Innholdsfortegnelse for August/September 2020 i Handguns

Just received the June/July issue. I want to especially thank you for Payton Miller’s article on the Model 13. The first centerfire gun I ever bought was a Model 13. Mine was a four-inch rather than three-inch like Payton’s. It still shoots great, and it looks beautiful with that nice S&W blued finish and walnut grips. Also, thanks for Richard Nance’s “En Garde” column. He always provides useful and practical real-world advice, and his column on scanning one’s environment is no exception. D.W. LIVINGSTON, ALBUQUERQUE, NM I loved that piece by Mr. Miller on the Model 13. As a young deputy sheriff in California in the late ’70s, my first duty gun was a Model 19. A couple of years later I got a three-inch round-butt Model 13, which I…

THE MOST COMPACT, THIN, AND CONcealable .25 ACP ever made was brought into the world in 1918 by Fritz Mann of Mann Werkzeugfabrik in Suhl, Germany. Previously the firm had made parts and components for the gun trade in Suhl as well as miniature watches and lockets. Fritz Mann now set out to make the smallest .25ACP ever, and he succeeded with a design so advanced that it ran into immediate sales resistance. The new gun was extremely ergonomic and easy to hit with, but it was shaped more like a T than a conventional Browning type vest pocket pistol. It was so thin it made all other .25 autos seem bulky and clunky by comparison. Only four inches long and weighing just 8 7/8 ounces, it stands 2.75 inches…

PROPERLY CONCEALING A HANDGUN ON your body requires selecting the right gun, gear and cover garment—as well as understanding where on your body the gun will best hide. Hear are a few things to consider before heading out the door armed. Size matters—at least when it comes to concealing a handgun. Many people assume that barrel length is what makes a gun easier or harder to conceal. While that argument has some validity when your gun is worn in an outside-the-waistband (OWB) holster, barrel length is essentially a non-issue as far as concealing a gun carried inside the waistband (IWB) because the holster is tucked into the pants. Concealability is much more dependent on a handgun’s width and the length of its grip than the length of its barrel. A…

My son is a rather jaded firearms enthusiast. At three (almost four, he’ll tell you) he’s seen many guns pass back and forth between my office and the gun safe in our house. Exhibition-grade walnut does nothing for him, and he has no appreciation for the classics. The very Colt that Wyatt Earp carried into the famous dustup at the OK Corral could pass under his nose without a second glance. But when I walked by him with Browning’s new Limited Edition Buck Mark Plus Vision pistol in blue, the kid almost fell off his chair. “Dad, what is that?” I explained, and he asked if he could see it. I held the gun while he looked over every inch of it. “That’s the coolest gun I’ve ever seen,” he…

IT’S HARD TO BELIEVE SUCH A HISTORically conservative establishment like Ruger is making a gun that looks like the new Mark IV 22/45 Lite. The company got its start with the original Standard .22 pistol, and over the years the design has gone through many changes, culminating in the Mark IV, but few have ever been as eye-catching. The Mark IV 22/45 Lite first came on line in 2012. While the grip follows the famous Model 1911 styling, it is what’s on top that separates one model from the next. The aluminum receiver in this case is gold, and it features vents along the flanks. The 4.4-inch barrel is threaded for muzzle devices, and it is tensioned within this shroud and is secured at the muzzle by a spanner-type of…

SPRINGFIELD SAINT VICTOR .308 PISTOL HANDGUNS.COM | ARTICLES YOU MIGHT HAVE MISSED We have had lots of articles on the 9mm, .32 Mag., .380, .45 ACP, .22 Mag, .40 caliber, 10mm, 5.7x28. How about the 9mm Makarov? What about the FBI’s first autoloader, the .38 Super? GEORGE GOULD, LAMARQUE, TX Anything regarding the .38 Super gets our editor’s attention. Once he’s out of the doghouse (see left), we’ll work on that. Plus, it’s been a while since we looked at the .32s. The people have spoken. Last issue we mentioned our Facebook poll on best defensive calibers. And the winner is... The 9mm! (33%)2nd: .45 ACP (23%)3rd: .40 S&W (18%)4th (tie): .38, .380 (5%) Others receiving votes: .357 Magnum, .357 SIG, .38 Super and (drum roll, please) 40mm grenade…

