American Handgunner articles from September 2001

American Handgunner archives from September 2001

SPEAKOUT: MAIL CALL.
September 1, 2001... A Zealous Defense So, according to Cameron Hopkins, the "Industry Insider" (a.k.a. "Industry Whore"), Neal Knox is an "ultra-zealot." Is this because Knox believes the Second Amendment means exactly what it says, or that he actually has...

To Infinity and Beyond: BUZZ LIGHTYEAR'S HOLSTERS.
September 1, 2001... Today's gear is like a Model T vs. a Dodge Viper. Think of the formed-leather that looks like it's been injection molded. How do they do that, anyway? The miracle of Kydex swept the industry and continues to do so. Form follows function in...

Leaping Lizards, It's The Handgunner!
September 1, 2001... My collection of vintage Handgunner magazines contains colorful covers and subscription ads graced with images of Leviclad males, sporting Ked's tennies, a basic-looking 1911 in one hand, cross-draw holster riding high, leaping over a steel...

A TRIP DOWN HOLSTER LANE.
September 1, 2001... Digging deep into my holster boxes for this column, I found quite a trip down memory lane. I stumbled onto an original Anderson "inside the pants" holster for a 4" K-Frame. When was the last time you saw one of those? Who the hell carries a 4"...

The Rise of The Autopistol.
September 1, 2001... In the fall of 1976 American Hand-gunner magazine hit the market as the first handgun-only publication. Attitudes were changing about the role of the handgun in our society. Police use of handguns still remained the domain of the double-action...

A FEW OLD FAVORITES.
September 1, 2001... In that era my favorites were the S&W Model 42 Centennial in .38 Special, a Model 19 Combat Magnum in .357 Magnum and a Swenson custom Colt 1911 in .45 ACP. I had other handguns, but these were the meat and potatoes of my handgun battery. ...

The Evolving Handgun Battery.
September 1, 2001... A quarter of a century later, I have many more handguns than I had in 1976 and I've shot huge amounts of ammo in the interim. I've tried about every type of self-defense and tactical sidearm made since 1976. It is of interest that some definite...

GROUP ETHICS.
September 1, 2001... Without looking too hard, you should be able to recognize that there is fierce, group-based warfare waging around the globe. A good friend recently returned from missionary work in Sudan. His reports of what men were doing to other men are hard...

The Inner Prison.
September 1, 2001... Surveying the mental landscape, the same fundamental core drivers that unrighteously bring nation against nation and set man against man are the same intellectual processes that imprison our minds in cult-like fashion. This destructive "herd...

The Cult of Tactics.
September 1, 2001... Having been involved with the so-called "tactical community" for many years, I have noted that some of my most heated debates revolve around tactics. It turns out that many of those who claim to be free of tactical dogma and are in fact very...

THE CHURCH OF TACTICAL CONCEPTS.
September 1, 2001... Strong-minded tactical operators reveal similar patterns of self-preservation with an "attack and defend" mindset toward their group's ideals. Discussions with such stalwart individuals move into the sacred and most holy arena of tactical...

THE TACTICALLY AWARE MAGAZINE.
September 1, 2001... When publisher George von Rosen and editorial director Jerry Rakusan conceptualized American Handgunner, they knew they wonted a lot of police-related material in the new magazine. They expected that serious cops would find the publication of...

THE BIG SWITCH.
September 1, 2001... When this magazine was founded in 1976, 10 out of 10 of the largest law enforcement agencies mandated revolvers as primary service sidearms. So did 48 out of 49 state police agencies; Hawaii does not have a state police per se. Only in Illinois...

From The Model 10 To The Glock.
September 1, 2001... In the year this magazine began, I was a patrolman. My department issued a 4" S&W K-frame revolver. I was one of the few- and the first on that department- to take advantage of the option of carrying a cocked-and-locked Colt Government Model...

The Pleasure Of Gooey Gun Parts.
September 1, 2001... The last 25 years have seen some truly outstanding changes in pistolsmithing. Just the fact that there are men who specialize in working on "just pistols and revolvers" and that a fine, specialized magazine such as the American Handgunner has...

COMING OF AGE.
September 1, 2001... The American Handgunner magazine rooted its beginnings during this coming out Age Of The Pistolsmith. Beautiful photographs and incisive, tell-it-like-it-is coverage were the cornerstones of the Handgunner's success. Today Ichiro Nagata's...

The Match Hard Slide.
September 1, 2001... Twenty-five years ago when we did not have red dot scopes and if we wanted a longer sight radius to give us a finer sight picture and a heavier pistol to combat recoil, we had to make long slides by cutting two slides and welding the parts...

AGAINST THE UNARMED: A DISPARITY OF FORCE SHOOTING.
September 1, 2001... Situation: You face a savage attack by a bigger and stronger man whose sheer physical power is a deadly weapon. Lesson: The law allows recourse to the gun in such cases, However, there can be other factors. You, the general public,...

