The Rifleman Report: Maintaining Continuity

It’s rather incredible to realize how rapidly the American firearm industry brings to market significant new products. So, in our most recent issue, we recap coverage of some of the most noteworthy from past months, and we present a few others that have only recently become available.

First up is the subject of our May 2025 cover story titled “Heckler & Koch CC9: An H&K For The USA” by field editor and noted firearm trainer Justin Dyal. He put the all-new micro-compact Concealed Carry 9 pistol through its paces on the range and came away more than a little impressed. That’s noteworthy considering the gun is the first release from engineers at the Columbus, Ga., branch of one of the world’s most respected small arms manufacturers. Indeed, it seems that HK USA has not only carefully taken the pulse of American shooters when it comes to their preferences in everyday-carry pistols, but that the CC9 is poised to quicken it as well.

In “Flat-Out Slick: Hornady’s Drag Variability Reduction Technology,” Field Editor John Haviland reports on how ballisticians at one of the world’s most innovative ammunition companies discovered a secret to sleekness—that getting to the point of the matter in exterior ballistics sometimes mean not having one at all. It turns out that a bullet doesn’t necessarily have to be sharp to produce the best results throughout its flight. In fact, projectiles that benefit from the company’s DVRT enhancements have a slightly flat tip that is said to significantly reduce drag inconsistency at long distances.

Then, in “2025 American Rifleman Golden Bullseye Awards,” we mark the most recent round of selections from this brand that highlighted innovative product releases from the previous year, just as we have for the past 23. In this case, along with an industry pioneer, they include: an all-new lever-action rifle from a storied name; an economical semi-automatic tactical shotgun of proven design; a visually stunning version of an iconic revolver; a cutting-edge rifle that blends manual operation with popular self-loading architecture; a riflescope that employs electronic sophistication to simplify getting on target; an all-new contender in the rimfire cartridge market; and an ingenious pocket-size range and bench tool.

And, in “Colt Monitor: The FBI’s ‘Fighting Rifle,’” Field Editor Bruce N. Canfield explains how the Browning Automatic Rifle, manufactured from 1918 to early 1919 by Colt, Winchester and Marlin-Rockwell, proved to be the best arm of its type developed and fielded during the First World War. Afterward, during our country’s urban and rural struggles for civil peace, a particular variant known as the Colt Monitor would prove its reputation anew as a prized trophy of both lawmen and outlaws ranging from J. Edgar Hoover’s FBI agents to Bonnie and Clyde.

These and many other examples from the firearm industry—whether as a result of product development and scientific research or exigencies of warfare—spur further development of even more effective and efficient guns, optics and ammunition, and those products largely serve to satisfy the demand of a broad civilian base of firearm owners. It is a marketplace that occurs nowhere else in the world.

After all, the idea that a nation’s civilian populace must be armed is one that has a home only in America.