Innholdsfortegnelse for December/January 2019-20 i Handguns

FEDERAL’S SYNTECH FAMILY OF BULlets and ammunition continues to grow, and the latest addition is the company’s all-new Syntech Defense ammo. Like other Syntech loads, the Defense line features Federal’s synthetic jacket design—blue, in this case—which eliminates lead and copper fouling in the barrel and greatly reduces friction and heat. But unlike the original Syntech bullet, which features a lead core inside the polymer coating, the Syntech Defense bullet utilizes a hollowpoint design with three nose segments and a one-piece core designed for deep straight-line penetration and maximum energy transfer. Upon impact, Syntech Defense’s base penetrates 12 to 18 inches into bare ballistics gel, which is optimal because it offers plenty of penetration to stop an attacker without the risk of overpenetration. Gel testing shows the lead core continues to…

PERHAPS BLACKHAWK’S MOST FAMOUS security holster is the Serpa, which has seen huge success and sales in the millions. However, you can find many people who don’t like the Serpa, mostly because the lock on the holster is deactivated with the trigger finger. Last fall I got to examine the prototypes of the company’s new holster line: the T-Series. The “T” in T-Series stands for thumb, as in the locking/retention features in this holster are deactivated with the user’s thumb, not the index finger like the Serpa. The T-Series isn’t replacing the Serpa—the latter will still remain in production—but the T-Series will probably become Blackhawk’s preeminent security rig. The T-Series is offered in a large duty-holster configuration, and right as I was starting to write this column, Blackhawk sent me…

Magnum Research is best known for the massive Desert Eagle, its oversize semiautomatic that has captivated handgun enthusiasts for decades. The company produces other models beside the iconic Desert Eagle, and among them is the BFR, which stands for Biggest Finest Revolver. In the April/May issue, Scott Rupp told you about a program that allows buyers to custom-build their own Desert Eagle handguns. The same service is now available for the company’s BFR revolvers, and I received an assignment to build one to my specs. The BFR revolver is a beast of a single-action handgun, one that comes in two major configurations: a long-cylinder model and a short-cylinder model. The long-cylinder guns can be chambered in powerful rifle cartridges, including the .30-30 Winchester, .450 Marlin and .45-70 Government. The short-cylinder…

TAURUS’ MODEL 85 HAS BEEN A MAINSTAY concealed-carry revolver for almost 40 years, a more economical alternative to Smith & Wesson’s J frames but with the same footprint. Then in 2008 Taurus brought out the original 856, the “6” standing for the number of shots in the cylinder—as opposed to the five-shot capacity of the 85. Several years later, Taurus “reissued” the 856 followed quickly by the 856 Ultra-Lite, which was introduced in early 2019. Taurus has been quick to embrace color options, and while my sample is all black, the anodized aluminum frames on the 856 Ultra-Lite are also available in rouge, azure, burned orange, bronze and cobalt blue—with a choice of blue or stainless barrel and cylinder. All 856 Ultra-Lite revolvers come with black synthetic grips. At 16…

TACTICAL SOLUTIONS OR TACSOL IS headquartered in Boise, Idaho, and specializes in, well, specialty products. The seven-year-old firm focuses on lightweight accessories as well as complete firearms, and I received a test sample of its Ridge-Lite barrel for the Smith & Wesson SW22 Victory rimfire semiauto. The barrel is part of an impressive lineup of barrels, magazines and parts—suppressors, sights, grips, compensators and more—for Ruger, Browning, Glock and S&W pistols. The Ridge-Lite is a cantilever setup made of 6061 T-6 aluminum, with a 4.25-inch Picatinny rail extending rearward. The rail has eight mounting slots, and at the back is a fully adjustable fiber-optic rear sight. The latter is adjusted via one screw that raises and lowers the sight and a small screw that allows it to be drifted left and…

