Innholdsfortegnelse for August/September 2021 i Handguns

More on the Cats Keith Wood’s “Two Cool Cats” article (February/March), including the Beretta .25s, brought back memories of my father’s Cold War days. He carried a Beretta 6.35 as a regular sidearm while working as a military counter-espionage agent in Europe. He said his unit preferred it to the U.S.-issued .38 snubby. My comment was that it would be a bit anemic as a sidearm, and he replied it was for “up close and personal” work. He also carried it religiously, concealed on his person, in Vietnam for two tours, prior to retiring as a high-ranking intelligence officer. Those criticizing these little guns obviously do not understand that they are designed for a purpose. I still have Dad’s Beretta, and both my daughters learned to shoot with it before…

SPRINGFIELD XD-M ELITE 3.8 COMPACT OSP It wasn’t that long ago the 3.8 was new. Now it’s new and improved with an optics-ready slide. This XD-M Elite combines 14+1 firepower with easy-to-carry dimensions (6.75 inches overall length, 4.58 inches high), and its slide is now cut to accept red dot sights. And you get the choice of buying either the stand-alone pistol or one that comes with Springfield’s Hex Dragonfly sight. It features the new META trigger, ambi slide stop, Tactical Rack U-Dot rear sight and a removable mag well that can turn the gun from a 14+1 to 19+1 with addition of a high-cap magazine. {$633 (pistol only), $818 (pistol with Hex Dragonfly); SPRINGFIELD-ARMORY.COM } LEUPOLD DELTAPOINT PRO 6 M.O.A. The DeltaPoint Pro is now available with a six-m.o.a.…

Fans of 1911s and fans of polymer-frame double-stack pistols have been going at it for years. Those who favor the 1911 will tout the firearm’s long history, which began on the bench of John Moses Browning himself: the gun’s decorated military career, its unmatched trigger pull and just-right balance. Polymer gun enthusiasts will counter that 1911s are heavier than most polymer guns and lack the latter’s prodigious magazine capacity. Perhaps the best carry pistol, then, is a blend of the best elements of both types. The notion that the original 1911 design could benefit from increased magazine capacity isn’t a new concept for even John Browning himself had a hand in designing the Hi-Power that combined 1911 DNA with 9mm capacity. High-capacity 1911s are nothing new, but few companies have…

Ruger has its finger on the pulse of the firearms market, so it’s no surprise that the company has launched a brand-new micro-compact, optics-ready 9mm carry pistol. With SIG’s P365 and Springfield’s Hellcat selling in record numbers, Ruger wanted a piece of the action and designed its own competing micro 9mm that offers a capacity of 10-plus rounds yet carries like a single-stack pistol. It’s called the Max-9. The Max-9 offers many of the same features you’ll find on other microcompact optics-ready models like an increased magazine capacity (12+1) and a slide that’s pre-cut to accept a wide array of popular JPoint- and Shield-pattern micro reflex sights—a list that includes not only those red dot models but also a variety of others from Crimson Trace, SIG, Springfield, Sightmark and more.…

NO GUN IN HISTORY HAS BEEN MORE refined than John Browning’s 1911 semi-auto pistol. Not that the original needed a lot of tweaking—today’s 1911 is, in many ways, very close to the gun that debuted over a century ago—but there are so many different versions of the pistol that it takes a lot to make a new gun stand out from the crowd. Springfield has done just that with the Ronin Operator, and now there’s a version with a 4.25-inch barrel and aluminum alloy frame to complement the five-inch, steel-frame Ronin that debuted last year. The new Ronin Operator 4.25 is designed for carry. The alloy frame is, naturally, lighter than steel, and the shorter barrel makes this version easier to conceal than its full-size cousin. The Ronin Operator 4.25…

THERE’S AN OLD SAYING THAT ”EVERYthing old is new again,” and while it might be a cliché, it certainly applies to some of the traditional shooting techniques many of us were taught or learned on our own years ago. However, there are some that, for one reason or another, have not been passed down to a new generation of shooters. This certainly is true when it come to single-action shooting, firing those 19th century-inspired revolvers that feature ergonomically pleasing plow-handled grips and graceful high-profiled hammer spurs. Firing a shot by first cocking the hammer and then pulling the trigger sounds like a simple procedure, but there are a few subtle techniques that can make your single-action shooting much more effective. During the years of the wild and wooly western frontier,…

MOST PEOPLE KNOW ABOUT COVER, which can be defined as an object capable of stopping incoming bullets, but recognizing what that might be is only one piece of the puzzle. The defensive-minded handgunner should also know how to get to it quickly and be proficient at shooting from behind it—whatever shape it may take. In a parking lot, the two-foot high concrete pillar at the base of the light pole would offer considerable protection if you were to kneel down behind it. The concrete wall surrounding the dumpster would stop most bullets and enable you to remain standing, which affords you more mobility. Vehicles make pretty good cover, too, especially the engine block and wheels. In a more rural area, a large tree or rock could serve as cover. Indoors,…

