American Handgunner articles from September 2000

American Handgunner archives from September 2000

GEORGE VON ROSEN 1915-2000.
September 1, 2000... George E. von Rosen, founder of Publishers Development Corporation and publishers of the world's first newsstand gun magazine, died May 2. He was 84. Von Rosen was a self-made man, and even though he never graduated from college, he worked...

SPEAKOUT.
September 1, 2000... MAIL CALL One Cooper Shy After enjoying a wide variety of firearms magazines, I've decided that American Handgunner is a true standout by virtue of its non-pandering, no-BS attitude and the outstanding quality of the articles, columns...

THE SUPREME COURT WILL NEVER SAFEGUARD YOUR GUN RIGHTS.
September 1, 2000... Many gun rights activists hope to obtain a Supreme Court ruling that the Second Amendment affirms an individual's right to keep and bear arms. In a previous column, I argued that a Supreme Court ruling was incapable of securing the right...

Little Feather Leather.
September 1, 2000... Christopher Brown, owner, operator and sole benchman at Little Feather Leatherworks, sent me a letter that said, "I'm sending you this package partly as a shameless quest for attention and partly because my customers believe you and I must...

KEVIN MCCLUNG IS A MAD DOG.
September 1, 2000... Do I like Kydex for holsters? Um, er, ah... you might as well ask if I like vinyl jackets. Do they have their place? Are they efficient? Cost effective? Yes on all counts. Do they make your heart beat faster, like a well-boned leather rig does?...

THE ONE PERCENTERS.
September 1, 2000... Probably no more than one percent of all holsters are actually used daily. Look at your own "holster box" to prove the point. Interesting thing, that. Let me know if you think I might be wrong.

LET SLEEPING DOGS LIE.
September 1, 2000... Snuggle close for some pillow talk. I don't know about you, but I've never been too keen on sleeping with a pistol under my pillow. I'm just a bit timid about the fact I might, in a moment of sominex delicti, blow my unconscious head off. So,...

FRIENDLY FIRE TRAGEDY.
September 1, 2000... There is no more ironic phrase than "friendly fire," but this was unquestionably the active dynamic in the death of Providence, R.I. police officer Cornell Young, Jr. Young was off duty and getting a sandwich when a disturbance broke out...

The Ever-Pointing Finger.
September 1, 2000... Jeff Cooper was right when he said much of the public is a flock of sheep. Biology 101: the sheep, by its nature, cannot tell the wolf from the sheepdog. This is why so many citizens--voluntarily rendering themselves "helpless" because they...

IT GOES BOTH WAYS.
September 1, 2000... Racism is ugly, but it's odious when it puts on a uniform. I've heard white cops say, "If we have to shoot a black guy, pray for a black cop to do it." Don't kid yourself. When the axegrinders weigh in after such a shooting, the...

DIODE VS TRITIUM.
September 1, 2000... We compared an Optima-sighted Glock against an identical Glock 26 fitted with factory night sights, shooting at various distances and comparing accuracy and speed, measured with an electronic timer. Results for both shooters were viftually...

OPTIMAZATION.
September 1, 2000... The Optima 2000 is a high-quality, weli-made product. After two months of all-day, every-day use it looks and performs like new. Sight adjustments proved positive and reliable. Since the sight itself is so small, there are no index marks next...

FOLLOW THE GENTLY WOBBLING RED BALL.
September 1, 2000... Jerry Barnhart has won many national titles, but the 1 990 IPSC Nationcds were special. It was the first malor IPSC match in which the winner's pistol was equipped with a red-dot sight. In an interview at the time (March/April '91) Barnhart was...

That Better Be A Pistol In Your Pocket, Pal.
September 1, 2000... Better avoid carrying your piece-- your shooter, we mean... well, uh, your firearm, okay?-- in one of those down-the-drawers holsters if you're traveling through Mississippi. Legislators in Ole Miss are considering legislation that will make it...

OKAY, SOME PEOPLE SHOULDN'T HAVE ACCESS To GUNS.
September 1, 2000... Or knives, or sharp pencils, or bent paper clips they might stick into electrical sockets. And we think Leonard Oak and Richard Lavoie of St. Johnsbury, Vt., belong at the top of that list. These two good ol' boys used to play this game of...

THE DEVIL'S IN THE DETAILS.
September 1, 2000... Gary Patton and his two 17-year-old sidekicks got away clean after holding up a Norwest Bank branch in Grand Junction, Cola., and a week later the cops were no closer to nailing them. Smart lads, they hadn't flaunted the loot, bragged about the...

Shoot Steel, Shoot Better.
September 1, 2000... The key to learning any new physical skill is accurate, immediate, real-time feedback that shows the results of your actions. Think of one of the earliest lessons you learned as a child. When Mom set a hot serving platter on the dinner table...

The Many Faces Of Steel.
September 1, 2000... Steel targets are available in many sizes and configurations. Perhaps the most useful for training is a simple IPSC target, approximately 18"x30" with a 6"x6" head. With reasonable loads, such a target will last indefinitely with no more...

