a latch which connects the grip to the barrels.Then the barrels can be removed from the receiver. It’s simple and easy to do which means you can pack the gun into a small space if you take a four wheel drive, boat etc. on a camping or hunting trip and need extra space for all your gear.

Since I received this shotgun from Century I’ve shot it a good deal. I’ve fired everything from birdshot to 00 buck with no malfunctions or problems of any kind. The recoil pad is fairly thick and helps with the recoil when firing 00 buck from these short barrels. In fact after several hundred rounds with 100 of those 00 buck the shotgun is as tight as when I first shot it.

This is just one enjoyable shotgun to shoot clays, swinging targets or what have you. It’s also proven itself reliable and very durable. If you want to own a piece of history at a very reasonable price the Century Coach gun is a good choice!