Historical Firearm Features

Perusing an expired paper-edition Gun List several years ago, I came across an ad for this old 1880-1881 Colt Single Action Army. Can’t remember what I paid, but at that time, it was too cheap to believe it was still for sale.

Started as a partnership between two young men in 1949, the firm now simply known as Ruger has achieved amazing success in the American firearm market. Today, three-quarters of a century later and counting, it shows absolutely no signs of slowing down.

From World War II to the present day, the U.S. military has issued pistols to officers, presenting men of high rank with some of the best-known handguns of all time—and conferring on them no small measure of prestige.

Henry Deringer, maker of the famous Philadelphia Deringer single-shot pistol, has a particular distinction: He is the only gunmaker to have an entire genre of pistols named after him.

It was one of the most iconic Western films of all time, starring one of the most successful actor/directors of all time—and it immortalized one of the most historic handguns ever made. Today, they all live on in the wildly popular exhibit “Hollywood Guns.”

At the beginning of the Great War in 1914, France’s primary handgun was the cunning 8 mm double-action Modèle 1892 revolver, also known as the “Lebel” or “St. Étienne.”

Although the Astra Model 600/43 may not sit at the top of the list of the most collectible German World War II pistols, that is exactly what the first 10,500 are. Read on:

James Payton, a special brother in the Lord, called me on a Sunday afternoon asking me to bring a box of .44 WCF cartridges to shoot an old Colt he had bought at the gun show.

Colt's Positive Lock eventually gave rise to the Police Positive, which was introduced in 1907 with more than 750,000 were produced until production halted in 1995.