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Magazines and clips are not the same thing. They're different. But there is probably no more common misuse of terms in the handgun world than calling a magazine a clip. A magazine is (usually) a sheet steel box that holds cartridges in position for feeding in the magazine well of an autoloading pistol. I say “usually...sheet steel” because we are seeing polymer magazines more frequently these days.
October 12, 2010
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In the early decades of the 20th Century, a number of makers offered a new class of gun called the pocket pistol. These were among the very first semi-automatic pistols ever made and they attracted a great deal of attention. There were many makes offered—Browning, Beretta, Mauser, Walther, Astra Star, et.al., in Europe, but the American makes were fewer.
October 06, 2010
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In the movies, you see all kinds of guns that are illegal to own—machine guns, sawed-off shotguns, silencers, etc. Most of this stuff is legal to own if it is registered under the provisions of the National Firearms Act and if you live in a state that permits it.
October 01, 2010
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In the past few months, I have been working with a number of .380 pistols. They're pretty hot right now, with many competing models on dealer's shelves. Two .380 pistol articles have appeared under my by-line, one in Shooting Illustrated, the other in American Rifleman.
September 23, 2010
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Reader “MJ” sent an e-mail in which he voices his confusion over the proper use of the terms “blowback” and “recoil operated.” He went on to say that he had completely failed to understand why the barrel on his new Ruger LCP was flopping around. Enough similar questions have come my way that I think it's probably time to revisit this business of how semi-automatic pistols work.
September 21, 2010
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I have personally stood up on my hind legs and hit targets at 200 meters with a powerful handgun.
September 15, 2010
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Increasingly, I am getting questions from readers who are obviously new to the world of guns in general and handgunning in particular. That's fine with me, because the sport is in danger if there isn't interest on the part of new shooters. I want handgunning to thrive for tomorrow's shooters, as well as for the continuing enjoyment of today's. Sometimes, the newcomers are a little reluctant to ask questions, for fear of sounding ignorant. Ignorance is a reversible condition—all it takes is information, which reminds me of the adage: “The only dumb question is the one that's never asked.”
September 10, 2010
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When I was struggling to learn the pistol as a target firearm, I read every book, manual and magazine article that was even remotely connected to the topic.
September 07, 2010
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I remember reading in someone's old catalog that Colt used only seven different kinds of barrel stock for all those many calibers of the Single Action Army revolver.
September 01, 2010
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Of all the annoying things that movie actors do with their pistols, there is one that is the most unrealistic. This is when our “let's pretend” gun man senses danger and ceremoniously hauls out his Colt, Glock, Smith, Ruger or (you fill in the blank) from the holster and racks the slide back hard all the way.
August 27, 2010
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Ruger’s SR9s represent a good ergonomic choice for small-handed shooters.
August 25, 2010
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Actually, I do have a (very) few rounds left over from recent survey stories on .380 autos in both Shooting Illustrated and American Rifleman. NRA Publications Division received a great deal of feedback in the form of letters, e-mails and phone calls about these articles. The most persistent lament from readers is the lack of .380 ammunition on dealer shelves. Obviously, there is nothing that we can really do to resolve the shortage. But we can look at the situation and possibly get some kind of handle on what happened.
August 17, 2010
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Back in the late 1980's, Smith & Wesson was in the midst of a radical update of the entire product line. This was the era of the Third Generation autos that ended up filling the holsters of the majority of cops in America. It was also the much-mocked “Gun of the Week” era when an absolute flood of new models hit the market with astounding frequency. The company's marketing was, to say the least, aggressive. Eventually, things calmed down and the product line firmed up. In this period, the old line Massachusetts gunmaker produced some of the finest firearms in their history. These weren't all the self-loaders, either. While not all that well known, the Model 629 Classic DX .44 Mag. revolvers of that era may have been the most accurate wheelguns the company ever produced. There weren't that many of them, but they earned their “DX” marking on the basis of objective evaluation. It makes for an interesting story.
August 13, 2010
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In a lifetime of shooting, I have been involved in a number of forms of competition. My first pistol match was in Basic School at Quantico over 50 years ago. It was a bullseye match fired on the National Match course of slow, timed and rapid fire. Over time, I became an avid, if not spectacularly successful, bullseye competitor. Naturally, I had to have all kinds of specially modified pistols to shoot the course. Later, as a police officer, I was bitten by the PPC bug and traveled all over California to compete. It was a great time (particularly when I was driving a Volkswagen and gas was 30 cents a gallon) and I had the practical advantage of competing on the same course I fired for qualification. Literally, I was training as I was competing—great idea. Then, I became interested the IHMSA game, where we shot at silhouettes of game animals at great distances. This took a powerful and accurate handgun, but the basics of the game were still sight alignment and trigger management. In time, I discovered IPSC, IDPA and SASS and had brief flirtations with these sports. Yep, I have had a heck of a good time competing with handguns. In so doing, I have developed a huge fund of knowledge on how to lose a pistol match, because I have lost more than my share of matches.
August 09, 2010
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One interesting gun that came out of California in the 1970s was the Thomas pistol. The Thomas was a light, mid-sized DAO gun with single-column magazine of .45 cartridges.
August 06, 2010
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