Innholdsfortegnelse for Volume 76, Issue 18 i Firearms News

Freelance writer and editor Mark Chesnut is the owner/editorial director at Red Setter Communications LLC. An avid hunter, shooter and political observer, he has been covering Second Amendment issues and politics on a near-daily basis for the past 20 years. The anti-gun lie that gun-ban advocates “don’t want to take anyone’s guns away from them” is just that — a lie. While most anti-gunners are able to help keep that thinly veiled secret by carefully not mentioning their eventual end goal when on the public stage, occasionally a gun-ban advocate will be remarkably candid in calling for guns in the hands of lawful citizens to be taken by the government. Such is the case with University of Miami political professor Gregory Koger. In an Op-Ed published recently at Washingtonmonthly.com, Koger…

The very early years of IPSC competition were still part of what I call the “inflationary expansion” period of competition. You couldn’t build a gun to beat the competition without showing up at a match and finding someone else had either beaten you to it or leapfrogged your advance. The late Chip McCormick offered us a gift from the gods; a hi-cap 1911 frame. Before the other polymer-to-steel 1911s, there was Chip’s frame. And that’s all it was. A frame, for something like three times the cost of a single-stack frame, that you would then build your gun on. Overnight, single-stack 1911 Open guns got demoted to Steel Challenge guns, because we were all going to be building double-stack Supers for Open. Overnight, every other hi-cap pistol got shelved for…

Taurus introduced the GX4 in 2021, and it was not just a huge success but a huge surprise. This subcompact 9mm was a serious revelation to me, in nearly every way. For a company known for making budget-priced pistols, the GX4 handles and shoots like a far more expensive gun … while being priced lower than any competing pistols. A brand-new design, the GX4 is not a cut-down version of any of Taurus’ previous offerings. This subcompact 9mm is a striker-fired, single-action pistol with a polymer frame. Inside the frame is a stainless-steel chassis on which the slide rides, but that chassis is not designed to be removable. Back in the day, manufacturers would introduce full-size pistols, and then, eventually, probably, would introduce compact versions. These days, conceal carry handguns…

Unterscharführer Albrecht Richter was too exhausted to be terrified. It was December 19, 1944, and Richter had not slept in three days. His government-issue Pervitin kept him conscious, but there was just so far that amphetamines could push the human animal. Richter clung to the engine deck of the massive PzKpfw V Panther tank as it rumbled into Stavelot, Belgium. At the very least the heat from the engine helped dispel the cold. Were circumstances ever so slightly different he might have even tried to sleep. The crack of rifle fire quickly displaced that particular dream. Richter had assessed into the 1st SS Panzer Division Leibstandarte in the spring of 1943 just before Operation Zitadelle, the ill-conceived Kursk offensive. Twelve days later more than 54,000 German soldiers were dead. The…

It seems I can’t turn around without Springfield Armory springing another surprise on me. And us. What makes it fun is that every surprise so far has been an improvement, an advance, a resurrection, or a refinement. So far, they have been pretty much what I would have thought of Springfield, had I enough time to sit back and mull over “What could Springfield Armory do next?” I have to admit, the SA35 was a really, really, pleasant surprise. But the Prodigy? To be precise, the 1911 DS Prodigy? With the DS Prodigy, (as in double-stack) Springfield Armory has upset the applecart, turned the apples into applesauce, canned it, and elbowed all the other applesauce vendors off of the corner. The Prodigy is an earthquake in competition circles. What is…

I still have fond memories of sitting down to watch Sergeant Preston of the Yukon on a black & white tv screen about the size of an iPhone screen. In the background my grandmother would occasionally interject, “Get ‘em, King!” as the Mountie’s loyal dog went after a criminal in the Far North. My impressions of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police were formed by those tv shows, as probably were those of many of you reading this. I liked the dog; I liked the guns; and I liked the adventure! When I started collecting English revolvers decades later, I made sure that my example of the .476 Enfield revolver was one that had been issued to the Northwest Mounted Police. I also acquired examples of the Colt New Services in…

The Ottoman Empire was founded by Osman I, leader of the Turkmen Kayi tribe, in 1299. The Turks gradually conquered Anatolia (present day Turkey) from the Mongols, Byzantines, Crusaders and Arabs until Constantinople fell to them in 1453. They became one of the major military powers in the Mediterranean world eventually expanding their empire into Greece, the Balkans, Eastern Europe, Egypt, North Africa and the Arabian Peninsula until it stretched from Persia to the Atlantic. Between 1826 and 1909, the Ottoman army was slowly reorganized/modernized. Originally, they brought in French advisors but after their defeat in the Russo-Turkish War (1877–1878) the French were replaced with Germans. But the Ottomans were still on the losing side in the Italo-Turkish War (1911-1912) and the First and Second Balkan Wars (1912-1913) which saw…