American Handgunner articles from March 2002

American Handgunner archives from March 2002

Mail call. (Speak Out).
March 1, 2002... Success Story I read the article on Justin Moon of Kahr Arms. Wow, talk about an American success story! With the current problems surrounding immigration, it is truly a pleasure to see someone who cherishes and capitalizes on the freedoms...

The T-Rex of powder. (Hand Loading).
March 1, 2002... There was a time when smokelss powder was a virtually negligible cost of handgun reloading. That was back when you could buy Bullseye for $2 or $3 a pound. Today, powders can be $20 or more, so anything that can improve the economy of reloading...

And now for the bad news. (Hand Loading).
March 1, 2002... The bad news is that there is very little loading data available for Rex propellants. The importer has a small amount of data for 9mm, .38 Super, .38 Special +P, .40 S&W and .45 ACP, but the bullets used in the data may not be on everyone's...

The real day of infamy? (Gun Rights).
March 1, 2002... The day of infamy actually occurred far earlier than September 11. It occurred when airplanes were made gun-free zones. The track record of gun-free zones is--how shall we say this?-- less than impressive. Post offices, schools and now,...

Production class: Who really cares? (Combat Shotting).
March 1, 2002... During the 1980s and early '90s, a common complaint about IPSC was that it was totally dominated by 1911 pistols and that double-action autos could not be competitive. Well, now there are two organizations where owners of popular service autos...

Parts, parts and more parts. (Combat Shotting).
March 1, 2002... Parts for 1911 pistols remain the biggest sellers at Brownells, the huge mailorder seller that lists over 29,000 quality firearm parts, accessories and gunsmith supplies. Larry Weeks of Brownells confirmed that John Browning's timeless...

The lessons of Dominic infantes. (Cop Talk).
March 1, 2002... In July of 2001, two Jersey City, N.J., brothers in their early 40s were setting off fireworks in a way that frightened passerby Brian Belka, his wife and small child. When Belka asked them to stop, they blew him off. The citizen knew that a...

Officer friendly and the emergency response. (Cop Talk).
March 1, 2002... Cities such as the one in question--and more so in smaller communities--you, the local officer, are seen by neighbors as "the resident cop." They know and like you, and naturally reach out to you instead of calling the faceless, impersonal...

No excuses. (Cop Talk).
March 1, 2002... We are in the time of titanium, the era of scandium. There are .38 Special revolvers that weigh virtually nothing. A tiny 9mm or .40 S&W like the micro-Kahr is no larger than a .380 pocket pistol. There are pocket holsters and other hideout...

Hamilton's finishing school. (Pistol Smithing).
March 1, 2002... Finishes for rifles and pistols over the centuries have always been the very last process that's performed on the metal before it goes to the customer. And while the system may not have changed over the centuries, the process by which finishes...

Chips, flakes and peels. (Pistol Smithing).
March 1, 2002... Home finishing, like home dentistry, is not a good idea. The do-it-your self aerosol spray cans should be left for the kid's bicycle, not your fine firearms, If you do not have proper degreasing chemicals, a sand blast cabinet with proper...

The spray and bake solution. (Pistol Smithing).
March 1, 2002... Polymer finishes, sold by the quart or gallon by my company, Ten-Ring Precision, add another dimension to a pistolsmith's profit center. Polymers are environmentally friendly. Applied over phosphate, a polymer finish come close to being the...

When sweeping doesn't involve a broom. (Handgun Leather).
March 1, 2002... Having recently been present during a police department qualification shoot, I found my knees getting sore from ducking and diving out of the way of sweeping muzzles. During the two hours or so I spent at the range, a series of detectives and...

The basics of cornering. (Strategic Solutions).
March 1, 2002... In the last the column I covered some of the important mental underpinnings of the often-faced problem of corning during a firearms engagement. They included a hunter mindset, being in the moment, flexibility, fluidity and a total commitment to...

Time and distance. (Strategic Solutions).
March 1, 2002... Time spent at distance is well-invested. Threats often reveal themselves early because they can sense something is coming and feel obligated to do something about it. When you are at distance, you have more choices; when you get close, it...

Beware of mines. (Strategic Solutions).
March 1, 2002... I often hear folks dragging body parts and equipment along the wrong side of the wall as they tentatively shuffle-step toward a corner. I call this "walking on a mine field." It is an outward physical manifestation of their insecurity. Somehow...

We just love this kinda stuff. (The 10-Ring).
March 1, 2002... Yeah, it's too bad these things happen, but, we have to admit, every time some predatory scumbag gets dinged by his "helpless prey," we just chuckle in our beer and hope nobody spots us being so socially insensitive Our latest top-gun heroine...

