Steve Coppola is the editor of Holdover, a Canadian publication covering precision shooting, firearms policy, handloading, tools, and lawful firearms ownership.
Handloading
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
Three weeks after the declaration deadline, the federal assault-style firearms compensation program has collected less than half of what it budgeted for. The program's own numbers are now the clearest argument against it.
Advocacy
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.
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.
Advocacy
Six years after the May 2020 prohibition, the Assault-Style Firearms Compensation Program has moved from politics into paperwork. The amnesty clock runs out October 30. What the law changed is clear. What changed in public-safety terms is genuinely mixed.
Gear
Ten firearms keep turning up in Canadian safes, in the quiet racks at Canadian Tire and Cabela's, and in the classifieds. Non-restricted only. The list is editorial. The reasoning is on the page.
Advocacy
Canada's licensed firearms population has grown from 1.95M to 2.4M since 2005. Every major federal restriction since 2019 has landed on the most-vetted civilians in the country. A 21-year look at who owns firearms in Canada, and how they have been treated.
Opinion
The Canadian Starter Kit - 10/22, SKS, pump 12-gauge - is what every new PAL holder gets told to buy. It cost me close to $1,800, taught me a few genuinely useful things, and sold before I bought the 338 Lapua that actually fits.
ban-risk-entry
Current and legal per listing, with conventional rifle cues that keep it below the watch bands.
ban-risk-entry
Current and legal per listing, with conventional rifle cues that keep it below the watch bands.
ban-risk-entry
Current and legal per listing, with conventional rifle cues that keep it below the watch bands.
ban-risk-entry
Current and legal per listing, with conventional rifle cues that keep it below the watch bands.