Handguns

The 38 Special revolver has long been a standard as a back-up and concealed-carry handgun. As part of our new Bargain Hunter series, we wanted to challenge the conventional notion that a wheelgun chambered in 38 Special should be the de facto winner of any boot-gun showdown simply because it has always won those battles in the past. In the same power range as the 38 Special is the 9mm Luger (aka 9mm Parabellum or 9x19mm), which has the added benefit of being loaded more widely, often at less cost per round, than the 38 Special.

When a powerful tornado rated by the National Weather Service as an EF-4 with winds up to 200 MPH ripped through central Oklahoma in May 2013, homeowner Pat Brand lost everything. He huddled along with 10 neighbors in a protective underground shelter as the violent storm roared overhead. When he emerged after the tornado passed, gone were his home, truck and a Smith &Wesson handgun that was equipped with Crimson Trace Lasergrips.

We’ve had a Raptor II for a while, waiting for a suitable matchup from several makers who have thus far failed to provide us with a similar product, so we finally chose to have a good look at this pistol all on its own. To give some idea of the variety of 1911s in the Kimber line, within just the Raptor’s “cage” there are seven variants. These include the Grand, Pro, and Ultra models in both blued and stainless, or a mix of the two colors. Ours is all blue, and carries a price tag of $1434. We did our testing right after having looked at a surplus CZ 9mm and a new Tokarev 9mm, and must say, compared to those, the Kimber is a thoroughly professional-grade handgun. Its price is nearly five times the price of the others, so one would expect a better gun. Let’s find out just how much better it is.

We’ve had a Raptor II for a while, waiting for a suitable matchup from several makers who have thus far failed to provide us with a similar product, so we finally chose to have a good look at this pistol all on its own. To give some idea of the variety of 1911s in the Kimber line, within just the Raptor’s “cage” there are seven variants. These include the Grand, Pro, and Ultra models in both blued and stainless, or a mix of the two colors. Ours is all blue, and carries a price tag of $1434. We did our testing right after having looked at a surplus CZ 9mm and a new Tokarev 9mm, and must say, compared to those, the Kimber is a thoroughly professional-grade handgun. Its price is nearly five times the price of the others, so one would expect a better gun. Let’s find out just how much better it is.

To expand the coverage of 40 S&W semi-automatics we have tested recently, our test team recently looked at three midsize pistols we thought would be worthy challengers to the Glock 23 Gen4 40 S&W, $650, evaluated in the May 2013 issue. In that test, our team gave the G23G4 an A grade, effectively setting a standard for other pistols in this category to try to reach. So we threw an array of other pistols at it, going from a budget discontinued model (the FNH-USA FNP-40 No. 47832, $450), to a longtime competitor (SIG Sauer's SP2022 No. E2022-40-B, $570), to a model introduced in 2011, about a year after the Gen4 was released (Walther PPQ No. 2776481, $680.)

The latest three polymer test pistols have similar stats for size and weight, but fit, feel, function, and design varied greatly, with the last consideration playing more of a role than we initially expected. To recap why we graded the Glock so highly two months ago, we noted that the different back-strap contours allow the owner to easily find the best fit for his or her hands. The grips allowed good control. The Glock had a minimum of controls, rivaled in this test only by the PPQ, which had a trigger safety like the Glock and just ambi slide releases beyond that. The Glock's magazine release was reversible, a feature duplicated on the FN and SIG guns, and possibly topped by the two trigger guard mag-release levers on the PPQ. The Glock sights had a wide, square, U around the rear notch and a white dot on the front, while the newest guns all had three-white-dot sight arrays.

Dimensionally, the guns were close in size. In overall length, the numbers were 7.2 inches for the Glock, 7.4 inches for the SIG, 7.25 inches for the PPQ, and 7.4 inches for the FN. Overall heights (measured from the top of the sights to the bottom of the magazine or magazine extension) were Glock 5.0 inches, FN and PPQ (5.4 inches), and SP 5.5 inches. The barrels were all right at 4.0 inches (Glock, Walther, FN), or nearly so, 3.9 inches for the SIG. Loaded weights were 32.1 ounces for the 13+1 Glock, 33.6 ounces for the 12+1 Walther, 37.0 ounces for the 12+1 SIG, and 37.2 ounces for the FN, which partially reflects its larger capacity of 14+1. Functionally, during our shooting, we had perfect reliability from all the pistols.

Elsewhere, the Glock had a tactile loaded-chamber indicator in the form of a slight step on the extractor that could be easily felt with the (right-hand) trigger finger, with a similar feature duplicated on the PPQ and FN. On top of the G23, the slide was smooth enough not to cut the hands during clearance drills, and the new guns were likewise dehorned, except for their sharp sights. Takedown was simple, and likewise easy on the FN and SIG, but much more complicated on the PPQ. Workmanship inside all three guns was excellent, just as it was on the outside. Thus, these midsize guns were more than a match physically for the Glock, but would they bring positive individual differences to the fray and overcome the Austrian? We find out below.