HOW TO SHOOT STEEL SAFELY.
September 1, 2000... Shooting at steel targets is potentially dangerous. To avoid ricochets it is essential that the target be at a right angle to the line of fire so that all bullets strike the target squarely rather than at an angle. Some steps that will reduce...

One Is The Loneliest Number.
September 1, 2000... Numbers can become obsessive. We take them as absolute and attach many decimal places to them in the belief that, if we have three, rather than only two, we somehow hold a better answer. Not too long ago I read an article where the author...

Velocity Testing In The Real World.
September 1, 2000... Just to illustrate how velocities can vary. I conducted a little test with a control ammunition, Winchester's new WinClean 185 gr. 45 ACP, in five different 45 ACP handguns. All had 5" barrels from different makers. Everything else was the...

HOW THE OTHER HALF LIVES.
September 1, 2000... Discrepancies in velocity results of chronographed handloads or factory ammunition often--in fact, almost always--occur when you shoot the ammo from your own gun. The factories have it a lot better than we handloaders because they have special...

DO-IT-YOURSELF GUNSMITHING PARTS AND ACCESSORIES FOR COLT AND RUGER SINGLE-ACTIONS.
September 1, 2000... Custom pistolsmiths are doing a thriving business providing a service for those who prefer their sixguns a cut above. Rechamberings are big these days with .44 Magnums becoming .45 Colts, .475 and .500 Linebaughs. In these pages, I have...

TROOPER DOWN: THE BILL PIERCE INDIDENT.
September 1, 2000... Situation: Two huge, violent drunks have your brother officer down and are pointing his own weapon at him, pulling the trigger. Lesson: Some emergencies are beyond "verbal crisis intervention." A muzzle contact shot amplifies the power of...

HAIL TO THE CHIEF!
September 1, 2000... SMITH & WESSON'S FIFTY Bellygun is a term you don't hear much any more, but from the time of the Civil War up to very recently, that's what short-barreled revolvers were called. Some people in the gun business tried to gloss over the genre...

YES FOR PAYCHECKS NO FOR BROADSWORDS.
September 1, 2000... Is bigger always better? Can you ever have too much power? What are "power" and "better" anyway? If you are expecting a definitive answer to those questions, forget it. The "bigger is better" question has been around a long time. Witness the...

MUDDY WATERS RUN DEEP.
September 1, 2000... All this is pretty basic stuff. Now let's muddy the water with different types of bullets. In general, a jacketed expanding bullet will do more damage than a cast bullet of the same diameter and velocity. Greater tissue damage results in...

The Minimalist Approach.
September 1, 2000... Limiting the discussion to deer-sized animals and what most hunters employ on a hunt, let's realistically look at popular calibers. For a start I'll say anything developing less power than a .357 Magnum in a revolver isn't a viable cartridge...

BIANCHI CUP 2000.
September 1, 2000... Doug Koenig, 31, won the 22nd annual Bianchi Cup, pocketing a $10,000 cash first prize for this, the oldest and most prestigious stop on the pro shooting tour. Winning the Bianchi 2000 was the fourth NRA Action Pistol U.S. national championship...

COMPETITION SHOOTING AND SELF-DEFENSE.
September 1, 2000... It seems there is an endless stream of articles decrying speed shooting competition as a useless game that teaches bad habits for the tactical deployment of the handgun. While at times there is some degree of truth in such assertions, speed...

KIMBER CDP.
September 1, 2000... A Limited Edition Of Three Custom Defense Pistols From The Leading 1911 Manufacturer In America Kimber Of America emerged as an upstart in the handgun business five years ago with an audacious plan to market a 1911 pistol with a panoply...

THE HISSATSU.
September 1, 2000... A SPECIALLY DESIGNED KNIFE TO AUGMENT THE HANDGUN FOR CQB WORK Many knives are designed as multi-purpose cutting implements. The Hissatsu is not such a knife. Designed by James Williams of Bugei Trading Co., the Hissatsu has one specific...

BEST OF THE BREED.
September 1, 2000... Much maligned as a mousegun, the .380 ACP is generally chambered in rather pedestrian handguns. However, there are two distinctly superior pistols available for the cartridge--the Waither PPK and SIG P-232. Challenged on the upper end of...

TESTREPORT.
September 1, 2000... ROCK RIVER ARMS 1911 Continuing a longstanding quest to find a more accurate .45, I requested a test gun from a company called Rock River Arms in Cleveland, Ill., because this new company guaranteed 3" accuracy from just about everything...

SAFETY FAST SHOOTING SYSTEM: THE CONDITION ONE ALTERNATIVE.
September 1, 2000... You've heard about it. We've tried it. It works! Jeff Cooper convinced most of us, and logic convinced the Texas Rangers long before, that cocked-and-locked, or Condition One, is the most sensible way to carry a single-action semiautomatic...

How To Start Collecting.
September 1, 2000... Forget that IPO, buy guns! Here's an introduction to the world of gun collecting and its many pitfalls and rewards. Buying, selling, repairing and collecting handguns since the late '60s has taught me a thing or two about how to get started...

