February 2008

.45 ACP Matchup: We're Mostly Sold on Kimber's Custom SIS RL
In this evaluation, we will look at three .45 ACP 1911-style pistols. Not too long ago, this would mean three pistols that looked almost exactly alike. But today’s 1911 may contain as many different components as the total number of its parts. For example, the new Brownells catalog devoted solely to the 1911 lists as many as 27 different styles of custom hammers. Thus, our test guns offered several different variations on the 1911 platform. Our three test guns were the $1421 Kimber Custom SIS RL, Springfield Armory’s $1332 Loaded Operator MC, and the $1129 Para Ordnance P14-45S GR. Each gun fired from a 5-inch barrel supported at the muzzle by a bushing and could be referred to as full-size 'Government' models. But the Para Ordnance pistol offered higher capacity, feeding from a wider magazine wherein the rounds were piled in a zigzag pattern rather than stacked in a single column. All three guns varied in the designs of their grips, sights, and thumb safeties.

.380 Autoloaders: FireStorm Beats Walther PPK, Hi-Point CF
Back in April 2006 we tested three .380 ACP pistols, one of which was the Walther PPK, as made here in the U.S. under license by Smith & Wesson. We loved the well-built little PPK, even though it had to go back for rework before we gave it a clean bill of health. It had failed in DA shooting, but a stiffer spring gave it the equivalent of our Grade A appraisal. We recently found a gun that looked a lot like the PPK, the FireStorm by Bersa ($307 MSRP), from Argentina. We thought it would be interesting to see how it fared against the PPK (MSRP $566). A sweep through our dealer’s shelves also gave us one of the always interesting U.S.-made Hi-Point handguns in .380, the Model CF ($135 MSRP). Could the FireStorm hold its own against the classic PPK? And did the Hi-Point again get our highest marks, as has been common for that make over the years? Here’s what we found.

.270 Bolt Actions: Weatherby Vanguard Wins Accuracy Battle
Hunting rifles fall into an interesting category among the firearms crowd, with more shooters having more opinions about the long guns than any other smoke pole. The likes and dislikes range from composite versus wood; short barrel versus long barrel; and don’t even try to argue about the perfect caliber. We selected three top-selling models for a test of good hunting tools and settled on what the late Jack O’Connor considered the perfect caliber for North American game. In his classic The Rifle Book, he states: 'Hunters using the .270 discovered that with it they could hit game at longer ranges than with anything else, and that when they hit they got a higher percentage of one-shot kills.'

The 'Surgical' Tactical Option: Remington's 11-87 Police Gun
Many of the advantages of a tactical shotgun are the same as that self-defense shotgun you might have propped in the corner of your bedroom: devastating firepower, mechanical reliability, ease of use. But your bedroom shotgun and working tactical shotguns do have differences: beefy tactical guns are ready to go on the offensive to serve warrants, root out armed bad guys, and break stuff with either lead or steel. We recently had the mixed blessing of handling three tactical or police shotguns we purchased from Fountain Firearms in Houston (www.fountainfirearms.com). We know they were guns of that type because their names told us so. The players were the now-discontinued HK Fabarm Tactical 12 Gauge 3-in., $999, a similar version of which will be available from Fabarm in 2008; the $875 FN Self-Loading Police 3-inch 12 gauge No. 3088929010; and Remington’s 11-87 Police 12-gauge 3-inch No. 9861, $850. We say it was a mixed blessing because the heavy 2.75-inch buckshot, slug, and birdshot loads we used delivered a wallop at the line, and made us wonder why the guns came chambered for 3-inch shells. The 2.75-inch shells were plenty.