Last week, I posted a pic I found via Say Uncle of a left-side charging handle on an AK. Well, The Firearm Blog found it made by Colorado Shooting Sports:

Also, here’s a bit about the safety. It’s still on the right-hand side.
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Yesterday I stopped by my local gun shop and, predictably, the place was absolutely PACKED. I was looking for a mil spec buffer tube for my AR and headed over to the tactical section. The guy in front of me was buying a Rock River .308, and he said it was going to be primarily for hunting deer.

How many black ARs are we seeing at deer camp?

New Lease on Life for the Beloved M-14

The “sniper lites” often (though not always) use M-14s.

I hadn’t heard about this beast:

Im chung-bin the the chief of staff of ROKA examines new South korean double barreled rifle K-11 in ground weapon conference.2008.11.11 Daejeun South korea This rifle uses 20mm airburst ammunition and 5.56mm NATO. 20mm launcher operates as bolt action and use 5 round mag. This weapon will be fielded in next year.

The K11 has more than a passing resemblance to the shelved XM-29 OICW (Objective Individual Combat Weapon). And the general’s right hand is on what appears to be the grenade magazine, not the pistol grip.

Who’s taking bets about whether it’s “fielded in the next year”?

See At least 19 taking on the M4 at Murdoc Online.

Meant to point this out the other day and didn’t get to it: First Look: Thompson-Center Renegade 2.

John Snow at the GunShots:

The T-C Renegade 2 can be thought of as the Icon’s little brother—it’s not as fancy and it isn’t as sophisticated but the family resemblance is unmistakable nonetheless.

And for those hunters for whom the Icon’s $1,000 price tag was difficult to justify the best news is that the Renegade 2 will cost about half as much. According to Gregg Ritz, the MSRP on the new rifle will be $500 and the street price should come in around $450.

I was lucky enough to be one of the first to shoot the new rifle this morning down at the legendary Gametrails hunting lodge in Western Kentucky and the initial impression it left is very good.

Available in .30-06, .270 Win, .243 Win, and 7mm Rem Mag to begin with.

Go read the whole thing.

Found via Uncle:

Charges on the left, cases still eject to the right

Larger image here. Interesting, and probably not too difficult to pull off considering you’d only need a bolt carrier with a handle on the left and a new or modified cover. As a commenter at Uncle points out, for the safety to stop the bolt carrier you’d still need the handle on the right side, too. Can’t tell if that’s the case here.

Also, the side scope mounts won’t work with this. The one in the front has optics mounted on the front forearm. Okay for some applications, not so great for others. But then sharpshooters needing top-notch optics with perfect eye relief probably aren’t shooting AKs, are they?

Anyone have more info on these things?