Pocket pistols chambered in 380 ACP may seem like a recent trend, but the 380 cartridge has been around since 1908. During WWII, Colt, Walther, Mauser, Beretta, Sauer and others built small, compact pistols for this round. There are numerous examples of these old-school pistols still available. The HSc was Mausers attempt at building an inexpensive pistol in 1936. It was the first time Mauser used stamped steel in its pistol designs, and the handgun was originally made for the commercial market. But during WWII, the German military purchased more than 160,000 HSc pistols, mostly for the countrys army and naval forces. The HSc was produced and imported through 1977, and online and in used gun-shop cases, you can still find these sleek pistols. And they can be had for a song. So we wondered, if we had our druthers, would we chose an old-school HSc with its pedigree or would we prefer a contemporary pocket pistol such as the Ruger LCP, a more recent and contemporary design thats actually a knock-off of the Kel-Tec P-3AT pistol?Though these pistols may seem at opposite ends of the spectrum for self-defense use, they were both designed for ease of manufacture, consistent reliability, and the ability to be easily concealed. Our testers compared the two pistols on cost, utility, and concealability. Here is what they found:

We recently had the opportunity to shoot and thoroughly test two pistols imported from Turkey, and they were alike in ways other than sharing a home country — the two towns where the handguns are made sit about 523 km apart on the south side of the Black Sea. The Canik55 Stingray-C 9mm Luger, $370, imported by Century International Arms, is made in Samsun by Canik55, a police- and military-arms builder established in 1998. This DA/SA semi-auto is a CZ-75 clone made of steel with a hard-chrome finish, and it tips the scale at a hefty 38 ounces unloaded weight and 45 ounces loaded weight with 16 rounds aboard. It stands 5.25 inches tall and is 7.1 inches long.

The AR-24 Pistol Compact 24K-13 9mm Luger, $550, is made by Sarsilmaz in D zce and is imported by ArmaLite of Geneseo, Illinois. It is a hoss as well, weighing in at 36.2 ounces unloaded and 42.4 ounces loaded. The AR-24 is 7.5 inches long and stands 5.2 inches tall and carries 14 rounds as its total payload.

The pair also had traits that separated them. Cosmetically, they were night and day. The hard-chrome finish of the Stingray practically glowed in the dark, but it also wore very well, showing no dings or scratches by the end of our test program. The AR-24, in contrast, has a military-grade manganese phosphate and heat-cured epoxy exterior for outstanding corrosion resistance and a low-glare dark-grey finish. The ArmaLite pistol comes in four variations, the largest being the AR-24, a full-size recoil-operated modified-Browning locked-breech 9mm. Our test gun, the AR-24K, is a compact version of the same gun. Tactical Custom versions have windage- and elevation-adjustable rear sights and checkering instead of grooves on the frontstrap and backstrap. Canik55 produces several lines of pistols, including the MKEK, Shark, Piranha, S-FC, Dolphin, and TP series, along with the Stingrays. The Stingrays are chambered in 9mm Luger (Para) and come in full-size versions (up to 19-round magazines) and compact Stingray-C models in both chrome- and black-chrome plated finishes.

To collect bench-accuracy data, we set up at Tactical Firearms in Katy, Texas (TacticalFirearms.us) and fired five-shot groups at 15 yards using the supplied open sights. On the bench, we used sandbags to support the guns and the shooter's arms. We recorded velocities using a PACT Professional XP with infrared screens with the first screen set 12 feet from the muzzle. Our 9mm Luger ammunition samples were Winchester USA 115-grain full metal jackets, Federal American Eagle 147-grain full-metal-jacket flat points, and Hornady Steel Match 125-grain HAP hollowpoints. Here is how we judged each gun when they were compared head to head.

We recently tested compact 40 S&W handguns in the March 2013 issue. Here's an excerpt of that report.

For this test we looked at a S&W M&P Compact 40 ($569) and a Kahr CW40 ($485). They are a bit larger than the tiny nines we've been trying, and there are good reasons for that. The 40 S&W is a lot more cartridge than the 9mm Parabellum, and when forties get smaller than these two test guns, recoil is entirely unfriendly.

DoubleTap Defense is officially shipping the DoubleTap Tactical Pocket Pistol (design and utility patents pending) to the company’s distributors. Azimuth Technologies, the manufacturers of the DoubleTap pistol, are ramping up production to fill all outstanding orders as quickly as possible.

Much popular opinion around handgun slides posits that slide tightening is not particularly important for maximum accuracy. Instead, barrel-to-slide fit and barrel and bushing fit are more frequently stressed. With some of the quick packages that the gunsmith offers, barrel and bushing fit are good enough for carry purposes, or perhaps even for IDPA-competition pistols. But when a shooter demands top-notch accuracy, his pistol should have a good tight slide and frame-rail fit.

We recently tested guns with factory-fitted lasersights in the February 2013 issue. Here's an excerpt of that report.

Lasersights on handguns are common today. Scan the used-handgun case at a gun shop, and more than likely you'll find a rig that the former owner customized with a laser sight. In the new-pistol case, you will also see factory-fitted laser sights on handguns.

It took better than a year for me to get my hands on a Kahr P45 for this article. That's because, since its announcement, this eagerly awaited big-bore cousin of the Kahr 9 had a very long list of buyers standing by with their wallets and checkbooks open. It's been quite a while since the first Kahr was covered here (May 95). Since reprints of that article are no longer available and much of what was written then does not apply to the P45, I decided another look at the Kahr was in order. First, however, let me say that I was pleased to see that none of the precision found in the K9 is missing in the P45. It remains masterfully made from outstanding materials. Though mechanically locked and unlocked in the style of John M. Browning, it is far more than a mere knock-off of the great man's design. The Kahr emerged from the fertile mind of Justin Moon, and is covered by no less than six individual patents.