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In our ongoing look at many of the smaller 9mm handguns out there, we occasionally come across some that are a bit easier to handle than the micro-nines weve looked at during the past year or so. They are generally easier to shoot, though far harder to conceal, and have their place in the scheme of things. In this report we look at the Sig Sauer P239 SAS ($1125) and the H&K USP Compact ($992), two midsize pistols with external hammers but with different approaches to the problem of building a good self-defense handgun.For example, the Sig always goes to DA mode when you put on its safety, which is not a safety but a hammer dropper. The H&K had one of those too, but in this case its actually a thumb safety which enables cocked-and-locked carry. But if you want to drop the H&Ks hammer, just press down harder on the lever and it drops the hammer in a safe, if sudden, manner. Essentially, the Sig didnt have an external safety, only the hammer-drop lever, or decocker.We tested with WPA 115-grain FMJ, Winchester BEB 115-grain FMJ, and with Independent 115-grain FMJ. We have found it difficult to buy any JHP ammunition, or that of heavier weights locally, thanks to the ongoing national ammo shortage.

The subject of the 223 Remington-chambered rifle for personal defense comes up often, and is now the subject of heated political maneuvering to get these semi-auto long guns banned in some states, or at least reduced in capacity. What is overlooked in almost all of these discussions are the reasons for the rifles popularity: The AR-15 rifle offers good handling, excellent accuracy, ease of control, and a good reserve of firepower when fitted with standard-capacity 20- or 30-round magazines. Another item thats overlooked is what are the best loads for personal defense.We took a hard look at almost two dozen 223 Remington loads and found that many are not well suited for personal defense because they dont offer adequate penetration. Other loads, however, are practically ideal for personal defense. Also, the loads must be reliable in every AR-style firearm or other design chambered for the round, from a Colt HBAR the excellent Ruger Mini-14 rifles. For our test, we used a Bushmaster 16-inch-barrel carbine with Trijicon iron sights. It was a stock set up except for a red receiver plug that tightened things up.The major areas of downrange performance many people wonder about are: Which load is the most frangible?, and which load offers the best combination of downrange public safety, stopping power, and a lack of ricochet? The only means of arriving at the truth is to conduct a test program that is both repeatable and verifiable. To start, we agreed that reliability is more important than anything else. We fired a minimum of 20 rounds - a magazine full - of each load to gauge reliability. It isnt a given that all cartridges run well all of the time. Also, we noted any other malfunctions that occurred during the rest of the test as part of the reliability numbers.Next, we measured both penetration and expansion in our standard gallon-water-jug testing program. In self-defense situations, we cant expect to have a perfect scenario for a low-penetrating round to do its job. Ideally, we wanted somewhere between 15 and 18 inches of water penetration.We also conducted an accuracy test using our defense-length carbine, but you may be able to get better results with longer barrels. Still, using an ATN scope mounted on top of the carry handle, we fired some tiny three-shot groups at 25 yards, which is a long range for personal defense. (For hunting coyotes or predators, this is almost point-blank range.) Just the same, one of our raters noted that some of the loads that were acceptable in the AR-15 for personal defense would also cut a half-inch grip on demand in his heavy-barrel Howa rifle with Nikon scope at 100 yards. So, the accuracy results, while uniformly pretty good, may not reflect the true potential of a load.We shot a number of loads in as many different weights as possible. While bullets of different designs behave differently in the same weight, we felt that the test criteria showed the performance of various classes of loads well. The lightest bullet tested was less than half the weight of the heaviest load, with the weight of the rounds tested ranging from 35 to 77 grains. The ammunition samples tested were in 20-round boxes unless otherwise specified. In the Black Hills lines, each load came from blue box, or remanufactured, products with mismatched cases in 50-round boxes. Heres what we found:

For some shooters, Hollywood seems to have become a prime factor in choosing the style and type of firearm finding favor on the range and in the field. This truism seems to be particularly prevalent when dealing with lever-action rifles. In the old days, Westerns ruled the movie screens and a true-blue cowboy had three good companions - "my rifle, my pony and me" - as sung by Dean Martin in the classic western Rio Bravo.

