Pistols

We tested Glock and Springfield Armory compact polymer 45s in a January 2013 head-to-head test. Here's an excerpt of that test.

For only the third time in more than 100 years, the NRA National Smallbore Rifle Championships will not be held at Camp Perry, OH. Instead, the 2014 championships will move three hours west to the Chief Wa-Ke-De Range in Bristol, IN.

The National Rifle Association recently sold its one millionth copy of the NRA Guide to the Basics of Pistol Shooting. Known as the Basic Pistol handbook, the guide is a comprehensive resource on responsible pistol use and is the foundation of NRA’s popular Basic Pistol and FIRST Steps Pistol Orientation courses.

The UZI PRO semi-auto pistol designed for the American consumer market is now available. The $1100 UZI PRO UPP9S semi-auto pistol is based on the UZI sub-machine gun (SMG), designed and patented by Uziel Gal, who gave the production rights to the Israeli Ministry of Defense. IWI US, Inc., a subsidiary of Israel Weapon Industries (IWI), imports the firearm domestically.

Gun Tests’ South Carolina test team recently obtained a trio of self-defense handguns in the popular Commander-size 1911 frame size to test: the 4.25-inch-barrel SIG Sauer Carry Stainless 1911CA-45-SSS 45 ACP, $1142; and the new Ruger SR1911CMD No. 6702 45 ACP, $829. The third gun was a 4-inch-barrel aluminum-frame Kimber Pro CDP.

BrassFetcher.com has done an eye-opening comparison of the terminal effectiveness of FMJ vs JHP bullet designs from handguns chambered in 22 LR, 25 ACP, 32 ACP, 380 ACP, 9mm Makarov, 9mm Police, 38 Special, 9mm Luger, and 45 ACP.

Galco Gunleather has introduced a KingTuk tuckable IWB holster for Springfield Armory’s XD-S pistols.

We tested two 22 LR handguns in an April 2012 showdown of plinking pistols. They were the Walther P22 Model WAP22003 22 LR, $379; and the Ruger SR22PB Model 03600, $399. Heres an excerpt of that report.

In a February 2006 test of four handguns, our Idaho staff called the Walther P22 22 LR No. WAP22003, $301, an Our Pick. The test team said, We liked this little .22 pistol immensely. It was completely reliable in our limited shooting, and shot very well, with many five-shot groups going around an inch at 15 yards. The impact could be fine-tuned as necessary by changing the front sight. The windage was slick and handy, we found, and adjusted with relative ease.… We think anyone in need of a fine little .22 pistol that works every time and doesnt bust the bank need look no farther than the short-barrel P22. We thought it was an ideal fun gun, one wed take in the backpack and not even know its there. Then, in the May 2010 issue, we wrote, Our Team Said: The unanimous decision was that the P22 was the top performer in our tests.… This is a difficult trick to manage for any handgun, because differing ammo selections, test conditions, individual pistol variations, and matchups can magnify the flaws found in any product, making it hard to get a top grade again and again.

But when a gun does that well over time, it can serve as a benchmark against which to test newer products, which in this case is the Ruger SR22PB Model 03600, $399. Like the Walther P22 WAP22003, now $379, Rugers SR22 is full of angles and bumps and slots, but not so many serrations. The top of its anodized slide was smooth and semi-gloss, instead of the Walthers dead-flat black with longitudinal serrations. What would have impressed us mightily is if Ruger (or Walther) had attempted to copy the original Walther PPK for the 22LR, and brought it off nicely at a good sale price. No one makes that gun today, so far as we know. (If Ruger or Walther decided to do it, we suspect a great many fans of James Bond would buy the guns just for the fact that they look like the famous PPK. And if this hypothetical gun were far more accurate than either of these two test guns, wed beat a path to the makers door and buy one for ourselves.) But that veers off our current topic, which is pitting the two similar 22 autoloading pistols head to head.

We acquired a new Ruger and borrowed a locally owned, new-condition P22 for this test. We tested with five types of ammunition. These were CCI Green Tag Competition, Eleys Match EPS, CCI Mini Mag solids, Winchester Power Point HP, and Federal Classic High-Velocity. How does the new Ruger stack up against the Walther P22? Lets take a look feature by feature of the winning gun...

Three handguns recently tested in Gun Tests magazine are now listed for auction on GunBroker.com by the FFL owner, Winkle’s Great Guns of Houston, Texas.

(GunReports.com) -- The October 2013 issue of Gun Tests magazine compares three 45 ACP Commander-size 1911 pistols from SIG Sauer, Kimber, and Ruger. Part of their differences are in the safeties, one of which is the Swartz design in the Kimber CDP II. This article from American Rifleman (January 1976) discusses the design in detail.

We tested two Caracal 9mm handguns (which have since been recalled) against two 45 ACP handguns in a September 2012 showdown of self-defense pistols. The 45s were the Springfield Armory Lightweight Champion Operator PX9115LP 45 ACP, $1076, and the Dan Wesson ECO 01969 45 ACP, $1662. Here's an excerpt of that report.

From Gun Tests reader Dan Brunger in the upcoming November 2013 issue:'Newer magazines do not fit my CZ 75. Could you tell me when the change occurred and how to tell the magazines apart other from physically trying them?'