Handguns

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 dealers 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? Heres what we found.

Ed Brown Products has introduced a light rail frame for 2008. This new light rail frame will initially be available on the Special Forces pistol.

Kathy Adkins moved from target to target, using a .38 revolver and a 9 mm semi-automatic pistol with deadly efficiency, putting holes in the dead center of paper targets meant to look like people. Adkins, 48, owns a real estate firm in Jackson and has been taking firearms training since March. Instructor Cliff Cargill said he has had many new students since the Legislature passed a bill last year giving residents expanded legal rights to protect…

It seems like every year is a banner year at the Shooting and Outdoor Trades Show and 2008 is no exception. There’s a bumper crop of new product offerings from some of the biggest names in the sport. Here’s a quick-hits rundown of what’s hot, and what’s happening.

A lot of Americans who believe in the right to own guns were very disappointed this weekend. On Friday, the Bush administration's Justice Department entered into the fray over the District of Columbia's 1976 handgun ban by filing a brief to the Supreme Court that effectively supports the ban. The administration pays lip service to the notion that the Second Amendment protects gun ownership as an individual right, but their brief leaves the term essentially meaningless.

Smith & Wesson Corp., announced today that after 10 years of successfully hosting the Smith & Wesson International Defensive Pistol Association (IDPA) Winter Championships, the company will now hold the first IDPA Indoor National Championships February 21-23, 2008.

The 2008 season began for the Team GLOCK Shooting Squad with victories at the Georgia Steel Challenge Championship. The 3rd Annual steel tournament took place January 3-5 at the Griffin Gun Club in Griffin, Georgia and drew more than 120 entries including GLOCK's Dave Sevigny, Jessie Abbate and Randi Rogers. At this event competitors were required to draw and hit five steel targets at ranges from 7-35 yards. Competitors receive five separate start commands in succession…

The United States Practical Shooting Association (USPSA) is shooting for 20,000 members in 2008 and has enlisted the help of some of the firearms industry’s biggest leaders.

Gun Tests readers sometimes ask why reviews on certain guns vary over time. For instance, they wonder why Gun A, reviewed two years ago, got a "Don't Buy" rating, but in a more recent evaluation, it gets a B+. The short answer is that test to test, guns vary, ammunition varies, the story angle varies, and, perhaps most important, the match-ups vary. In an earlier draw, Gun A may have run up against other models that made it look like chopped liver. Then when we tested it again, Gun A may have whipped Guns B and C because the latter two weren't much good, and Gun A benefited from the comparison.

In a way, that's what happened when we tested a new-for-2007 Smith & Wesson M&P 45 .45 ACP, $619, against a $1235 Heckler & Koch USP Compact Tactical USP45CT .45 ACP, which we last tested in June 2007, and the $635 Glock 21 SF, which we tested in July 2007. In June, the H&K got an "A" rating, when we said its "…light weight, ease of maintenance, and accuracy makes it very appealing. Our staff concluded that it was best to operate the USP45CT either as a full-time single-action pistol or a full-time TDA. Sticking with one system or the other was the only way to stay trained up, in our opinion."

Likewise, the Glock 21 SF got kudos from us as well, when we said in July, "No question this is an improvement on the G21. Better handling, but still a big gun with little potential for concealed carry. In our view, we think police will be trading in their G21s for the improved SF model."

First introduced by S&W in February 2007, the M&P45 is the newest addition to the M&P pistol series, a product line launched in December 2005. We've tested the M&P9 9mm and the M&P40 with varying degrees of success, rating the Smith & Wesson M&P 9mm Compact 2009004, $624, as a "D" in the April 2007 issue. The Smith & Wesson M&P .40 S&W No. 209000, $624, got a "Conditional Buy" in the August 2006 issue, and a Smith & Wesson M&P40 .40 S&W, $495, got an "A-" in the October 2007 issue.

The M&P45 began shipping in May 2007. Leland Nichols, president and COO of Smith & Wesson Corp., said at the time, "By combining the powerful .45 ACP cartridge with the performance and safety features of the M&P series, working professionals and shooting sports enthusiasts have a new option in the growing line of M&P products well-suited to fulfill a variety of needs."

Nichols continued, "We are also aware that multiple branches of the U.S. Military have expressed a desire to shift from their current 9mm weapons to either a .40 or .45 caliber duty weapon for greater stopping power. We are now currently shipping both .40 and .45 calibers, as well as a 9mm, in the M&P Pistol Series, and are fully prepared to address either requirement, should the U.S. Military initiate a request for purchase."

The gun was rolled out as a full-size polymer pistol with a 10+1 magazine capacity and an optional 14+1 magazine. It was originally offered with a traditional black frame and was manufactured with or without a frame-mounted ambidextrous thumb safety. Later, the M&P45 came with a dark earth-brown frame and a standard manual thumb safety, which is the gun we acquired for this test.

We were recently informed by a friend of Gun Tests in the ammo-making business that .38 Special and .380 ACP ammunition are some of the best-selling types out there, so we decided to immediately give our readers a look at a few of the snubbies available in .38/.357. We secured a blued five-shot Taurus Model 605B2 ($391), and a stainless-steel six-shot Rossi Model R46202 ($377), and concentrated our testing on .38 Special ammo.Though both guns were made in Brazil by Taurus, there were significant differences and, as we found, similar problems. The street prices of these two were within $40 of each other, so we chose to test blued five-shot against stainless six-shot. Of course both of these revolvers could be fired with .357 Magnum ammo, but we suspect most of these sold will seldom see a glimpse of the hot stuff, for various reasons. One reason is the cost of ammunition, and another is recoil and muzzle blast. Both are generally drastically increased, and sometimes to no good effect, with .357 fodder. Lets take a look at what we found.

We found the NAA guns to be quite well made, though we experienced significant gas escape with both cylinders in both guns.

The Burner Series, $230, is a ten-VHS-tape set covering virtually every aspect of the popular run and gun sport of Practical Shooting.