I’ve been off the night shooting circuit for a couple months due to work and family priorities, but I have finally been able to get back out and shooting recently – and I still love it!
I have been somewhat vocal in my questioning the utility of IR lasers and illuminators on handguns with reflex sights, but readily admit that they are quite a lot of fun to use. Further, if your reflex sight does down or comes loose, the lasers do provide a backup aiming method. Thus, even though I don’t necessarily think they’re a must-have, I’d still recommend them for anyone doing a lot of night vision shooting.
However, giving up your white light is not a great solution, either – so the preference would be a device that could combine both VIS and IR needs into one package. Surefire has this in the form of the XVL2-IRC, which is $1200. RovyVon, an EDC flashlight manufacturer, has come out with a close (but not exact) copy for $300 called the GL4 Pro. I’ve finally had time to test it, and I’d love to tell you what I think.
While the blog has certainly branched out in terms of what it covers, I remain very interested in Israeli guns. One of the interesting parts of covering this subject area is discovering when things you didn’t think existed… actually exist.
In this case, the gun in question is the BUL Cherokee “Mini” Gen 1, which I acquired off a very popular auction site. You’ll recall from previous discussion that there are actually multiple generations of the Cherokee, with the first generation being a fairly straightforward licensed copy of the Tanfoglio Force polymer pistol. What sets apart the Cherokee Mini from the Cherokee and Cherokee Compact is the use of a compact (but not subcompact!) frame.
A thing I struggle with is the balance between cost and training. 22lr is really good for some things. Gun handling, transitions practice, ready-ups, long-range-at-short-range, etc. I spend a large part of my year shooting 22lr with the kids on a regular basis. A hundred rounds of 22lr is a bit over five bucks (at current prices). A hundred rounds of 223 is more like $25 (if I reload it).
I shoot a fair bit of outlaw falling steel, and a gun with a reliable high-cap magazine would be terrifically useful for that. Given that I have an M4-22 Elite, being able to use my mags with it would also be great. Enter the Tippmann M4-22 RCR.
You’ve seen me doing a lot of night vision related posts lately, mostly because that’s a shooting trend I’ve been deeply investing in. I still shoot competition as much as I can, but getting out to night vision shoots is a big priority for me now, too.
In my personal opinion, if you’re shooting with night vision, you need an “active” option for aiming. Passive is great, and I practice it often, but if you need to shoot on a cloudy night with no ambient IR to fall back on, you’re going to need to generate your own IR to see what you’re aiming at.
One budget option that has recently come to market is the SMSLaser XK68-IR. This is a ~$160 MFAL that provides visible laser, IR laser, and IR illuminator capabilities. I mounted it up on my AR-9 (running Maxim Defense Roller-Delayed Buffer) to see how it would work out.
A buddy of mine was selling a certificate for a Masada Slim. I had passed on the original IWI Masada because I didn’t want to deal with the proprietary magazines. The Slim, on the other hand, uses standard CZ-75 / Tanfoglio small frame magazines, which is much more appealing to me as a shooter – and the Israeli connection obviously puts it in collector territory. I bought the certificate from him, and got it from IWI. Here are some thoughts after shooting it a bit:
Size-wise, the Masada Slim is pretty similar to a Glock 19 with a Glock 26 slide. It is a comfortable gun to hold.
The Tanfo small frame / CZ mag compatibility is a nice feature if you like to carry a larger mag on you for your reload. Most of the online reviews don’t seem to have tested this, so I’m here to tell you it works great. No problems, except that the 13rd Tanfo mags don’t seem to fit (14rd CZ mags do fit).
It does not seem to be ammo sensitive at all, and is quite reliable. Zero failures so far.
Sight return was shockingly good. I shoot competitively, I’m used to gripping my gun. This gun delivered. I fired, and the sights were pretty much right back to where they were with no intervention by me.
The iron sights suck. No other way to put it. Good enough for A-zone stuff, but too big with the hold way too high for smaller stuff like plate racks. I’m not saying it’s unusable, but I’d pretty much kill for sights that gave me a proper center hold and a smaller front sight. (The fact that nearly zero reviewers seemed to mention this makes me wonder how much payola is going on.)