One of those good companions for quite a few cowboys and hunters of that time period was the Winchester Model 1895. The Model 1895 was the first Winchester rifle to feature a box magazine located underneath the action instead of the tubular magazine design, allowing for the use of military and hunting cartridges with pointed bullets, and was the last lever-action rifle to be designed by legendary gunsmith and inventor John M. Browning. For our test, we were able to obtain a vintage Model 1985 in 30-40 Krag that dates back to the early 1900s, when it sold for a mere $25. The specific firearm we used in the test had spent countless hours in a rifle scabbard on horseback or on the side of a truck bouncing through the South Texas brush near Laredo and has accounted for more jack rabbits, coyotes and whitetail deer than can easily be counted.

On the more modern side of the Hollywood depiction of a lever-action shooter is the recently introduced Mossberg Model 464 ZMB 30-30 Win., offering a variety of high-tech features to handle the highly promoted zombie apocalypse. Short and quick with the ability to add all kinds of optics and lights for effective firepower to stop the undead — if they ever make their appearance — or varmints and deer-sized big game, the Mossberg has upgraded the lever-action rifle to a space-age weapon.

Although the calibers are identical — the 30-40 Krag is also known as the 30 U.S. — the Krag provides a little more punch with a larger bullet than the 30-30 Win. Both cartridges are considered prime brush guns for handling small game up to animals the size of a whitetail deer at ranges of 100 yards or less.

It should be noted that while quite a few rifle cartridges are hard to find with the ongoing high ammo demand, the 30-30 rounds are generally easier to obtain than the veteran 30-40 Krag. We were able to obtain three varieties of 30-30 (including the specially marketed Hornady Zombie Max designed for use on the undead) and two brands of 30-40 Krag for our tests. Here's our report:

Many people still shoot the S&W/Mossberg Model 1000, but it may require your attention. Here are the basics of getting this autoloader operational again.

Lost in the current frenzy to hoard any and all Modern Sporting Rifles are fresh innovations being applied to bolt-action rifles. Not only are new manufacturing techniques making minute-of-angle bolt guns less expensive but more versatile, too. In this test we will evaluate two bolt action rifles chambered for 243 Winchester that offer something extra. The $641 Howa/Hogue Youth 2N1 rifles come with two different stocks so that the same Howa M1500 action will accommodate more than one shooter. Both stocks are manufactured by Hogue, using the OverMolded technique.Thompson Center Armss $679 Dimension rifle offers the ability to accept different-caliber barrels so that the same rifle, or as the manufacturer prefers platform, can be used to hunt a wider variety of game. The Dimension bolt-action platform can be fit with any one of four groups of Locking Optimized Components (LOC) listed as series A, B, C, and D. The A series accommodates 223 Remington and 204 Ruger ammunition. Series C Dimension rifles can swap barrels for 270 Winchester and 30-06 Springfield, while the Series D includes 7mm Remington Magnum and 300 Winchester Magnum. Our Series B Dimension rifle offered the most versatility, able to accept alternate barrels for 22-250 Remington, 7mm-08 Remington, and 308 Winchester as well 243 Win. Thompson Center claims a 1-minute-of-angle accuracy guarantee no matter which caliber is chosen.To test each rifle, we applied a simple accuracy test consisting of shooting from the 100-yard line at American Shooting Centers in Houston using a Caldwell Tack Driver rest for support. The days leading up to our tests were sunny and mild. But our tests days were rainy. Afraid that using paper targets would make archiving difficult, we acquired a supply of Caldwell Tip Top plastic-coated targets with 8-inch Bulls Eye. Impervious to water, they produced razor-sharp definition of each bullet hole. The targets measured 8- by 10- inches overall, and our shots matched the size of the holes that were pre-cut for saving in a three-ring binder. Velocities were recorded by an Oehler 35P Chronograph, which is back in production (Oehler-Research.com).Our test ammunition consisted of three choices featuring three different types of bullets. First, we tried Winchesters 80-grain Jacketed Soft Point, which despite new packaging is the same round used in the February 2013 test of 243 Winchester bolt-action rifles. In addition, we tried a second 80-grain round, this time from Black Hills Ammunition topped with Hornadys GMX bullet. Gilding Metal eXpanding bullets are expanding monolithic bullets fashioned from the same material Hornady uses to jacket its bullet. The maker claims less fouling than solid copper and the GMX bullet features a grooved bearing surface. With so much luck in our last test firing lighter-weight bullets, we also tested with Black Hills 58-grain V-Max ammunition. Hornady V-Max bullets are lead-core jacketed bullets that feature a polymer tip.For optics we decided to continue shooting with the 4-16x50mm Steiner Predator Extreme scope we enjoyed so much in our previous tests. Its clarity helped us cut through the somewhat dim, overcast light. From the 100-yard line, 8x was all the magnification we needed. The Howa rifle made no such claim, but Thompson Center guaranteed minute-of-angle accuracy. We wondered if either manufacturer was being modest.