Next time how about a "we're the crooks" bumper sticker? (The 10-Ring).
March 1, 2002... Cops in Detroit could've had a much tougher job of running down five armed robbery suspects if just one of them would have turned and looked at the antenna of their getaway ride. This quintet of idiots knocked over a McDonald's in the Motor...

State of the bullet: Handgan ammuntion in 2002.
March 1, 2002... At first glance it looks as if the handgun ammo market has been pretty quiet over the last year, and, in the sense that there wasn't a breakthrough new product, that was true. What we've seen is some innovation in marketing and the...

Only accurate shooters are interesting. (Better Shooting).
March 1, 2002... A friend of mine is a topnotch PPC competitor, a Grand Master and winner of several state championships. Recently he got into IPSC competition. He phoned a few days ago to advise that he had won an IPSC match in an adjacent state. What...

Shooting up to the gun. (Better Shooting).
March 1, 2002... It's been my good fortune to have had the opportunity to watch many of the top practical shooters at matches, and to shoot with some of them in practice and at seminars. Their gun-handling skills, speed and smoothness are truly marvelous to...

The precision shot. (Better Shooting).
March 1, 2002... Since most defensive situations occur at close range, does accuracy matter in practical shooting? I believe it does. For one thing, unlikely though it may be, a defensive situation may indeed require precise shooting. For another, the skills...

You can win a custom Caspian: From Alan Tillman of art enterprise; night defender.
March 1, 2002... Alan Tilllman started Art Enterprises in 185 as a part-ime pistolsmithing business working on Colt 1911 and performing general repairs. The business quickly got out of hand and became a full-time occupation. Tillman has flow been in business...

Elmer wasn't lying: The truth about long range sixgunning. (The Six Gunner).
March 1, 2002... No one knows who the first pistolero was to practice long-range sixgunning, but we do know that the Walker Colt of 1847 was advertised as being effective on both man and horse out to 200 yards. Early in his writing career, Elmer Keith began...

The gun show gat. (Tactical Advantage).
March 1, 2002... Get a bunch of handgun fans together and you will inevitably hear someone brag about having a handgun or two "off paper," meaning that they have purchased a handgun that was not on an ATF Form 4473 dealer's record of sale, linking ownership of...

Things that go boom in the night. (Tactical Advantage).
March 1, 2002... Another fact that I find most interesting is the surprising number of people who have guns in their home for self-protection, but do not own a decent flashlight to identify any threat that they may face. The odds are that if you need a handgun...

Fire in the hole. (Tactical Advantage).
March 1, 2002... Spend some range time mastering your retention-firing skills. At the range that most people are assaulted, you will want to be able to present you handgun to the target without pushing it out so far that the assailant can grab or deflect it....

The miraculous cure for all that ails you: .22 Plinking. (Taffin Tests).
March 1, 2002... A longtime standard remedy for the physical blabs has been "take two aspirins and go to bed." It usually works for me, especially if I also wrap up in a blanket and sweat a little. Spiritual and emotional blahs require a different remedy....

Guns & Ivory: What better way to embellish a collection of colts than with Ivory grips from a Tusker you shot.
March 1, 2002... Nothing feels quite so good or looks so attractive as elephant ivory gracing the frame of a classic handgun. But the look and feel of a handgun was the last thing on my mind back in September of 1970. Facing an elephant standing less than 30...

Elephant hunting today.
March 1, 2002... Although 25 years of poaching seriously reduced elephant numbers in portions of Central and East Africa, today, with populations throughout Africa estimated at more than 600,000, elephants are not endangered, or even threatened. Elephant...

The luger and the kid.
March 1, 2002... Darkness. Soft rain. Mud. Terror. It's 1918. Water filled shell holes large enough to swallow a man without a trace. A man stands alone. Suddenly blinded, temporarily, by the flash and roar that leaves him without companions. Star bursts from...

Wilson CQB: A serious five-inch for those who demand a battle-tough .45.
March 1, 2002... More than two decades ago, in the Jan/Feb 1979 issue of Handgunner, a little one-eighth page advertisement appeared. Under a bold heading "Combat Shooters," the ad announced "Custom combat handguns built... Specializing in tuning Colt .45 ACPs...

Lane pearce and his amazing grips.
March 1, 2002... From a maker of clever grip adaptors for clock pistol comes a curious story about a replacement makarov grip, the definition of a "full-time hobby" and another epic of the great american success story. It is axiomatic that success, in...

Cyber blades! Hnife.Art.com offers the leading custom knives online, plus special limited editions from the top bladesmiths.
March 1, 2002... The Internet has proven to be lightning-in-a-bottle for many a savvy business. Where else can you get information to a customer so fast, so friendly and so cheap? The smart money recognized this early on, and many built their business from...

