Handguns

Gun Tests’ Houston- and Idaho-based test teams take detailed looks at two very different sets of handguns in the April 2013 issue of the magazine.

Over the years, I've replaced a dozen or so 1911 pistol barrels for various reasons. When military pistols were more common, wear and corrosion was a consideration. Later, the increased accuracy afforded by custom match-grade barrels from Bar Sto Precision was a leading factor. Today, some pistols come from the factory with match-grade barrels, but, of course, these are expensive high-end pistols. At the other end of the spectrum, service-grade pistols often come with a cost-cutting two-piece barrel. These pistols use a barrel that is brazed together, with one half meeting the other about at the chamber and barrel-lug line. While serviceable, these barrels are less than ideal.

Case hardening was once the best way to stretch a limited steel budget. Today, it provides a hard surface with a tough inner structure.

In this test we evaluate a 40 S&W polymer handgun that offers significant changes to its original design — Heckler & Koch’s $1005 P30 V3 adds an ambidextrous thumb safety to the latest edition of that company’s newest polymer platform.Most polymer handguns are simple in design. Rather than call the HK P30 more complex, we’ll use the word sophisticated. There are six variants of the P30 series pistol— seven if you count the suffix 'S' for ambidextrous safety. In our December 2007 evaluation of the 9mm Heckler & Koch P30 V3, we began our Gun Tests Report Card by saying: 'Based on the fine accuracy we achieved firing single-action only, maybe this is a gun that should have a thumb safety rather than a decocker.' The P30S V3 pistol in this test adds an ambidextrous thumb safety.

Traditions Performance Firearms has introduced a 2013 lineup of single-action revolvers by Pietta. The single actions will be available in two series – the Frontier series and the Rawhide series.

At the 2013 SHOT Show, Gun Tests staffers ran across tons of new sidearms. If you are particularly interested in any of them, please let the staff know in the comments below or send your wish list to GunTestsEditor@me.com. If you see more on other websites, just include a link in your comment so the staff can follow up.

(GunReports.com) -- One of the most popular handguns for law-enforcement personnel is the Glock Model G22. The G22 is a full-size handgun that fires from a 4.49-inch barrel. Since the introduction of the Glock pistol, there have been only subtle changes, and most people still think of the Glock as being available without options or variation. But we’ve been able to purchase different models with upgrades to the trigger, sights, slide release, magazine release, and other operational components. Also, at www.teamglock.com, we found another lineup of RTF pistols that offer streamlined grips with a radical surface texture—but the Gen 4 Glock pistols go even further. They offer an aggressive grip texture and a choice of three different backstrap profiles. The Gen 4 pistols include the 9mm G17 and G19, the .357 SIG G31, and the 45 GAP G37.When we began putting these guns through their paces, we first wondered how bullet weight might affect accuracy. The most popular and readily available 40 S&W rounds are topped with 155-, 165-, and 180-grain bullets. The 155-grain JHP bullet is rapidly gaining popularity with law enforcement. This round was represented by Black Hills Ammunition. Next, we chose two Winchester USA rounds, one topped with 165-grain FMJ bullets and the other driving 180-grain JHP slugs.

Gun Test’s Idaho test team has spent a lot of time looking at relatively tiny 9mm handguns over the past year. They have found there are a few good designs that permit the use of some relatively hot ammo in the small 9mm packages. But some people want still more power, so the Sr. Technical Editor Ray Ordorica and the magazine’s test team decided to sample a few of the smaller forties out there.

In this test we looked at four different polymer handguns that offer higher round capacity but take up less space than full-size models. Our first pistol, the $503 Taurus PT24/7 Pro 45-BP-12 could be considered a true compact, especially when compared to Taurus's new OSS pistol. The Springfield Armory XD45 4-inch Compact XD9645HCSP06, $589; and the Springfield Armory XD45 5-inch Compact Tactical XD9655HCSP06, $619, have undergone the Colt Officers treatment, receiving a shortened grip frame attached to a full-length slide. The $637 Glock SF21 is a remodeling of the Glock 21, but the SF21 does not seem to be much smaller. We wanted to find out if any of its subtle streamlining added up to a better pistol than the original.

Once again we look at a pair of small 9mm Luger handguns in our ongoing search for pocket-pistol nirvana. Both of these guns are relatively new designs, and we might mention we notice a strong trend in interest in these small backup nines, which every maker now seems to have in one or more versions. This time we have the SIG Sauer P938 Extreme ($823) and the S&W M&P Shield ($449 from FullArmorFirearms.com) on our plate. We tested them with three types of ammo, Russian WPA 115-grain FMJs, Cor-Bon Pow'Rball 100 grain, and Ultramax 127-grain round-nose cast lead. We were unable to obtain any heavy-bullet ammo for this test. Ammo is scarce these days. Here's what we found.

Doc, a Gun Tests reader from Hughes, Arkansas, is having trouble with his SIG Mosquito 22 LR pistol. He writes:

TriStar Arms, known primarily as a manufacturer of shotguns, will add several pistols for personal defense and target shooting in 2013.