Handguns

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.

In this test our evaluation will include a new pistol that snuck up on everyone. On Tuesday, October 16, 2007, Ruger announced its SR9 9mm pistol, with an MSRP of $525. By Thursday, pistols began to arrive at retailers. By Friday, we had one to test.The keynote of this design was its grip similarity to the 1911, including ambidextrous thumb safeties and a choice of backstrap (flat, or palm swell design). Would sharing ergonomics and active safety features with the Browning design convince more traditional shooters to switch to a striker-fired double action pistol?Our second pistol was also a recent entry. The $939 Heckler & Koch P30 is a new vision of the P-series pistol that features the most adjustable ergonomics yet. Distribution has been limited but we found one at Fountain Firearms in Houston (fountainfirearms.com).Our third 9mm pistol was the $543 Springfield Armory XD9 Service Four-Inch. Lacking from a list of the XD9s features found on the company website (springfield-armory.com/xdfeatures.php) was an adjustable grip. Nevertheless, XD9 has been recognized as offering superior ergonomics, and like the SR9, the XD also shares some of the safety features found on the 1911.

Shooters like 9mm pistols for many reasons, chief among them being their reputation for manageable recoil with at least minimum acceptable stopping power for a self-defense cartridge. Also, 9mm guns can be made small and flat, which makes them suitable for comfortable concealed carry.

We recently bought a trio of such guns at Fountain Firearms in Houston (www.fountainfirearms.com, 281-561-8447). They were of relatively similar size, but different in almost every other way—and these differences made an impression on our testers that affected how we graded the pistols.

It is reasonable to expect that any pistol-evaluation piece covering "options in self defense" would focus on a range of semi-automatics that combine power with portability. For this test, we chose the $1059 Kimber Stainless Target .38 Super, Heckler & Kochs $879 P2000 V3 .40 S&W, and a Sigarms factory certified pre-owned P226, which came with both .40 S&W and .357 Sig barrels, $699.We thought the use of the word "options" was suitable because each of our guns was distinctly different in both construction and operation:The Kimber Stainless Target is a full-size 1911 built on a stainless-steel frame. The single-action trigger requires only a short press for ignition.The HK P2000 V3 is a polymer-framed weapon with both double- and single-action trigger pull. A unique feature was the placement of the decocker on the rear of the slide. Furthermore, the P2000 offered interchangeable backstraps in an attempt to customize the grip.The Sigarms P226 utilized a stainless-steel slide and an aluminum frame. The trigger system also featured both a double- and single-action pull, but the decocker was mounted on the frame. And, as mentioned above, the gun was shipped with two different barrels for firing both the .40 S&W and .357 Sig rounds.

In our ongoing search for the best .22 handgun for the trail, wherever that trail may take us, weve looked at a bunch of .22 handguns and have rejected quite a few. This time we mix the single-action stainless Bearcat from Ruger ($480) with a DA Model 94SS4 from Taurus ($406), and take a look back at one of our earlier test guns from March 2006, the eight-shot S&W AirLite Model 317 ($735) with "HIVIZ" sights. Below, we recap the earlier results from the AirLite first, add long-term results weve gleaned about it since our original test, and then mix in facts and opinions about the other two guns to produce grades for the Ruger and Taurus guns.

The ammo development program at Winchester had been a closely guarded secret. The goal: to make a suped-down version of the 10mm Auto.When the FBI began testing the 10mm, the agency found that a 180-grain bullet with velocities between 950 to 1,000 fps had great defensive potential. But the 10mm Auto, introduced in 1983, was too hot and dealt the shooter too much recoil for practical law enforcement use. What was needed, essentially, was a shortened 10mm cartridge that would fit in a smaller pistol platform-that is, S&Ws 9mm frames. Also, the cartridge needed to deliver a 180-grain payload at 950 to 1,000 fps with chamber pressures under [IMGCAP(1)]35,000 psi, the established ceiling for the 9mm.The result was the .40 S&W, which Smith & Wesson and Winchester teamed up to introduce in 1990. Though big-bore critics of the time derided it at the time as "Short & Weak" or "Short & Wimpy," the .40 came along as law enforcement was beginning to switch from revolvers to autoloaders.Still, its a curious choice for the average LE or concealed shooter, because the .40 S&W cartridge is a high-pressure round that delivers a sharp recoil pulse. It pushes a medium to heavy projectile at high velocity, and this in turn pushes the slide back sharply. While it is supposed to occupy the middle ground between the 9mm and the .45, it is a much more difficult cartridge to shoot well than either of those rounds.So we were curious how the .40 S&W would fare when packaged in concealable 4-inch-barrel guns.

