I obtained my first CWP back in the mid ‘90s in Mississippi. This was during the early stage of the Brady Bill, so at the time I wanted the permit more for purchasing a firearm than carrying one, as Mississippi allowed CWP holders to forego NICS check. In fact, there were only a few occasions when I actually carried a handgun on my person that didn’t involve hunting or horseback riding.

For as long as automatic pistols have been in existence, designers have come up with many different ways to make them work. And by “work,” I mean handle or operate. Another term that I have often used is lockwork, which is the functional relationship between the various components of the action—hammer, trigger, sear, etc. Basically, we are talking about a series of hand motions or manipulations that make the gun shoot, reload and return to a safe, carrying condition. When it all started, the guns were almost always pure single-action, where the hammer was cocked by the movement of a recoiling slide, then released to fire by a crisp single-action trigger. Since the hammer was cocked, the designers usually provided a manual safety. This is the system used on the enduring Model 1911 and the one preferred by many professionally trained pistoleros. 

Older revolver catalogs used to list two basic butt shapes for their products—round and square. This actually meant slightly different things in the literature of the two big pre-World War II gunmakers—Colt and S&W.

Handgunners in search of a new target for informal plinking and impromptu competitions need to take a look at a new device I recently found. Made by a company called Do-All Outdoors, this new target is known as a bouncing ground target.