The trigger is acceptable for a carry/duty gun. Lots of take-up, good break. Not too heavy or light.
Balance-wise, it’s a bit top-heavy. I don’t think this has much impact when shooting the gun.
Take-down sucks. It’s technically tool-less, but good luck getting the pin out without pliers. This isn’t a deal-breaker for me – I’m not really doing field strips outside my house – but it’s a negative.
Controls are intuitive, and I didn’t find myself having trouble with the mag release or slide lock.
Oddly, there is no accessory rail. I don’t think this is a deal-breaker, either, but it’s unusual to see in a gun in 2023.
If this became the mainline Masada platform, it’d be a smart move by IWI. Jericho mag compatibility is a big deal, and the rest of the gun (excepting the sights and take-down) is pretty solid. I wouldn’t rush out and tell people to buy this instead of a P365X, but it holds its own, especially with an optic so you don’t need the horrible iron sights. (I wound up using a cheap Primary Arms sight.)
As an interesting aside, it almost fits the IDPA BUG box. If you were willing to chop the grip and use the 13rd Tanfo mags, you might be able to pull it off. Unfortunately, without spare grip modules on the market, this is too much of a one-way trip to risk it.
Something I struggle with is the balance between cost and training. 22lr is really good for some things. Gun handling, transitions practice, ready-ups, long-range-at-short-range, etc. I spend a large part of my year shooting 22lr with the kids on a regular basis. A hundred rounds of 22lr is a bit over five bucks (at current prices). A hundred rounds of 223 is more like $25 (if I reload it). That’s a big price difference!
I really enjoy shooting under night vision during the fall and winter (post-DST), and having a way to do it more cheaply was a priority. Another consideration is that I also shoot a fair bit of outlaw falling steel, and a gun with a reliable high-cap magazine would be terrifically useful for that. Enter the Tippmann M4-22 Elite.
As my readers know, I do a lot of 9mm reloading to keep myself (and my son) shooting. It’s not quite the absurd levels that some competitive shooters do, but I can easily load 10k a year. One thing I’ve made a practice of doing is gauging every single round I load. This avoids a number of potential issues, and perhaps more to the point, gives me faith that the rounds I put in the gun will work every time.
Gauging rounds manually is slow. In fact, it’s about as slow as loading them in the first place. The Armanov Quick Loader fits on top of the Armanov “hundo-style” gauge to help get rounds in there more quickly. Does it work? Read on.
My review of the AMG Lab Commander shot timer continues to be one of the more popular articles on this blog. There’s good reason for that: the Commander, while not a perfect timer, still sets the standard for size and usability. I use it weekly during the shooting season.
However, as mentioned, the Commander is not perfect. It’s not terribly loud. The waterproofing aspect has been known to be an issue. There’s no backlighting. Seeing the time while you’re wearing it is awkward, and there’s no integrated belt clip. None of these are a big deal, and are weaknesses shared by other timers. However, they did make me want to look into other timers.
Ever since I saw the Kestrel shot timer at SHOT Show in 2022, I’ve wanted to get one. While it’s certainly a fairly large piece of hardware, it seemed like it was designed to address the shortcomings of other shot timers. Did it? Read on.
The last class I took with Greg Ellifritz was his knife class in 2019, which I absolutely loved. In fact, it convinced me to carry a knife on me as much as possible, which was something of a lifestyle change. This positive experience made me really want to take his Active Response Training ECQG class. Well, COVID got in the way and delayed things, but the stars finally lined up, and I was able to enroll in the class.
As you’ve seen in my more recent posts, I’ve been getting into the night vision game lately. Ironically, I’d say I’m still spending a lot more time doing competition shooting, but at least the two interests tend to have some skills overlap.
One of the things you quickly discover about the night vision world is that active aiming is awesome, and good IR illuminators are shockingly expensive. You can get a usable IR laser for reasonably cheap ($200-$300 for a Holosun LS117IR), but an IR illuminator that can really throw? That’s going to cost you.
But… what if there were a $250 unit that could give you co-aligned visible and IR lasers along with a reasonably good (but not amazing) IR illuminator? Well, maybe there is. I bought the Somogear PEQ-15 to check out whether this Chinese company broke the code. Did they? Read on.
The Hebrew Hammer 