In early 2017, a group of us gathered at SIG Sauer headquarters to handle a prototype subcompact 9mm. As we fondled the design and oohed and awed, the product manager told us the pistol’s capacity and our jaws dropped. No one thought 11 rounds could fit inside a pistol so small. That gun was the SIG P365, and it rocked the shooting world. Here was a gun that carried like a .380 but shot almost as well a full-size 9mm. The P365 quickly became the “it” gun for concealed carry, and I wondered if its supremacy would ever be challenged. For the past few years, Springfield Armory has been hard at work to do just that. Its newest pistol, the Hellcat subcompact 9mm, is striker-fired, ergonomic and accurate. With its…

Gun companies don’t often stray too far from the norm when designing new firearms. Then there’s Kel-Tec. I get the impression the company’s founder, George Kell gren, was sitting in the back of the classroom with his feet on the desk when conventional gun design was being discussed in school, doodling all sorts of out-of-the-box firearms on the pages of a notebook. This is, after all, the company that gave the world the KSG25 25-round pump shotgun and the PLR22 utility pistol, a gun that’ll put a smile on the face of the even the stodgiest shooter. The Cocoa, Florida, firearms maker is at it again with the launch of the new CP33 pistol, a gun that set out to redefine one of the nichiest of niche guns: the target…

COLLABORATIONS ARE HUGE IN THE knife industry. Custom knife makers like Ken Onion and Allen Elishewitz regularly team up with knife manufacturers such as Kershaw and Gerber to produce custom-designed knives with factory production numbers. This kind of collaboration is not as common in the gun industry, but it’s out there. Take, for example, the Ed Brown/ZEV 1911. For several years now Ed Brown Products (known for custom 1911s) has teamed up with ZEV Technologies (known for custom Glocks) to produce limited-edition 1911s. The pistol is styled by ZEV Technologies and produced by Ed Brown, and the end result is one magnificent piece of firearms art. What immediately draws your eye to this pistol are the Orion slide cuts. While I understand some 1911 traditionalists may not like them at…

WHEN IT COMES TO THE DEFENSIVE use of a handgun, caliber is far less important than most people think. Sure, all things being equal, a .45 ACP has a better chance of stopping an assailant than a .32 ACP, but a hit with a .32 beats a miss with the .45 any day of the week. When your life is on the line, not only is it important to hit your target, it’s important to hit him well enough to abruptly halt his deadly behavior. Unless the rounds you fire strike vital targets, such as the thoracic cavity or the eye/nose region, they are unlikely to result in a rapid stoppage—regardless of caliber. When I became a police officer in the late 1990s, we were taught to shoot center of…

It’s hard to overstate just how important the introduction of Ruger’s Single-Six was—not only to the company, but also to the storied history of the single-action revolver itself. Since boyhood, Bill Ruger was enamored of the Colt Single Action Army, the famed Peacemaker, and when Colt announced soon after World War II it was halting production of single-action revolvers, he saw an opportunity. Ruger introduced his Single-Six .22 in the early 1950s, and he quickly discovered he had tapped into a huge demand—and in so doing almost certainly rescued the single-action revolver from the dustbin. It was a big boost for the fledgling company. The Single-Six and its later New Model update incorporating a transfer-bar safety have been in Ruger’s catalog for well over half a century, but they’re pretty…

OVER THE COURSE OF FIREARMS HISTORY, no gun has ever generated the interest, the color and the stories so destined to be the landmark handgun in America. Even today, the Colt Single Action Army is still a viable gun to have in the field, in Cowboy competition and to collect. New to the SAA fold is Standard Manufacturing of New Britain, Connecticut. The company makes seven variations, to include blued, color case-hardened, nickel plated and engraved models with the standard “C” engraving coverage. Barrel lengths are 4.75, 5.5 and 7.5 inches, and they can be had in .38 Special, .45 Colt and .44-40 Winchester. Grip options include figured walnut and faux ivory. My sample was the 5.5-inch version, and the quality is the best I’ve seen in a long time.…