Chad Wallace

May 11, 2025

Review, Guns

GForce Arms Saddlehorn LTAC

Chad Wallace

May 11, 2025

Review, Guns

Gforce Arms

Saddlehorn LTAC review

It seems like everyone is getting into the lever action rifle game. I am always up for more options, especially when it comes to lever actions. GForce Arms has started importing some lever action rifles in pistol calibers. Some of these options are pretty standard, others are super tactical. They sent me one of their tactical ones, the walnut stocked Saddlehorn LTAC 357.

The GForce Saddlehorn is a Winchester model 92 copy. There are lots of the 92 copies around. The Saddlehorn is very similar to all of them. The only real difference is that the Saddlehorn has a safety selector on the bolt itself, very similar to a Rossi 92. The LTAC version runs a large loop lever that is wrapped in leather. It also runs a straight style stock to keep with the 92 tradition.

Being that this is the “tactical” version of the Saddlehorn, it does have a bunch of those tactical options. First up, the LTAC uses a 16.5 inch threaded barrel. It is threaded ½-28 which allows the use of suppressors and various muzzle devices. Next is that it comes with a picatinny rail already mounted to the barrel. This pic rail also includes the rear sight, which is only adjustable for elevation. The front sight is a fiber optic red and pairs nicely with the black rear sight. The sight picture is pretty nice for a simple set of iron sights, and they work fine.

Another part that makes the Saddlehorn tactical is the M-Lok forend. This slim line aluminum handguard has M-Lok slots just about everywhere, even if the top ones aren’t usable due to the barrel being in the way. On the front bottom of the handguard is a 4 slot picatinny rail section. Right behind the pic rail is a sling stud. At the rear, on each side of the handguard, are 4 threaded holes between the M-Lok rails. These are used for attaching miscellaneous accessories. The LTAC also comes with a 4 shell holder mounted in one of these holes. The extra shell holder is also made of aluminum and is a nice addition to the total rifle package. Having the M-Lok and a pic rail gives you options to attach whatever you want.

I have a true love hate relationship with the Gforce LTAC. Through all the .357 magnum rounds I ran through it, and the 38 specials, the gun ran flawlessly. However, I did run into a huge problem with the LTAC. When I was installing a NERO muzzle brake onto the LTAC, the barrel actually came loose in the action!. This is really unacceptable on any firearm. All I was doing was trying to tighten the muzzle brake and time it with a crush washer. Instead of taking the time to get it fixed by Gforce, I just fixed it myself. These barrels are just “glued” into the action with a sleeve retaining style thread locker, so it was an easy fix. There are even marks on the receiver and barrel on where to line them up. I have had no more problems with the barrel twisting after another 250 rounds of .357 magnum. I am guessing that the factory just didn’t get enough “glue” on the barrel. While the barrel was out of the action, I also noticed that the chamber was a little rough, about half way down toward the rifling. Since it was already off, I polished the chamber a little bit. To me it looked like a dull reamer was used during the barrel manufacturing process.

As mentioned, the LTAC ran flawlessly during use. I did mount up some optics throughout the testing. The first one was the Atibal Solar 1 x prism. It worked fine but sat a little higher than my liking. So I settled on the Primary Arms Classic green dot. It sat a bit lower and worked out better for me. Before I mounted the optics, I checked the optic rails mounting screws on the LTAC. They were a tad loose, so I tightened them up. I don’t know if they were loose from the factory, or if they came loose from using the gun. Either way I put some loctite on them and snugged them up. They haven’t come loose since.

Running the Saddlehorn LTAC was a lot of fun. It has a great trigger. In fact, my sample has a 2 lb trigger pull with very little creep and a bit of overtravel. Let’s just say the trigger is one of my favorite aspects of the LTAC. The action is also very smooth. Way smoother than I expected from a Turkish import. That leather wrapped oversize lever is nice also. The leather gives a little bit of cushion for the back of your hand, and is nice when running the lever fast. It also gives it a cool look. At one point I installed a suppressor to see how that worked. A suppressor with 38 specials is super quiet. The 357 magnums are still pretty good, but they do break the sound barrier, so you still get a sound crack out of it.

Loading the magazine tube on the Saddlehorn LTAC is probably my least favorite thing to do. Is it hard? No, it just wears on your thumb when loading those 8 rounds into the tube. This is highly typical of any side loading lever action. I do like that the LTAC holds 8 357 magnum shells in the tube magazine. This gives you a true 8+1 full 357 magnums at the ready, just in case.