SINGLE-ACTION SIXGUNS FOR SELF-DEFENSE.
September 1, 2000... Sometime around 1836 the first single-action sixgun was used for personally protecting one's hide. From the time that the first Paterson was so employed until the present-- and I daresay far into the future-- the single-action sixgun has been...

BUSHNELL HOLOSIGHT II.
September 1, 2000... When Bushnell first introduced the holographic sight known as the Holosight I thought it was eminently clever and very useful. It was also really big and heavy. At a time when red dot sights were losing both size and weight, the Holosight...

MICULEK REVOLVER GRIPS.
September 1, 2000... If you've seen any of the recent ads or stories about the record breaking adventures of speed shooter Jerry Miculek, you may have noticed that his S&W 625 wears a pair of grips that are radically different from what comes on a Smith. ...

OUTERS FOUL OUT III.
September 1, 2000... The long awaited Outers Foul Out III is finally here. When Outers Laboratories introduced the original Foul Out several years ago it was quite revolutionary. It was-- and is-- a process of reverse electroplating that removes both copper and...

HILLSON LUBRICANTS.
September 1, 2000... A small package showed up at the office one day. It contained several small, plastic syringes filled with a colorless grease. The accompanying literature had two statements that caught my eye, "FDA" and "dental." FDA certification means that a...

Army Reserve Eliminates Marksmanship Program.
September 1, 2000... The Army Reserve Marksmanship Program was suddenly and unexpectedly eliminated by an "unusual personal decision" of the commanding general. The Marksmanship Program consists of training reservists in the basics of marksmanship--an essential...

RUGER TOPPLES S&W FOR NUMBER ONE RATING.
September 1, 2000... Supplanted for the first time, Smith & Wesson is no longer the "world's largest handgun maker," according to just-released ATF production figures. Ruger is the new number one handgun maker, surpassing its long time rival by some 20,000 guns...

The Wisdom Of Kendo.
September 1, 2000... Ken Good is the director of the most cutting-edge weapons training facility in the U.S., the SureFire Institute of Fountain Valley, Calif. It is here, in the dark place, that Good teaches low light survival to police, military and qualified...

Beretta Banks On Cowboy Market.
September 1, 2000... Italian gunmaker Beretta Holding S.p.A. announced that it has acquired Uberti Aldo & Company. Uberti is located in the same town as Beretta, Gardone Val Trompia. Uberti is the leading manufacturer of replica revolvers and rifles sold through...

NTI RANGE OFFICER SHOT.
September 1, 2000... A range officer was shot accidentally at the National Tactical Invitational (NTI) in June during a highly realistic "rescue scenario" in a 360[degrees] kill house. RO Ken Vail was shot just below the waist with a 155 gr. truncated cone .40...

Take Two Remingtons And Call Me In The Morning.
September 1, 2000... Throbbing like the vital artery it is, the giant gunsmithing supply house known as Brownells monitors the pulse of the firearms industry. Through Brownells flow all manner of gun parts and gunsmithing tools, making the sale reports of this...

BIANCHI CUP BY THE NUMBERS.
September 1, 2000... There were 182 shooters at the 2000 Bianchi Cup, producing some 34,944 pieces of once-fired brass' as well as these numbers: Equipment 65 revolvers 92 semiautos 25 unknowns (people who couldn't read or refused to fill out...

Doughty Hanson & Co.
September 1, 2000... Buyout firm Doughty Hanson & Co. is emerging as the leading bidder to acquire the European food business of Tomkins PLC, the British buns-to-guns conglomerate, for about $2 billion. Tomkins owns Smith & Wesson and Hovis Breads.

Taurus International.
September 1, 2000... Brazilian gunmaker Taurus International is offering a free NRA membership as a promotion. Simply buy a Taurus handgun, send in a copy of the Form 4473 and Taurus will take care of the rest. "It really has little to do with Taurus and everything...

Sturm, Ruger & Co.
September 1, 2000... Sturm, Ruger & Co. reported "strong firearm sales" in the first quarter of 2000, generating $9 million in profits on sales of $59.9 million, up 8 percent from 1999. That's the good news. The bad news: Ruger's casting sales were atrocious, down...

An Unqualified Recommendation.
September 1, 2000... The most frequently asked question I hear as a pistolsmith is, "What is the best pistol or revolver on which to build a competition gun?" The question usually refers to the 1911, so I'll cover double- and single-action revolver selection in a...

GETTING YOUR WISH.
September 1, 2000... For as long as I have been building pistols, the most repeated phrase from gunsmiths and customers alike has, "I sure wish someone would make a quality pistol right from the box." Well, you have to be very careful for what you wish because...

SUM OF THE PARTS.
September 1, 2000... My history of recommendations for the 1911 has gone from modifying old military pistols, building guns from scratch using Essex frames with GI parts, using Springfield Armory gunsmith kits, to recommending specific guns. More on that in a...