Revolvers

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 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.

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.

The 'Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives Reform and Firearms Modernization Act of 2007' (HR 4900) legislation represents a major advance in protecting the rights of firearms dealers.

Charter Arms has just released its new .22 LR and .22 Magnum Target Pathfinder Series 6-shot, all stainless-steel 4-inch-barrel revolvers with fully adjustable sights.

Ron Sieg, Flagstaff Regional Supervisor, will present issues associated with lead from spent ammunition.

Charter Arms has introduced its new 'The Pink Lady' revolver in .38 Special +P caliber.Evolved from Charter Arms' popular compact Undercover Series, The Pink Lady weighs 12 ounces thanks to an 7075 aircraft aluminum frame, and it's anodized bight pink.

Colt Melby has retired from the Smith & Wesson board of directors, effective January 8, 2008.

Recently we took a look at .22 semiautos for the trail. In this report we look at an often neglected caliber, the .22 Magnum, in a trio of unusual revolvers. The versatility of the revolver lets you load it with a variety of loads, such as snake shot in one cylinder, high-velocity hollow-points in the next, and that can be a handy option on the trail. We chose to evaluate the .22 Magnum for this test, and found two small convertible revolvers from the same outfit, North American Arms, in their five-shot, spur-trigger single actions. One was the Black Widow, with 2-inch barrel and fixed sights ($287). The other was the 4-inch version, called the Mini Master, and though we looked hard for one with adjustable sights, we could not obtain one by our deadline. So we took a look at the Mini Master with fixed sights ($301). Both came with two cylinders, one in .22 LR and the other in .22 Magnum. Both are available with only one cylinder in either caliber for $29 less. We also chose a larger, heavier gun dedicated to the .22 Magnum, the 4-inch Taurus Model 941 ($373). It had adjustable sights.An associate of Gun Tests declared his intention of arming himself against all and sundry predators with the Mini-Master. We told him we thought it was not the greatest idea. Our friend knew it was better to have some sort of gun than none at all, and he wondered how good the .22 Mag would be for self defense. We tested with three types of .22 Magnum ammunition in all three guns, and with three types of LR in the NAA guns. The magnum ammo choices, all 40-grain loads, were Remingtons PSP, CCIs Maxi-Mag HP, and CCI/Speer TNT HP. These cost from $10 to $12 for each 50-round box. The .22 LR ammo was Remington Target Rifle, Federal Gold Medal, and Winchester Super-X Power Points.We though this small selection of revolvers would give us some idea of what to expect from the .22 Magnum and a few guns that handle it. We note some makers dont offer much in .22 Mag handguns anymore. Ruger and S&W used to produce a good variety, but today offer very little. Word is that Taurus will soon drop the .22 Mag from its revolver production. Could we be on to something? Heres what we found.

In our August 2006 issue we reviewed three different .357 Magnum revolvers with 4-inch barrels. The 4-inch magnum is the traditional configuration for the uniformed policeman, and despite the overload of semi-autos now available, the revolver is still a popular sidearm. Each of the guns in our first test, the $615 Ruger GP100, Taurus's $469 M66SS4, and the $646 Smith & Wesson Model 619 were made in the United States.

Since then we have come across a foreign made product that begs comparison to these guns. This was the Alfa Steel .357 Magnum manufactured in Czechoslovakia. We also decided to revisit the Smith & Wesson catalog and test the seven-shot model 686 Plus, catalog number 164194 ($790). Both guns featured a full underlug that enclosed the ejector rod and added recoil-opposing weight beneath the barrel. Each gun offered a ramped front sight with orange-colored insert and a rear sight that was adjustable for windage and elevation. Both guns used a flat-faced hammer and frame-mounted firing pin. Other similarities included finger-grooved grips and counter-clockwise rotation of the cylinder.

Let's see how well this newcomer stacks up against the field.