The custom handgun has evolved significantly over the years, shifting from mostly 1911s to accessorizing and rebuilding popular polymer-framed pistols. Though Ed Brown Products is well known for the former, it has recently moved toward the latter in a big way. The MP-F3, one of the custom handguns in the company’s “Fueled by Ed Brown” series, starts as a Smith & Wesson M&P 2.0 and ends up as a handgun that is about as tricked-out as one can be without going full race gun. Ed Brown has been customizing pistols for more than 50 years. What began as a passion project to supplement his work as a tool and die maker became a full time busi ness back in 1988. Brown took his capable custom gun making, product design and…

Springfield Armory has an entire family tree of XD pistols. First came the original XD series, then the enhanced XD-M, the compact XD-S and the newer XD-E. All have polymer frames, and all are striker-fired except the XD-E, which has an external hammer. They are all available in different sizes, finishes and calibers. So it should be no surprise that the brand-new XD-M Elite line already has five models, including a 3.8-inch version; two 4.5-inch versions (one black, one flat dark earth); and an OSP (Optically Sighted Pistol) Threaded model with a 4.5-inch barrel, tall sights and ready to accept a slide-mounted red dot. And then there’s the pistol we’re reviewing here: the 5.25-inch XD-M Elite Precision. As of right now, the XD-M Elite pistols are available only in 9mm.…

Rock Island Armory is best known for producing reliable 1911s at a reasonable price, so it should come as little surprise that the company’s new .22 Magnum semiauto pistol bears more than a passing resemblance to John Moses Browning’s most influential handgun design. But the 1911 was never designed to function with mild rimfire ammo, so Rock Island has made a few engineering changes to the XT 22 Magnum to make it look and feel like a 1911 without sacrificing reliability. For starters, the XT 22 Magnum features an open-top slide design that is reminiscent of another popular semiauto centerfire pistol: the Beretta 92. The open top eliminates some slide weight and allows the XT 22 Magnum’s delayed blowback operating system to function properly. The XT 22 Magnum also features…

IN THE SEMIAUTOMATIC HANDGUN world, there is nothing quite like a good 1911 trigger. The short, straight pre-travel, the rigid little wall and then the clean break make for a pull that makes guns easy to shoot well. It is, justifiably, the trigger by which all other pistols are judged. There’s a problem, though: In order to get a really good trigger pull on your 1911 you need to either pay for a premium-priced handgun or send your pistol out for custom tuning by a professional. Simply swapping ignition parts on a 1911 isn’t brain surgery, but precisely fitting those parts for a perfect break should be reserved for only the most skilled among us. Until now. With the introduction of the Drop-in Trigger System (DTS) from Nighthawk Custom, achieving…

AT THE MOST RECENT SHOT SHOW, I GOT a look at 1791’s Gunleather ( 1791GUN LEATHER.COM ) “consumer customizable holster.” Now, historically, I have found multi-use, adjustable and/or adaptable holsters disappointing at best, but as the inventor demonstrated the company’s Ultra Custom holster, I got excited—to the point I thought this holster was the neatest and most innovative product I saw at the whole show. I’m pretty sure it has created a new category of holsters. This is an inside-the-waistband holster, offered in sizes to fit everything from tiny pocket guns to large full-size pistols. The Ultra Custom holster looks like leather because it is. It is American cowhide leather on the outside, with a nice suede lining on the inside. However, unlike traditional leather holsters, in between those two…

It’s hard to believe the Ruger GP100 is 35 years old. Bill Ruger’s design was notable for several features. Its lack of sideplates made the frame stronger, which was necessary because this revolver was built from the get-go to handle a full-time diet of .357 Magnum loads. It introduced the peg-style frame that permitted the use of one-piece grips, and it featured a trigger system employing coil-wire mainsprings instead of leaf springs—the same setup used on the company’s Redhawk double action that made its debut six years prior. Over those 35 years, the revolver has seen a number of models and chamberings, from .22 Long Rifle to .44 Special (I bought one), and now Ruger has decided to put the muscle of its relatively new Custom Shop behind the design.…

THE WALTHER CCP M2 IS ONE OF THE great all-around defensive pistols on the market. It’s a good carry gun (CCP stands for Concealed Carry Pistol, after all) and a good home-defense gun for people of just about any experience level or physical condition. The CCP operates via SoftCoil, a delayed-blowback design. A gas port forward of the chamber bleeds ignition gases into a cylinder below the fixed barrel. A piston is mounted at the forward part of the slide, and firing gases expanding into the cylinder retard the piston’s ability to travel down the cylinder until the bullet has left the barrel. Once that occurs and pressures drop to a safe level, the slide cycles. The result is the CCP can use a lighter slide and a lighter recoil…