Advocacy
A hundred guns, and the *point* Ottawa misses
The CCFR's 100-gun contest is loud, cheeky, and legally mundane. That is why it works: it shows new shooters a community refusing to let Ottawa turn lawful ownership into something shameful.
Steve Coppola
Steve Coppola is the editor of Holdover, a Canadian publication covering precision shooting, firearms policy, handloading, tools, and lawful firearms ownership.
Advocacy
The breach they won't *pay* for.
On April 27, the federal government confirmed in writing: no compensation was ever paid to the 2.2 million firearm owners exposed in the 2021 Canadian Firearms Program breach. The vendor still has the contract.
Handloading
The free *upgrade*.
Vihtavuori quietly updated its Reloading Data Center this week. For a Canadian handloader working on a powder that is actually stocked here, it is now the most usable free tool in the hobby. The upgrade costs nothing, and that is rare in this hobby.
The little *.308* that behaves
The Black Creek Labs TRX Bronco Howitzer looks like a bad idea someone had near a bandsaw. Then you shoot it. Compact, loud, controlled, and far more accurate than a 9.5-inch .308 has any right to be.
Precision
The *data* book.
Components are up, rimfire matches are filling, and the thing separating winners from also-rans at Canadian precision matches is often a notebook, not another rifle part.
Gear
The Cadex CDX-300 TAC makes *.300 PRC* make sense
The Cadex CDX-300 TAC is too heavy, too expensive, and too specific to flatter casual ownership. Good. In .300 PRC, those are not sins. They are the point.
Precision
The .22 moment: rimfire is the path into Canadian precision
Rimfire precision gives new Canadian shooters a practical way into the sport while centrefire costs and policy pressure keep rising.
Advocacy
Don't *walk* into the detachment
Opinion. The RCMP had to warn Canadians not to walk banned rifles into a detachment. A federal buyback six years in the making still has no clear compliance path that does not risk criminal charges for vetted owners trying to follow it.
Handloading
The powder shelf, spring *2026*
Walk into a Canadian reloading shop this week and most shelves are full. A few specific ones are not. The empty shelves trace back to Australia, not Ottawa. Here is what is short, what to substitute, and what a newer reloader should carry away.
Advocacy
Half the buyback: the program's own numbers are the argument
The federal buyback declaration tally is not a footnote. It is the program's own math arguing against the program.
Advocacy
The Army Says *Assault Rifle*
Opinion. On April 17, the Canadian Army released a promotional video for a new service rifle: the Canadian Modular Assault Rifle. Six years of civilian buyback rhetoric has rested on that word. The Army just claimed it, from the same Kitchener factory.
Is Nathalie *Okay?*
Opinion. A Polytechnique survivor turned Liberal MP fronts a $1.8B buyback her cabinet colleague called political, on tape. Evidence does not support her. The minister did not. At some point the question is whether this file is still about public safety.