The Gforce Arms Saddlehorn LTAC is another entry into the “tactical” lever gun category. It is super cool looking and has everything needed to get into this style of lever gun. I am disappointed that mine had problems, because I really liked how the gun performed. It ran super smooth and ate all the ammo I threw at it. If you are looking for a tactical thrifty lever gun, the Saddlehorn LTAC just might be it. Just be warned that there might be some quality control issues. Hopefully GForce Arms is working out these kinks.

Firearms Insider Reviews - Key Points

Claim to Fame:

Tactical 357 lever gun

Target Market:

Anyone wanting a tactical lever action

Features, Benefits, and Specifications of this product:

Caliber: .357 Magnum / 38 Special
Capacity: 8
Barrel Length: 16.25"
Muzzle threaded 1/2-28 with thread protector
Overall Length: 34.5”
Action: Big Loop Lever
Sights: Fiber Optic Front / Adj Rear
Barrel Finish: Black
Twist: 1:16"
Receiver Material: Aluminum
Safety: Hammer
Stock Finish: Turkish Walnut
Length of Pull: 13.75”
Receiver Finish: Black
Weight: 5.50 lbs.

What other aesthetic options or finishes are available?

All Black Tactical, Stainless and Black Tactical

What others are saying?:

1 out of 5 stars at PSA

Wanted to like this gun

Wanted to like this gun but after about 100 rounds the barrel shifted and now I’m unable to load in a round. I reached out to Gforce regarding the matter and haven’t heard anything back.

4 out of 5 stars at PSA

Great first lever action

I’ll give this one 4 Stars! First things first, the only reason it’s not a five star review is because every now and then it feeds a new round when cycling an old one, you’ll see two casings fly out, one will be a spent round and the other brand spankin new, but that’s it, nothing else has been a concern. I love this rifle and this brand. Now it’s not no Marlin or Henry but this is a great start if you’re looking into lever actions. It already has a tactical handguard so there’s no need to go shopping for one, but there are other handguard and stock options out there. It comes threaded so a suppressor will soon be attached. If any of you get this, I suggest you fire .38 special out of it because there's less of a kick and with a suppressor the sound of the metal target will be louder than the rifle. You will not be disappointed!

Link to other reviews:

Guns & Ammo

Price point:

MSRP = $699.00

Retail = Around $600.00

I need it now! Availability:

Palmetto State Armory or Grab a Gun

Our Rating:

Pros:

Lightweight
Big loop
2 pound trigger pull
M-Lok handguard

Cons:

Rough chamber
Barrel came loose and twisted
Optic rail screws were loose or came loose

Score: 5.50 Mediocre

Favorite Link: GForce Arms Rapture

Chad Wallace

December 29, 2023

Review

GForce Arms Rapture

Chad Wallace

December 29, 2023

Review

I recently ran across the GForce Arms GF9 Rapture handgun. I was intrigued by this new micro-compact handgun as it has a bunch of Glock parts compatibility. So much so that I contacted GForce Arms about getting one for review. As you can figure out, GForce sent out a Rapture to do a full review on. The Rapture surprised me with all its features, especially that it can be found for around $350.

G43 on top of Rapture for size comparison. Rapture grip frame is about 1/2” longer with no magazines inserted. Picture is not a perfect representation

The Rapture is a small 9mm handgun aimed at the carry market. For comparison, it is roughly the same size as a Sig P365X. So it technically fits into the “Micro Compact” size description. The Rapture’s grip frame is larger front to rear, so it feels good in the hand, at least mine. The Rapture is still very narrow, coming in at 1.12” total. It runs a 3.25” barrel for a total length of 6.6”. The main difference in the GForce Rapture is that it has a bunch of parts compatibility with the G26. Including working in G26 holsters.

GForce Arms put a lot of work into designing the Rapture. For the polymer frame, they gave it a great usable sandpaper type texture. This texture is on the front, sides, and rear backstrap. It is also toward the front of the frame where you would rest your trigger finger or thumb. Speaking of the backstrap, the Rapture comes with 4 different ones. A 0° that comes installed on the Rapture, then a 2°, 4°, and a 6°. These options help the pistol to fit any hand size, from small to large. On the rear of the Rapture is a beavertail to help lessen the chance of slide bite. GForce Arms kept it on the smaller side, I believe, to keep the pistol compact. It still functions as expected. The grip also has some slight indents where your trigger finger and thumb rest. This aids in getting a proper trigger pull for those with smaller fingers. It also helps with hitting the large magazine release. Being fairly large, the mag release size is nice and very useful. Helping to get rid of that awful Glock knuckle, is a slightly undercut trigger guard. One of the few flaws I found with the Rapture is the lack of a rail at the front of the pistol. But, it also wouldn’t fit in standard G26 holsters if it had one. Lastly, there is a thin slide release. Amazingly, the slide release was way easier to use then I expected it to be.

