Re “Two 9mm Pistols,
Two Light Kickers from LFA
and Smith,” January 2025
I would like to respectfully dispute the rating of the LFA 9mm as high as B-Minus despite a Failure to Eject (FTE) every magazine. A self-defense gun must be first and foremost reliable. Even a Failure to Feed (FTF), which can be cleared by a simple “tap-rack-bang” immediate-action drill, would be unacceptable at that frequency. We call a FTE a “death jam” because it requires dropping the mag, racking the slide, inserting a new mag, and chambering a round. That is an eternity if someone is actively attacking you. By your letter scale on page 4, that looks like a D on poor function. — Bill
Sir, thanks for reading our magazine. You are correct, we would not buy such a gun or trust it, and perhaps we should have graded it down further. We test guns on many criteria. A pistol with good sights, a good trigger, and good features goes only so far, and a pistol with one defect is rated down a grade, and in this case the defect was more serious than a heavy trigger. We will take this into consideration.
— Bob Campbell
Re “Shooting and Tactical
Gloves: We Test Seven Sets
Hand to Hand,” January 2025
As a long-time reader of the magazine, I really enjoyed the article about shooting gloves. It was a very good idea that needed to be addressed. So, with that said; and since the article was well written as usual, I will buy the top three gloves and give them all a try. A really good article, as they all are. Keep it up. — Mike
Good strategy, Mike. Glad you liked Robert Sadowski’s treatment of the gloves. — Todd Woodard