If you have a handgun for what some consider to be a sub-caliber round, it might be comforting to have lots of shots on hand, because you just might need them. Taking our tongues out of our cheeks now, the 380 can be an effective self-defense handgun cartridge, particularly with todays hotter JHP loads - if you can find any. There are zillions of good used 380s out there, though in todays market you might have the devil of a time finding one. We managed to acquire two, both slightly used, just like what you might have to consider in todays super-tight gun market.Our test pistols were a Beretta Model 84 ($600-$650) and a CZ Model 83 ($550 on up). Both were DA/SA pistols. Their size was about that of the two 40-cal pistols we tested recently here in Idaho, the S&W M&P 40 Compact and the Kahr CW40 (March 2013). Most of the small nines weve been testing are considerably smaller than these two 380s. We wouldnt call either of them pocket guns. Theyd fit a purse or a decent holster nicely, though. They both had fat grips, so theyll bulge the concealment clothing somewhat more than a 45 auto.These two guns were uncannily alike in some ways, though of completely different designs by two proud old makers. Although both were DA/SA guns, they could be carried cocked and locked. They had ambidextrous safeties and external hammers. They had staggered magazines that held 12 or 13 rounds. Their two-quick-shot, DA/SA feels were so much alike we could not tell a difference. Both were simple blowback actions, with enough mass to their slides that they didnt require barrel-locking mechanisms. The slides simply reciprocate after each shot and the barrels never move. Both had metal frames, a breath of fresh air, we thought, in todays plastic-dominated market.Like the rest of the world, we currently have a shortage of common ammunition here in Idaho, so we had to test this pair of 380s with just one type of ammo, 95-grain FMJ, in two persuasions. Most of that fodder has about the same ballistics, so what we got is about what youd expect from anything you might find of a similar nature. Cor-Bon makes hotter 380 JHP ammo, as does Federal and a few others, but none was available to our test team at this writing. Heres what we found.

One reason to produce rimfire replicas of military weapons is to help familiarize the shooter with how each gun operates at a fraction of the price of buying and feeding the corresponding centerfire model. If this isn't fun enough, then consider the history and the innovation that each rifle offers the shooter ahead of simpler rimfire designs. Gun Tests magazine last tested military-replica semiautomatic rimfire rifles in the February 2010 issue ("Tactical-Style 22 LR Carbines: Ruger, S&W, Legacy Duke It Out"), with the majority of the roster being taken up by the AR-15 design. In a newer test they evaluated the $609 German-made ISSC MK22 Desert Tan rifle with folding stock, a replica of the SCAR (Special Operations Forces Combat Assault Rifle). The MK22 was imported by Legacy Sports International of Reno, Nevada.

