Handguns

The National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF), the trade association for the firearms industry, has signed on as a Gold Sponsor for the 2008 Smith & Wesson Limited, Production and Revolver USPSA Championships as well as the USPSA Open and Limited-10 National Championships.

Sturm, Ruger & Company, Inc. garnered a 2008 Academy of Excellence Award for its Ruger LCP pistol. The gun was named the Academy of Excellence Handgun of the Year for 2008 and Ruger was recognized as Manufacturer of the Year by Shooting Industry magazine.

Heckler & Koch began developing a new self-loading compact pistol around 1971 before bringing out the PSP (Polizei Selbstlade-Pistole, or Police Selfloading Pistol) for the West German Police in 1976. Production of the PSP started in 1979.Our test gun was a standard PSP, whose overall length was 6.5 inches with a 4.1-inch barrel and a sight radius of 5.9 inches. The gun measured 5.0 inches in overall height and weighed 30.4 ounces with an empty magazine, relatively heavy because of the low-profile steel slide and steel frame. Our test gun came in a black case with two magazines and bore brush.

Kay Miculek earned the High Lady award at the 2008 United States Shooting Association (USSA) Pro-Am match. Competing in the Amateur Division, Team Smith & Wesson member Miculek placed 37th overall against 152 competitors, earning the prestigious High Lady Award.

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (July 28 2008) – Smith & Wesson Corp., announced today that team shooters David Olhasso and Craig Buckland took home division titles during the 2008 International Defensive Pistol Association (IDPA) Independence Match held at the Wilkes-Barre Rifle & Pistol Club in Pennsylvania.

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. –Team Smith & Wesson members earned top finishes during the Smith & Wesson Steel Shoot Series Match held at the Shootout Range in Princeton, Louisiana in four events, taking home titles in the Limited, Open, Iron Sight Revolver Divisions and the Rimfire event.

In a complaint filed Monday in U.S. District Court, Dick Heller and two other plaintiffs allege that the city's new gun regulations still violate rights guaranteed under the Constitution.

Chicago is fighting to keep its 1982 handgun ban, even as suburbs such as Wilmette and Morton Grove are throwing in the towel. In fact, Daley is talking about drafting yet another ordinance to spell out the responsibilities and liabilities of homeowners in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court's landmark decision to overturn Washington D.C.'s handgun ban.

Soldiers of the U.S. Army Marksmanship Unit have scored some major victories recently. The following results are some of their accomplishments...

Charter Arms has introduced a left-hand version of their popular Pink Lady revolver in .38 Special +P caliber.

The Second Amendment Foundation (SAF) and Smith & Wesson have partnered to create a commemorative revolver designed to recognize the historical significance of the District of Columbia vs. Heller decision and to acknowledge the six original plaintiffs that united to challenge the gun ban in Washington, D.C.

So ya wanna buy a 9mm handgun, eh, sport? Suffice to say, youve got a lot of choices. You might begin your search for, say, full-size autoloaders. Then narrow it down to action type, single or double. Factor in whatever aftermarket items you need or want, and finally look at how much you are willing to pay for the package. All that narrows the choices still more. If you insist on a single-action auto, or more specifically, if you insist on a gun you can carry cocked and locked with the same trigger pull for each and every shot, your choices in 9mm get pretty small. Two prominent choices are the Browning Hi-Power or one of its clones, and the CZ 75.Lest we forget, several makers including Colt have issued 9mm versions of the1911 in various forms. Also, many of the DAO pistols will give you the same trigger pull every shot. Recently we tested the Charles Daly version of the Hi-Power against a Stoeger (Beretta) Cougar, and though we liked the Daly, it lost out to the Cougar because of its painful bite to the hand that feeds it, and because of a few other items Daly could have fixed, but didnt. So we kept looking for better 9mms.We had heard about the CZ 75 for many years. One of our group is good friends with the Colorado gunsmith Don Fisher, who has done extremely well in national-level IPSC competition with the CZ 75. Fisher went so far as to develop his own wildcat cartridge for the CZ 75, which made it "major" caliber, competing with the 45 ACP. The late Jeff Cooper also liked the CZ 75 but for its cartridge, Cooper preferring the 45, in which caliber the CZ is not made. And a certain editor of a magazine dedicated to testing guns indicated he might have a CZ 75 stashed somewhere. So if a gun has that level of fans, we thought it would be a good idea to run a CZ 75 through our mill-but not just any CZ 75. We chose the CZ 75 B SA ($576), the last two letters standing for Single Action. This CZ 75 has features of what ought to be intense interest to those who want to shoot in competition with "minor" caliber, and for home defenders alike, as you shall see.We pitted the CZ against the Taurus 24/7 Pro ($452), a similar-size handgun with similar large capacity. We had a look at a Taurus 24/7 in 2004, and we thought it was time to see if there have been any changes. Another good comparison would be the new S&W M&P, and one is coming, but it didnt arrive in time for this report. We tested with four types of ammunition. They were Black Hills 147-grain JHP Subsonic, Winchester USA BEB 115-grain TC, Fiocchi 115-grain JHP, and with Independent 115-grain ball. Lets see what we found.