September 23, 2010
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.
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September 21, 2010
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.
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September 15, 2010
I have personally stood up on my hind legs and hit targets at 200 meters with a powerful handgun.
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September 10, 2010
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.”
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September 07, 2010
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.
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September 01, 2010
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.
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August 27, 2010
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.
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August 20, 2010
Actually, it's a lot more than the smell, but have you ever been in a shop that builds plastic holsters? I have and the smell of that solvent is revolting.
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August 17, 2010
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.
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August 13, 2010
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.
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