Size matters, and the size that matters most today is small. As in super-small. As in today’s crop of “micro-compact” high-capacity 9mm pistols. Arguably begun by SIG’s P365, the roster of such guns has grown quickly and now includes the Springfield Hellcat, Ruger Max-9, Smith & Wesson M&P9 Shield Plus, Glock G43X and the subject of this article: the Taurus GX4. The folks at Taurus have been busy of late for sure. The well-regarded G3 and G3c semiautos are only a couple of years old, and earlier this year we saw the introduction of the optics-ready T.O.R.O. versions of those pistols. And Taurus wasn’t about to be left out of the micro-compact competition, so now we have the GX4, an 11+1 pistol with a 3.06-inch barrel, an overall length of…

RUGER KNOWS HOW TO MAKE COMPETItion pistols. The Koenig 1911 from its Custom Shop is as good a single-stack as you’re going to find for the money anywhere, and its GP100 Match Champion is a fabulous wheelgun. But the Competition version of the American pistol isn’t necessarily just a competition gun. Ruger had to call it something, and “competition” rolls off the tongue easier than “longslide optics-ready model with better, adjustable sights.” But no matter the name, even if you’re not interested in competition, you should give it a look. This is a polymer-frame, striker-fired pistol chambered in 9mm. It is 8.3 inches long and 5.6 inches tall. It is fed by stainless 17-round magazines, and two magazines are provided with the pistol. Both the slide stop and magazine release…

PRIOR TO 1926 MOST POCKET REVOLVERS featured a three- to 3.5-inch barrel. Smith & Wesson’s Terrier was one of the new breed of snubnose revolvers—one with which Smith & Wesson was playing catch-up after Colt introduced the Detective Special. The need for a fast-handling, short-barrel revolver was needed for urban and vehicle carry and for use by plainclothes officers. Smith & Wesson’s square-butt Regulation Police .32, an I frame, was given a short barrel, chambered in .38 Smith & Wesson, and called the .32/38—and later the Terrier with a round butt. The Terrier continued in production after World War II, and most of these revolvers seem to have been made after 1945. Soon after World War II the Terrier was given a coil spring to replace the original leaf spring…

SPRINGFIELD ARMORY SEEMS TO HAVE its finger on the pulse of the shooting public. The company’s Hellcat, XD series and, of course, its 1911 handguns were all runaway successes long before the pandemic buying spree made any functional firearm an immediate best-seller. Springfield’s understanding of its customers’ wants and needs has helped shaped the company’s expansive product line, and right now handgun owners want red-dot-equipped pistols. The company answered the cry for more red-dot pistols by adding additional optics-ready versions of its popular semiautos. But Springfield took things a step further. The company no longer just makes red dot-ready guns; it now makes red-dot optics, too. Meet the Springfield Hex. There are currently two members in the Hex family. The compact, lightweight Wasp is designed for concealed carry and weighs…

I’ve long been a revolver fan, so when I saw a major U.S. firearm manufacturer engineer a sixgun from the ground up, I was excited. Kimber’s K6s was introduced to shooters in 2016 with much fanfare. Revolvers, long considered dead, were making a comeback, and Kimber appeared to have timed the market perfectly. The K6s was offered in different configurations, but all of them were snubnose, internal-hammer, double-action-only guns designed for concealed carry. That changed in 2019 when Kimber introduced the DASA, a traditional double-action/single-action revolver available with barrels up to four inches. Though less concealable, the K6s DASA family is far more capable. The DASA is currently offered in four models. Two of them—the four-inch Target GFO and four-inch Target—have fully adjustable rear sights. The fixed-sight Combat models are…

Though it is divided among several sanctioning bodies, each with its own niche, the sport of practical shooting is as popular as it has ever been. Competition creates innovation, and for decades practical handgun shooting has greatly influenced the rest of the shooting world. Everything from extended thumb safeties to grip modifications and carry gun optics originated in the practical handgun arena. The sports have even influenced the guns themselves, pushing manufacturers to put their best foot forward in order to keep up. A great example of this is the SP-01 Shadow 2 from CZ, a 9mm handgun built to compete and win in the most competitive environments. When the International Practical Shooting Confederation was formed in 1976, it was organized in the spirit of what was then called “combat…

WALTHER HAS DECIDED TO CAPITALize on its well-regarded Q5 Match Steel Frame and combine it with a custom-shop touch to produce the Meister line of pistols. These are hand-finished, hand-fitted guns, and some also are hand-engraved. The gun I received is called the Black Tie. This just could be the new Cadillac of competition handguns for the serious target shooter. But it’s not just about the looks, as the Black Tie has a lot of functional upgrades going for it. The barrel, slide and frame—and even the solid steel magazine base plate—are given a Tenifer nitride finish and then polished. But Walther didn’t stop there. These metal parts get an additional Stinox coating, which produces a satin finish that also protects against corrosion and wear. The grip is one piece,…