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This question came up in a combat range discussion not long ago. Indeed, when does the aiming process begin? Most present said something about aiming beginning when the gun is at the full extension of the arm and the front sight is visible. Possibly, but I think it happens earlier in the sequence. As a matter of fact, I can make a pretty good argument for aiming beginning at the moment you realize you need to shoot.
August 06, 2012
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One of the lesser known figures in the world of combat handgunning was William Ewart Fairbairn. Born in 1885, this slender Englishman was in the British service by 1901 and the Shanghai Municipal Police by 1907. He served in this famous agency of Sikh, Chinese and English officers for more than 30 years, forever studying the martial arts to include close quarters pistol shooting. In that period, the so-called “International” Settlement was one of the most violent cities on earth. Administered by a joint commission of several nations, Shanghai’s police department faced daily episodes of violent crime and was an ideal laboratory for study.
July 27, 2012
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In the 1960s, American shooters started getting interested in semi-auto pistols. Unfortunately, they had relatively few models from which to choose. Colt made only 1911 style guns, Ruger made none and Smith & Wesson offered a single choice in the Model 39. Exotic double-wide, double-column guns were still a few years off. In fact, the only really viable staggered column pistol was the legendary Browning Hi Power of 1935. A few other guns were available, mostly European imports and often World War II surplus. Into this uneven market came a new 9 mm pistol that makes for a very interesting footnote in handgun history.
July 24, 2012
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Many nations have enacted regulations that limit the possession of firearms and ammunition by their citizens—Thank God for the 2nd amendment. Some governments choose to prohibit just the possession of military caliber guns and ammo for civilian use. Regardless of intent or means of achieving same, this practice of no military guns in civilian hands sets clever minds a’working to evade the statute. American handgun aficionados are aware of the popularity of the 1911 pistol and .45 ACP cartridge in Central and South America, where it is often prohibited for civilians. In Mexico particularly, the answer is a 1911, but chambered in the .38 Super cartridge. An unknown, but significantly large portion of all Colt .38 Super pistol ended up south of the border and probably will continue to do so.
July 17, 2012
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In the years immediately following World War II, there was a great deal of developmental effort in the field of handguns. This included radical revolver makeovers, but even more with the semi-autos. Here, we saw a great deal of action or lockwork improvements, but also upgrades in style or appearance changes. In plain terms, the automatic pistol began to take on a new sleek and modernistic look. No pistol I can think of was any more modernistic than the Whitney Wolverine. This .22 plinker was an effort to build an inexpensive rimfire for light varminting or informal fun shooting. While it did not become a perennial favorite and saw only some 14,000 units sold in the 1950s, the Wolverine had features that caught the eye of none other than legendary handgunner Rex Applegate.
July 13, 2012
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Recently, I saw an old copy of a movie poster from the 1980s. The film was called “The Grey Fox” and starred the late Richard Farnsworth—a wonderful actor in an off-beat western set in Canada at the turn of the century. That poster, a small triumph of the graphic arts, showed a dour Farnsworth in period dress with a big revolver stuffed in his waistband. It was the gun that caught my eye and intrigued me into seeing the movie when it was originally released. The film is a movie-go-er’s delight, but I have to chuckle about why I was personally attracted to it. As a life-long so-called “gun guy,” I was enthralled with someone using a Bisley Colt.
July 10, 2012
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A couple of years ago, I mentioned the Action Safety Bullet, and several readers responded with their observations. Since then, I have been made aware that limited quantities of this ammo have been imported in the last five to eight years. If you came in late, a brief explanation of the bullet is in order.
July 03, 2012
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I had a small incident the other day and, while there were no lasting repercussions, it kind of got my attention. Several young men followed me and I don’t think they were up to any good. The following was conducted from their vehicle but I was able to elude them. Since none of the group presented anything like a professional or businesslike appearance, I believe they were going to victimize me in some way—or try to. Everything came out OK, and I am very happy about that. The point to remember is that I did not have a gun.
