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.

One of the earliest automatic pistols enjoyed a pretty healthy service life. Mauser's exotic C96 is often called the Broomhandle because of the distinctively shape of the butt. It is a very strong, recoil-operated auto that is laid out a lot differently that most other autos. The integral box magazine is forward of the trigger guard, so the butt doesn't have to be shaped to accept a detachable magazine. On most C96s, the shooter uses stripper clips to load an integral magazine well. The magazine follower and spring are a part of the gun, not the magazine. This is not true of the Schnellfurer (full-auto) version made in the 1930s, which has a detachable magazine. Made in many variations, the Mauser-made broomhandle was produced until 1937.

Various systems exist by which handgun barrels have holes cut into them that run from the top outside surface all the way through to the rifled bore. It’s called porting and it’s done for specific reasons. In the process of firing a shot, some of the propellant gas that is working so hard to drive the bullet down the barrel takes a shortcut through the ports, flowing upwards and in so doing, tends to drive the gun down. This partially reduces the tendency of the handgun to twist back and up in your hand, which is distracting and sometimes uncomfortable. Porting is most commonly used on high-speed “race” guns used in action shooting games. It is common to hear people say that the ports reduce recoil. Close, but no cigar.

When the 19th Century rolled over to the 20th, a new type of handgun began to appear. It was the automatic pistol, so named because the gun reloaded its own (single) chamber. Previous repeaters rotated a series of chambers into alignment with the barrel—the revolver. The auto had great advantages in its faster reloading—with its pre-loaded magazine—but a series of problems came with the new mechanism. Most of them have long since been resolved to various degrees of success, but one has not. However, many shooters are unaware that the problem even exists. The problem deals with pistol accuracy and is sometimes called the first shot flyer.

The late Chuck Ransom was a very accomplished man. At various times, he was a U.S. Marine, firefighter, machine shop foreman, gunsmith, competitive shooter and inventor. At all times, he was a decent man and one of my best friends. I remember him for a lot of good times, but the world remembers him for a remarkable device called the Ransom Rest, a mechanical device that permits a scientifically oriented shooter to evaluate a pistol and/or the ammunition it is firing. The rest consists of a cast-steel base that the shooter attaches to a solid bench or pedestal and a movable rocker arm that is held in close contact to the base by a powerful spring. A handgun can be placed in the forward end of the rocker arm and held there in rubber-faced “inserts” made to the exact shape of the gun's butt. Built in this fashion, there was no possibility of marring the firearm.