Ronin’s Grips Analytics

It’s the desire of Ronin’s Grips to move the industry away from subjective opinion and towards data driven decision making. The following are reports created using specialized tools that analyze websites, social media and the opinions of thousands. Topics are categorized as well as being listed from newest to oldest. Click here if you’d like to learn more about why data driven analytics matter.

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Vendor reports now have their own page. Click here. This is where you find analyses on organizations such as Denel, Angstadt, SDS Arms, Oracle, SIG, WatchTower Defense, etc.

The following are categories and further below are all analytics posts sorted by date from newest to oldest:

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  • Strategic Analysis: The 2025 Serbian Defense Export Moratorium and the Zastava Exception For U.S. Sales December 5, 2025
    In the volatile ecosystem of the global small arms trade, few events in 2025 generated as much systemic disruption and analytical speculation as the six-month export moratorium imposed by the Republic of Serbia. Announced abruptly in June 2025 by President Aleksandar Vučić and partially reversed for specific entities in late November, this blockade effectively severed ...
  • 2025 Strategic Assessment: Large Format 9mm Semi-Automatic Pistols in the U.S. Civilian Market December 5, 2025
    The civilian market for submachine gun-derived semi-automatic pistols—often categorized as “Large Format Pistols” (LFPs) or Pistol Caliber Carbines (PCCs) without stocks—has reached a critical maturation point in the 2024-2025 fiscal period. This report provides an exhaustive technical and market analysis of the top ten 9mm platforms currently available in the United States. These firearms represent ...
  • The 20 Most Problematic Rifles in the US Market 2024 – 2025 December 5, 2025
    This report presents a fact-driven analysis of aggregated market sentiment, technical failure reports, and public record data from the 2024-2025 period to identify the 20 worst rifle-platform liabilities available in the current U.S. market. The definition of “worst” is not based on subjective criteria such as ergonomics, aesthetics, or “guntuber” opinions. Instead, this report defines “worst” ...
  • Strategic Analysis: The Beretta A300 Ultima Patrol Platform December 4, 2025
    The modern small arms market, specifically the sector dedicated to semi-automatic 12-gauge shotguns, has historically been stratified into two distinct tiers: the high-cost, duty-grade tier dominated by Italian imports like the Benelli M4 and Beretta 1301, and the budget tier saturated with Turkish clones and aging pump-action designs. The introduction of the Beretta A300 Ultima ...
  • The 20 Most Problematic Pistols in the US Market 2024 – 2025 December 4, 2025
    1.1 Opening Statement This report provides a data-driven, quantitative analysis of market sentiment and documented performance failures to identify the 20 most problematic pistols in the recent US market. The designation “worst” is not based on isolated anecdotes but is defined by aggregated data, which is categorized into three distinct failure modes: (1) Catastrophic Safety Failures, ...
  • Global Small Arms Ammunition Supply Chain Assessment: Vulnerability Analysis and Strategic Compensating Measures December 4, 2025
    The contemporary small arms ammunition supply chain is a paradox of apparent domestic capacity masked by profound upstream fragility. While final assembly of cartridges for military and commercial markets largely occurs within the continental United States and allied nations, the foundational industrial inputs—energetic precursors, critical minerals, and precision tooling—are heavily concentrated in nations that present ...
  • Analysis of the PSA AAC Ammunition Facility Closure, the Energetics Crisis, and the Collapse of Tier 2 Vertical Integration December 4, 2025
    January 10, 2026: There is an update to this post. AAC production is “paused” and JJE plans to build a gunpowder manufacturing facility. Click here to read more. The abrupt and indefinite suspension of operations at the Advanced Armament Company (AAC) ammunition manufacturing facility in South Carolina represents a catastrophic failure of the ...
  • Analysis of the Springfield Armory Echelon: A Next-Gen Modular Pistol December 3, 2025
    The global small arms market has undergone a significant paradigm shift over the last decade, transitioning from static, polymer-framed service pistols to modular, optics-integrated systems. This transition has been driven by evolving law enforcement doctrines, which increasingly mandate Red Dot Sight (RDS) integration for duty weapons, and by civilian market demand for high-modularity platforms. The ...
  • Sig Sauer P320 Review: Safety Controversies and Engineering Insights December 3, 2025
    The modern small arms market is characterized by a rigorous demand for modularity, reliability, and cost-effectiveness, a triad of requirements that the Sig Sauer P320 was expressly designed to satisfy. Since its introduction in 2014 and subsequent selection as the basis for the U.S. Military’s M17 and M18 Modular Handgun System (MHS) in 2017, the ...
  • Transforming Medium-Sized Police Departments for Fiscal Resilience December 3, 2025
    The policing profession currently stands at a precipice defined by two opposing forces: the contraction of municipal fiscal capacity and the expansion of public service expectations. For the Chief of Police managing a medium-sized department—serving a population ranging from 50,000 to 250,000—this tension is acute. Unlike major metropolitan agencies, medium-sized departments lack the vast economies ...
  • Revolutionizing Rifle Cartridges: 2015-2025 Innovations December 2, 2025
    The decade spanning 2015 to 2025 represents a watershed moment in the history of small arms ammunition. For nearly a century prior, the development of rifle cartridges was dominated by a process known as “wildcatting”—the modification of existing military or commercial casings by individual enthusiasts to achieve marginal performance gains.1 However, the last ten years ...
  • Most Commonly Requested Pistol Caliber Carbine (PCC) Comparisons in the U.S. Market Based on Social Media- 2024-2025 December 2, 2025
    The Pistol Caliber Carbine (PCC) segment represents one of the most dynamic and contended categories in the modern firearms market. Its growth is fueled by diverse consumer applications, including home defense, where users value the platform’s blend of rifle-like ergonomics and accuracy with the reduced over-penetration and concussion of a pistol cartridge.1 The competitive shooting ...