June 27, 2012
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It’s fun to play off the title of a great book by Robert Ruark—“Use Enough Gun.” Ruark was writing about Africa and dangerous game hunting, and when you are facing some humongous beast that can kill you in an instant, it is wise to use all the gun you can manage. Most people never get to fire one of those big .470 doubles, so they nod wisely at the title and agree. The key element in the equation is “all the gun you can manage.” I believe that most defense shooters never really determine what they can handle. Further, I’m guessing that they can probably use a lot more gun than they realize. Guns are mysterious things to most people, having been formed by the chronic mis-use of firearms on TV and in the movies. Most new shooters choose a firearm for personal defense on the basis of a brief conversation with an enthusiastic young man at a gun store counter. While it is logistically difficult to pull off, a beginner really needs to shoot a variety of calibers, styles and models of guns before choosing. Unfortunately, this is probably not going to happen.
June 25, 2012
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In the 1870s, an interesting phenomenon burst on the firearms scene. Cartridge firearms had been in use since the mid-50s, but most of the early ones were small calibers that were plagued with problems. The first widespread use of practical and powerful metallic cartridges in handguns came with the Peacemaker Colt and the .45 Colt cartridge in 1873. Both gun and ammo are still manufactured and are well known as milestones in firearms history. The big breakthrough was in the centerfire design. The big ol’ .45 Colt case was straight-sided and worked perfectly in the revolver’s cylinder with the rod extractor. In the same year, Winchester introduced a new rifle also destined for gun hall of fame—the 1873 Winchester rifle, chambered for the equally new .44 Winchester Center Fire (.44 W.C.F. or .44-40) cartridge. This cartridge was properly designed for the complicated lever-action feeding and extraction system. Since that mechanism had relatively low camming power and produced considerable cruddy residue, the new .44 cartridge came with a sort of tapered, semi-bottlenecked shape. It proved to be a very workable solution. Then, Colt realized that the new Winchester rifle cartridge could also be made to work in the Single Action Army revolver. Within a short time, the .44 WCF was available in Colt revolvers and Winchester rifles. Thus began the tradition of a cowboy using the same ammo in both carbine and revolver.
June 18, 2012
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Once in a while, a gun-savvy young man comes along with a better idea (or ideas) and Nat Stevens is just that guy. For a couple of years now, I have watched his product line, website and general success grow steadily. Nat makes simple and clever accessories for handguns through his company Tuff Products. I haven’t seen a thing in his line that doesn’t make sense, and some of it is pretty original.
June 14, 2012
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With some exceptions, the majority of common automatic pistols have a feed ramp. They have to have one because the ammo is fed from below and behind the barrel and its chamber. In the feeding and chambering cycle, the fresh cartridge moves forward and up to its place in the chamber. This is a simple invention that has been used since the very first pistols. More often than not, a small portion of the chamber mouth has a radius to form this feed ramp. This creates a small crescent of surface of the cartridge that is not supported by steel chamber walls. In firing, this area takes the full pressure for just an instant. But it takes the pressure at the head of the cartridge where the brass—a wonderfully elastic material—is thickest and strongest. Literally, billions of rounds of ammunition have been loaded, fired, extracted and ejected from typical pistols since the first one was fired.
June 11, 2012
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Every time I do class at Gunsite with a pistol, the top-notch instructors repeat the techniques of performing both speed and tactical reloads. For the uninitiated, a speed load is when the shooter in an ongoing gunfight has fired several rounds, ejects the magazine onto the deck and inserts a fully loaded replacement. Contrast that with the tactical reload, where the shooter drops the partially expended magazine into the palm, then inserts another with the same hand. The partially expended one goes into a designated pocket or pouch.
June 06, 2012
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One of the things that stands high on my “to-do” list is shoot and write about a particular pistol that seems to be running under the radar. It is a Walther, sold in the United States by Smith & Wesson under a strategic agreement with the legendary German gunmaker. Most shooters are aware that this agreement has resulted in a number of the very popular Walther pistols becoming available in the United States at competitive prices. The particular pistol to which I refer is the Walther PPS, which stands for Police Pistol, Slim. As a guy that has looked at all of the current genre of small, single column 9 mm Luger pistols in detail, I found the PPS in 9 mm to be a very appealing personal defense package. Best of all, it was reliable.
May 31, 2012
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The above photo is a Federal Hydra-Shok hollow point.
May 29, 2012
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