USPSA nationals 2001: Amid a torrential Downpour, the nations top practical shooters vie for the Limited and open championships in one of the best nail-biters in IPSC history.
March 1, 2002... Rain. You Say You want rain? Well, buddy, we got rain. We got gully-washers; we got cats-and-dogs and bull yearlings coming down; we got frogs choking; we got epic, Biblical, two-by-two, get-your-butts-on-the-ark rain. First, though, the real...

The guns of the champions.
March 1, 2002... To paraphrase an old quote, "The Grand Masters are not like you and me. They are different." Except that their guns are very much like ours, but still different. I had the opportunity to interview a bunch of the top shooters and inspect their...

The Ayoob files; An urban gunfighter: The lessons of Lance Thomas.
March 1, 2002... Situation: A law-abiding armed citizen faces multiple armed robberies and murder attempts. Lesson: Only the power of lawful force can answer the power of lawless criminal force. A few years ago, the TV program Turning Point focused on...

Rudy project shooting glasses. (Gunny Sack).
March 1, 2002... Cool shades have become very much an integral part of an athlete's wardrobe. Rudy Barbazza is an Italian maker of high-tech gear used by athletes, especially cyclists. Well, shooters are athletes, too, and to top it off, eye protection is...

Wolff 1911 magazne. (Gunny Sack).
March 1, 2002... Stating the obvious: Magazines are real important if you want your pistol to function reliably. They are also the subject of great and learned debate. That wasn't always the case, but when the "more is better" craze swept the autopistol market,...

Surefire E2 executive. (Gunny Sack).
March 1, 2002... Until very recently, in order for a flashlight to be bright it had to be big. SureFire changed all that in 1987 with its revolutionary Model 6P. Since then the California-based manufacturer of what it calls "high performance illumination tools"...

Edge-Works Kydex holsters. (Gunny Sack).
March 1, 2002... Kydex[R] is a thermoplastic material, meaning it is a substance that it can be formed when hot. The neat thing about Kydex is that when it cools, it retains the shape into which it has been formed. Actually, the material has been around for...

Steel weapons: Jeff Cooper on knives; The guru of the 1911 is also a collector of edged weapons and a student of the art of the blade.
March 1, 2002... Nestled deep within the rolling hills of Yavapai County, Ariz., and surrounded by vast panoramic views of mountain ranges and timberlines, Gunsite Ranch is home to the legendary founder of the American Pistol Institute, later known as Gunsite...

Project rapid + action. (Industry Insider).
March 1, 2002... Concerned with America's less-than-sterling success in recent years in Olympic Rapid Fire Pistol-- one of the three men's pistol events on the current Olympic program-- USA Shooting is launching an outreach program to help introduce the event...

New XD from Springfield. (Industry Insider).
March 1, 2002... Springfield Armory is entering the rigorously competitive market of law enforcement handgun sales with a polymer DA-only design called the "X-treme Duty" (XD) pistol. "We are pleased to have this new pistol in our stable of fine handguns",...

Fly the friendly skies. (Industry Insider).
March 1, 2002... A formerly unknown ammo company, American Ammunition, Inc., recently announced that it has been a provisional patent for a bullet that will not penetrate an airline fuselage, but will poke through human tissue. The patent was applied for 15...

Semper FI 1911. (Industry Insider).
March 1, 2002... The U.S. Marines have not abandoned the Government Model yet, although the Beretta M9 is still the official service pistol of the armed forces. The Marines recently purchased enough parts from aftermarket 1911 manufacturers to build 789 pistols...

Gun sales slump in 2001. (Industry Insider).
March 1, 2002... True to its historical record, the shooting industry slumped on good news and rallied on bad. The first three quarters of 2001 were slow in the nation's gunshops as outdoorsmen relished the prospect of four years of a pro-gun administration...

The gun grapevine. (Industry Insider).
March 1, 2002... * Kimber landed a police contract for its Pro Carry HD II stainless pistol and its Pro Carry II aluminum-framed version too. Tacoma (Wash.) PD bought Kimbers after they tested 37 different guns. "None were even close [to the Kimber]," said Sgt....

Block of gun magazines up for sale. (Industry Insider).
March 1, 2002... New York publishing mega-giant Primedia now owns virtually all the big-circulation gun magazines in America thanks to its recent purchase of the American assets of London-based publishing house Emap. Primedia acquired the firearms titles that...

Big easy gets big defeat. (Industry Insider).
March 1, 2002... The U.S. Supreme Court let stand a ruling that dismissed a pioneering lawsuit by New Orleans seeking to hold the gun industry liable for millions of dollars for the costs of "gun violence." The justices declined without any comment or dissent...

Add it up. (Insider).
March 1, 2002... 1,471 Confiscated guns "traced" by Connecticut police since 1998, an embarrassingly low for what was touted as a Great Idea. (Reason: many police agencies simply don't bother to check.) 90 Workers laidoff at Federal Cartridge in...