The AK-47 is one of the most efficient and widespread assault rifles ever built. Soviet weapons designer Mikhail Timofeevitch Kalashnikov conceived of the basic mechanism while recovering from wounds he received in a tank battle in October 1941 near Bryansk. Though his idea pivoted off the German concept of the assault rifle, Kalashnikov came up with his own design that led to several variants of the mechanism being built in the 1940s. In 1946, substantial revisions to working prototypes by Kalashnikov's assistant Aleksandr Zaytsev made the resulting 1947 model, the AK-47, especially reliable. The Soviet army officially adopted the AK-47 chambered in the 7.62x39mm Soviet as its battle rifle in 1949, and large-scale distribution of the weapon began in the mid-1950s.

Gun Test's Idaho test team has spent a lot of time looking at relatively tiny 9mm handguns over the past year. We've found there are a few good designs that permit the use of some relatively hot ammo in the small 9mm packages. But some people want still more power, so we've decided to sample a few of the forties out there. For this test we looked at a S&W M&P Compact 40 ($569) and a Kahr CW40 ($485). They are a bit larger than the tiny nines we've been trying, and there are good reasons for that. The 40 S&W is a lot more cartridge than the 9mm Parabellum, and when forties get smaller than these two test guns, recoil is entirely unfriendly. However, Kahr and a few other makers do offer smaller guns in this caliber if you must have one. We tested these two compact forties with three types of ammo, Remington 155-grain JHP, Black Hills 165-grain JHP, and American Eagle 180-grain FMC. Here's what we found.

The 38 Special revolver has long been a standard as a back-up and concealed-carry handgun. As part of our new Bargain Hunter series, we wanted to challenge the conventional notion that a wheelgun chambered in 38 Special should be the de facto winner of any boot-gun showdown simply because it has always won those battles in the past. In the same power range as the 38 Special is the 9mm Luger (aka 9mm Parabellum or 9x19mm), which has the added benefit of being loaded more widely, often at less cost per round, than the 38 Special. Also, many carbines are chambered for 9mm, which makes it a handy choice for a long gun/handgun duo, even if the handgun is a revolver. To be fair, the 38 Special is also chambered for long guns, primarily lever guns. On the 38 Special's side is the fact that dozens of revolvers from Smith & Wesson, Ruger, Rossi, Charter, Taurus, and many others are chambered for the round, compared to a paltry few 9mms, some of which must use half-moon or moon clips to function. In this two-way test, we evaluated four handguns, three revolvers chambered for 38 Special and two revolvers chambered for 9mm Luger. Certainly, the best gun would win and earn our favor. But we also looked at the cost of consumables to see if, over time, one cartridge had an edge.

When it comes to personal defense, competition, and recreational shooting, the most popular rifle in America is likely the AR-15 chambered for .223 Remington. But there are still plenty of shooters who prefer the light recoil and low expense of 9mm Luger ammunition. Whereas caliber .223 is strictly the staple of rifle shooters, 9mm carbines are often used by pistol shooters who sometimes use a long gun. There are three basic types of 9mm carbine. They are the 9mm AR-15, semi-automatic versions of submachineguns such as the UZI, and purpose-built 9mm carbines that more or less follow their own rules of design. To answer some of those questions, Gun Tests magazine recently fired the $700 Thureon Defense 9mm.

Their choice of test ammunition was Winchester USA 115-grain FMJ rounds and two loads from Black Hills Ammunition topped with 124-grain bullets. One featured a full-metal-jacketed slug and the other a jacketed hollowpoint driven by a +P charge. Each carbine was tested for accuracy from the 50-yard bench using only their supplied open sights.

Here's what the staff at GT said:

When it comes to personal defense, competition, and recreational shooting, the most popular rifle in America is likely the AR-15 chambered for .223 Remington. But there are still plenty of shooters who prefer the light recoil and low expense of 9mm Luger ammunition. Whereas caliber .223 is strictly the staple of rifle shooters, 9mm carbines are often used by pistol shooters who sometimes use a long gun. There are three basic types of 9mm carbine. They are the 9mm AR-15, semi-automatic versions of submachineguns such as the UZI, and purpose-built 9mm carbines that more or less follow their own rules of design. In a recent test, Gun Tests magazine fired the $409 Kel-Tec Sub 2000 9mm.