  • Strategies for Fiscal Responsibility in Large City Law Enforcement Today December 2, 2025
    The contemporary landscape of American law enforcement is characterized by a paradoxical set of pressures: a public mandate for higher service levels, increased transparency, and rigorous accountability, juxtaposed against a fiscal environment defined by inflationary operational costs, recruitment deficits, and municipal budget stagnation. Police executives today function not merely as operational commanders but as chief ...
  • The Evolution of the Sig Sauer P365 Platform (FUSE vs. XMACRO) December 1, 2025
    The contemporary firearms market, specifically the micro-compact sector, has reached a critical inflection point in its evolutionary trajectory. Since its introduction in 2018, the Sig Sauer P365 platform has not merely participated in the concealed carry market; it has fundamentally architected the modern expectations of capacity-to-size ratios. This report provides an exhaustive, expert-level analysis of ...
  • The 9mm Submachine Gun: A Comparative Systems Analysis of the H&K MP5 and the B&T APC9 and the Battle for Institutional Supremacy December 1, 2025
    This report provides an exhaustive comparative analysis of two definitive 9mm platforms: the legacy Heckler & Koch (H&K) MP5 and the modern Brügger & Thomet (B&T) APC9. The objective is to assess their respective design histories, engineering principles, platform-level advantages and disadvantages, and current market standing to determine which platform represents the contemporary leader in ...
  • Innovative Strategies for Rural Law Enforcement Success December 1, 2025
    The American law enforcement landscape is frequently analyzed through a metropolitan lens, where the challenges of high population density—violent crime spikes, complex gang hierarchies, and large-scale civil unrest—dominate the national policy discourse. However, a distinct, pervasive, and equally critical crisis exists within the nation’s rural jurisdictions. These agencies, which serve approximately 97% of the United ...
  • Analysis Report: B&T APC Pro Product Family November 30, 2025
    This report provides a comprehensive analysis of the Brügger & Thomet (B&T) Advanced Police Carbine (APC) Pro series within the current US civilian market. The APC Pro family occupies an unambiguous “Tier-1” or “premium” market position 1, targeting professional operators 2 and high-end civilian collectors willing to pay a significant premium for Swiss-engineered quality. Market sentiment ...
  • Decision Dominance: AI and the Transformation of the OODA Loop in Combat November 30, 2025
    The 21st-century strategic competition is increasingly defined not by mass or industrial might, but by the speed and quality of decision-making. The foundational framework for understanding this competition is Colonel John Boyd’s OODA loop—Observe, Orient, Decide, Act. For decades, military doctrine has focused on “getting inside” an opponent’s loop, operating at a tempo that shatters ...
  • Understanding The Top 10 CR123A Batteries for Tactical Use November 29, 2025
    In the high-stakes domain of small arms integration, tactical optoelectronics, and mission-critical sensor systems, the power source remains the single most underestimated point of failure. For the Law Enforcement (LE) officer executing a high-risk warrant service, the military operator navigating a subterranean environment, or the private security contractor protecting critical infrastructure, the reliability of a ...
  • Strategic Analysis of Expired Firearm Patents (2024-2025) and Identification of Economically Viable Opportunities November 29, 2025
    The expiration of a foundational patent is not an end; it is a catalyst. In the small arms industry, intellectual property (IP) often acts as a legal “moat” that allows a single company to define, monopolize, and control an entire product ecosystem. The statutory expiration of this IP is a significant strategic event that recalibrates ...
  • The Augmented Operator: AI’s Near-Term Impact on Special Operations Forces (2025-2030) November 29, 2025
    This report assesses the near-term (2025-2030) impacts of artificial intelligence (AI) on first-world Special Operations Forces (SOF). The central finding is that the next five years will be defined not by the invention of new AI, but by its migration from centralized, high-echelon intelligence platforms to the “tactical edge”.1 This decentralization is a strategic necessity, ...
  • How Chinese Optics Are Transforming Russian Warfare November 28, 2025
    The Russo-Ukrainian War (2022-2025) has served as a crucible for modern high-intensity warfare, exposing severe structural deficiencies within the Russian defense industrial base (DIB), particularly in the domain of optoelectronics. Historically, the Soviet and subsequent Russian military doctrines relied on domestic production centers—such as the Shvabe Holding conglomerate—to supply thermal imaging, night vision, and advanced ...
  • The Optical Gap: Russian Infantry Challenges November 28, 2025
    The optical capability of the individual infantryman is a defining characteristic of modern military effectiveness. In the twenty-first century, the transition from mechanical iron sights to optoelectronic sighting systems—reflex sights, holographic weapon sights, and magnified combat optics—has been near-universal among first-rate military powers. This transition is predicated on the proven tactical reality that optical sights ...
  • Transforming Small Town Policing: Strategies for Fiscal Resilience November 28, 2025
    The mandate for modern law enforcement leadership in small municipal jurisdictions has fundamentally transformed. We have moved beyond the era where the police budget was a static document, adjusted incrementally for cost-of-living increases, and into an era of dynamic fiscal triage. For the police chief of a small town—typically defined as an agency serving a ...
  • Black Friday Sales Are Under Way: Brownells, Creedmor Sports, EuroOptic, Guns.com, Palmetto State Armory, and Primary Arms November 28, 2025
    I came down this morning to a ton of Black Friday sales emails and here is what caught my eye: Brownells Brownells is a historic and premier supplier of firearm accessories, gunsmithing tools, and ammunition, having served the industry since 1939 with a reputation for unwavering reliability. Their extensive catalog supports professional gunsmiths and enthusiasts alike, offering ...

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