When new revolvers are introduced, they don't get the fanfare afforded the latest semi-auto. That's why you might have missed out on the latest crop of big-bore wheelguns.

In this test we will try to make up for it by pitting two steel-framed forty-fours against an ultra-lightweight revolver of the same caliber — Taurus's 444MULTI, $666 — that could make carrying a bigger gun more inviting. The stainless-steel guns are the $916 Smith & Wesson Model 629 No. 163603 and Ruger's $780 Redhawk KRH-444.

[IMGCAP(1)]If there is any comparison to be drawn between these revolvers and the world of semi-automatic pistols, it is perhaps the appeal of the big bullet. The small-bore high-capacity frenzy seems to have abated, and now it seems that every manufacturer is making a 45-caliber pistol. With the release of more .44s, revolver makers may also be saying when capacity is limited, why not chamber a larger caliber? But when that thinking includes .44 Magnum/.44 Special ammo, two important questions remain: Will the Magnum ammunition prove too punishing?, and will the .44 Specials be accurate enough?

To answer these questions we tested from a distance of 25 yards with two loads of .44 Remington Magnum and two loads of .44 S&W Special. They were 240-grain Federal Fusion .44 Magnum No. F44FS1, 240-grain American Eagle .44 Magnum jacketed hollow points No. AE44A, 200-grain Winchester .44 Special Silvertip HP No. X44STHPS2, and Winchester's 246-grain lead roundnose ammunition No. X44SP.

Before testing each gun, we lubricated it with BreakFree CLP. Lubrication points on the revolvers were the barrel and chamber bores, the ratchet lugs, and the bushing in front of the cylinder. We also pulled back the hammer and placed a few drops of oil inside the frame. Whenever we transitioned from the Special to the Magnum loads, we scrubbed inside each chamber. This is because the shorter Special rounds can deposit debris at the hotspot where the tip of each case empties into the chambers. A buildup of debris can reduce the volume of the chamber and increase pressure. In extreme conditions, such as when it becomes necessary to push the longer magnum rounds into place, the extra pressure can be dangerous.

To collect accuracy data, all shots from the bench were fired single action only from a distance of 25 yards. Repeat fire was tested using the double-action trigger at shorter distances. We didn't expect to be able to shoot the magnum ammunition quickly, but we wondered about the .44 Special loads. Was there enough stopping power from each round to justify a shorter recovery time between each shot? Let's see how our six shooters measured up.