When GForce Arms says the Rapture is “heavy in glock compatibility”, it is. All of the internal parts are gen 3 Glock compatible, and some of the external ones. So if you want to change out the barrel, trigger, trigger bar, slide, end plate, and sights, you can. Just use any of the readily available gen 3 aftermarket parts.

The trigger in the Rapture is decent. It starts with a flat face with a little hook on the end. Yes, there’s the little safety inside the trigger. The flipper safety seemed a bit strong, but it didn’t keep the trigger from being pulled, so it works fine. I do like the little hook on the end of the trigger. It helps a little bit to keep my finger from sliding all the way down and rubbing against the inside of the trigger guard. Trigger pull is decent, for these types of striker fired pistols. The Rapture’s trigger does have a decent break, not mushy like some gen 3 triggers are. Trigger pull weight was 5.5 lbs on my trigger pull gauge. I thought the weight was decent for a carry gun. Besides, if you want it lighter, there are plenty of parts on the market to make it anyway you want.

Sitting on top of the GForce Rapture’s frame, is a fantastic slide. Yes, the slide looks kind of blocky, until you get a good look at it. It has front and rear angled cocking serrations, These are fairly deep cut, not overly sharp, and slightly deeper at the top. These serrations work extremely well. They blend into the frame nicely and look good. Inside the slide is a nondescript barrel and dual recoil spring system. Back on top of the slide are metal fiber optic iron sights. The front is red, and the back are green, both feature anti-glare serrations. The Rapture uses standard Glock sights, a big plus if you want to change them out for higher profile ones. Why would you want higher profile sights? Because the Rapture comes cut for optics! But it doesn’t stop there. The Raptures slide is cut directly for both the RMR and RMSc (sheild) footprints. GForce Arms also includes locator pins to use with either optics. These pins also help minimize optic movement under recoil. A nice optic cover plate comes installed if you don’t wish to mount an optic on the Rapture.

I ordered up a kydex holster for the Rapture. Once it showed up, I began carrying the Rapture on and off. The gun carries nicely with an IWB holster. Being that the Rapture is not big, that helped. Probably what helped the most is the thinness of the Rapture. One thing I noticed while carrying the Rapture was how the magazine's pinky extension stuck out more than I liked. GForce doesn’t have an option for a magazine without the pinky extension. So I proceeded to dremel off the extension on one of the magazines, making it flush fit. This helped a lot in how noticeable the pistol was under just a T-shirt. I thought the sandpaper texture might cause some discomfort when carrying. To my surprise, the texture didn’t feel bad against my skin. It is only a little bit noticeable to me. The Rapture makes a decent carry gun.

The Rapture comes with 2 magazines. I would have liked to see it come with 3. But since the Rapture can be found for under $350, that didn’t hurt me too bad. Plus, extra magazines are only $25. Both the magazines sent with the Rapture are steel and hold 12 rounds each. Both have that aforementioned pinky extension. The Rapture magazines are proprietary. Also not a deal breaker for me. Remember, P365 mags are proprietary also. I have had zero problems with the Rapture magazines.

Shooting the Rapture was a pleasure. The first thing I noticed was that it didn’t have as much felt recoil. Or at least less than I was expecting from a pistol this size. I shot it with the fiber optic sights. Those sights are really easy to pick up and fairly fast. I then proceeded to mount an optic up top. I used the RMR cut option and installed a Swampfox Liberty. With this combo, the factory iron sights just peek above the optic. You can still use them as back up irons, but just barely. I ran all different weights of 9mm through the Rapture, with both the irons and an optic. The only problem I ran into was some factory reloaded ammo that wouldn’t go into battery. Not the Rapture’s fault because all the factory new ammunition I used ran flawlessly. So I would say the Rapture has more of a match chamber. In fact, the pistol ran flawlessly with zero malfunctions through about 750 rounds. No, I didn’t clean it either. I didn’t run an accuracy test on the Rapture, but I did run a dot torture with it at 5 yds. The Rapture performed well, I didn’t. I also set up my A-Zone steel at 50 yds. The Rapture didn’t have any problems reliably ringing it. So I’d say it’s more accurate then I am. When shooting and manipulating the Rapture, I also noticed that it doesn’t have any sharp edges on it, at least if you don’t count the front sight. Overall, the Rapture exceeded what I was expecting

I really hope the GForce Arms Rapture stays around. It is a very well made, American, micro compact pistol. Plus it is affordable, hitting the streets at under $350. It has 12 round capacity, is thin, has lots of Glock compatibility, comes with 4 backstraps, and can mount any of the common red dot optics. I feel you can’t go wrong with the Rapture. Check it out at GForce Arms or your local dealer.