Chances are that whenever a pistol is described as being a single-stack .45, it will automatically be assumed that the handgun in question is a Browning 1911. But that isnt always the case. Not every .45 semi-auto that feeds from a single-column magazine was meant to be carried cocked and locked. Nor does every single-stack .45 operate with a single-action trigger.To wit: In this test we will evaluate three single-stack .45s that operate with a hinged trigger, with at least the first shot being fired double action. The $711 Smith & Wesson Model 457 has been in the catalog since 1996. The 457 is a traditional double action (TDA) pistol that once charged, can be "decocked" to both raise and drop the hammer on the first shot. Both the $697 Kahr TP4543 and the $620 Glock G36 are striker-fired pistols that define double action in a less traditional manner.Nevertheless, the benefits of a single-stack pistol were in place throughout. All were narrow, making them easier to conceal, and their slim profiles offered a rectangular sensation to the hand. Our staff agreed that this helped them point the gun at the target more quickly. All three guns were snag free, and thanks to the use of polymer and aluminum alloy, each pistol was lighter in weight than most big-bore handguns. Please note that in regards to how we measured the front strap and the overall height of our test guns we chose a slight variation in protocol. Since each of our guns relied upon their magazines to either complete or extend their grips, we measured with the magazines in place.In choosing our test ammunition we took a cue from the July 2007 test of the Sigarms P220 SAO. In that test we learned that our best choice for rapid fire was the 185-grain Hornady XTP/JHP round. Accordingly, we again chose these 185-grain Hornady rounds plus 185-grain silvertip hollowpoints from Winchester. With so much rain falling in Houston, we shot the guns indoors at Top Gun of Texas (topgunrange.com). So we packed some Winchester 185-grain BEB WinClean ammunition as well.The pistols were tested from a distance of 15 yards. We used a sandbag rest to support each gun and reduce shooter error. In this way we could tell more about the machines themselves and determine the level of accuracy available from each gun.We also let our staff shoot each pistol in what we call a 557 test. By 557, we mean five shots standing unsupported offhand, with a maximum time limit of five seconds from a distance of seven yards. The goal of the shooter was to land the tightest five-shot group in the given time period. Our point of aim was the 3-inch circles along the margins of the Hoffners ABC16 target (hoffners.com). In this way we were able to better ascertain what was required of the operator to shoot each gun effectively. Lets see which of our test guns did the most to help us get the job done.

Once again we are responding to a subscriber by filling out a test roster with pistols suggested by reader mail. The category requested was full-size single-action-only semi-automatic pistols chambered for .45 ACP and framed with a built-in accessory rail for attaching a light or laser.We got 1911-style pistols from Kimber and Springfield Armory along with a single-action-only version of the Sigarms P220R. The Kimber was a an $1113 Custom TLE RL II, essentially the model sold to LAPD SWAT.Springfield Armorys $1740 TRP Light Rail Armory Kote is referred to on the manufacturers website as being "designed around the same specifications" as the companys FBI contract pistol.The Sigarms P220 series was, from the beginning, designed for military use. Our $1013 P220R TSS SAO was probably developed to compete for the United States military contract that ultimately failed to materialize last year. Kimber and Springfield Armory have built their reputations producing 1911-style pistols, but for Sigarms the combination of a single-action trigger teamed with ambidextrous thumb safeties was a fresh approach. We couldnt wait to see how these single-stack pistols stacked up.Each gun was tested from a sandbag rest backed by solid support from a distance of 25 yards. We measured five-shot groups printed with three different types of ammunition. They were Hornady Custom 185-grain XTP/JHP hollowpoints, Speer Gold Dot 200-grain GDHP +P hollowpoints, and Winchesters 230-grain USA FMJ round-nosed jacketed ammunition. The Winchester USA rounds were also used throughout our "practical" tests, which consisted mainly of pounding "Evil Roy," steel plates from Action Target (actiontarget.com), punctuated by reloading as quickly as we could. Each gun digested about 350 rounds throughout our tests. Here is what we learned.

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 this test we will look 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.

We established basic accuracy for each pistol by measuring five-shot groups fired from a rest at 15 yards. Our test ammunition consisted of a typical practice round, Winchester's 230-grain FMJ Q4170 load and two hollowpoint defense rounds. Our JHP rounds were Winchester's USA45JHP ammunition and the Hornady Custom 185-grain JHP/XTP No. 9090 load. In terms of accuracy all three guns exceeded our expectations.

We also put the guns through an action-shooting test in which the operator pressed the trigger as fast as he could confirm an acceptable sight picture. For this test we visited American Shooting Centers in Houston (amshootcenters.com). There, we posted a Hoffners ABC16 target at the 7-yard line. This target measured a full 35 inches tall by 23 inches wide with six 3-inch aiming circles on each side of a humanoid silhouette. We fired 10 three-shot strings at the silhouette for a total of 30 rounds. The first two shots were aimed at the 5.5-by-8.0-inch A-zone chest area. The third shot was aimed at the B-zone, represented by a 5-inch-diameter half circle in the head. Firing from the bench at a 1.5-inch bull and unsupported at the Hoffners target were simple but revealing tests. Here is what we learned about each pistol.