The Only Constant Is Change.
September 1, 2001... Everything about handgun hunting has changed in the past 25 years- firearms, ammunition, clothing, transportation. Yep, hunting in an old pair of Levis and beat-up jacket has gone Out of style with a large number of hunters. Part of the reason,...

Globetrotters-R-Us.
September 1, 2001... In the past 25 years hunting has become far more commercialized. When I started hunting Africa, Elgin Gates, one of the world's foremost hunters of big game, had quit hunting because it had become far too expensive for him. He couldn't...

CORRECTION.
September 1, 2001... My previous column stated that the new Contender will handle all the cartridges the Encore does. That is wrong. The new Contender will handle all the cartridges that the current Contender does, and no more.

Handloading For Hunters.
September 1, 2001... Handloaders a quarter century ago actually went out and shot what they developed. They experimented with their handloads to find the best recipe. Now it seems the modern method is to simply use a computer to generate loading data and velocities...

The Good, The Bad And The Ugly.
September 1, 2001... We've seen new cartridges born and die in the past 25 years. Of them all, one has stoodout as a runaway success--the .40 S&W. Among the fatalities is the 9mm Federal, which was designed to make it easy to shoot a cartridge equal to the 9mm...

BAREFOOT IN THE RELOADING ROOM.
September 1, 2001... Today's handloading is vastly different from the way we practiced it 25 years ago when American Handgunner printed its first issue. If the '80s and '90s could be called "The Age of the Bullet" because of watershed developments in technology,...

THE UNKNOWN THINGS.
September 1, 2001... Things we take for granted today were either unknown or expensive back in '76. Carbide sizing dies were available, but a single sizing die cost as much or more than a whole set of steel dies. A reloader who got started shortly after we did has...

THE EQUIPMENT RACE.
September 1, 2001... One or the biggest changes of the last 25 years has been the growth of practical and action shooting competition. IPSC has grown into a strong, internationally recognized organization; other organizations have appeared, offering more...

The Changing Face Of IPSC.
September 1, 2001... By the early '90s many competitors had become disillusioned with some aspects of IPSC, especially the equipment race. In the '70s IPSC shooters had poked fun at PPC and their fancy, heavy barreled revolvers and speed holsters used for the...

DISARMAMENT HASN'T WORKED IN ENGLAND, BUT NO ONE ADMITS IT.
September 1, 2001... Values are not derived from facts, and do not "follow" from facts. Thus, a correction in a person's state of knowledge by the addition of new or correct facts does not, presto-chango, alter a person's values, For this reason, one can never win...

GREAT CHANGES IN HANDGUN AMMUNITION.
September 1, 2001... The first issue of American Handgunner in 1976 carried as its lead article a piece on handloading the .357 Magnum complete with a picture of a young J.D. Jones shooting the Ruger New Model .357 Magnum Blackhawk. That was only a beginning, and...

25 YEARS OF BIG BORE SIXGUNS.
September 1, 2001... [Or How I Made My Orthopedic Surgeon's Porsche Payments] Our nation's bicentennial occurred in 1976, the same year American Handgunner was born. It seems so far away, and yet, it seems like only yesterday. The first issue of the Handgunner,...

THE ULTIMATE PPC AUTO.
September 1, 2001... LONG THE PROVINCE OF BULL BARRELED REVOLVERS, THE PPC GAME IS NOW DOMINATED BY TACK-DRIVING AUTOS LIKE THIS CUSTOM SVI 9MM BY DON GOLEMBIESKI Highly specialized custom pistols for IPSC, IDPA, Bianchi Cup and speed shooting are common...

RELOADING THE .480 RUGER.
September 1, 2001... one of my passions when it comes to handguns of any kind, and sixguns in particular, is working with the unknown. I relish the prospect of working up loads for new cartridges with nothing to go on but past experiments, a lot out of shooting...

Dawson Night Fighter!
September 1, 2001... Photos By Ichiro Nagata Epitomizing the development of the pistolsmithing profession in the last 25 years, Dave Dawson presents the "Tactical Advantage," based on his own frame and slide. Dave Dawson symbolizes the long, strange trip...

Luger P-08.
September 1, 2001... Handguns that are both instantly recognizable by even nonshooters and have had a lasting influence on the development of firearms are few and far between. The list could probably be limited to Colt's Peacemaker, John Browning's 1911, Smith &...

BIANCHI CUP 2001.
September 1, 2001... DOUG KOENIG WINS HIS FIFTH CUP, AN UNPRECEDENTED FEAT OF HANDGUNNING SKILL. Going into the 2001 Bianchi Cup-- okay, it's actually the NRA Bianchi Cup National Action Pistol Championship--Doug Koenig and John Pride were tied for the most...

V.I.P.
September 1, 2001... A Special Cut-Down version Of STI's Modular Framed 1911, Designed For Very Important Purposes-Carrying A Concealed .45. For several years now, the wide-body 1911 pioneered by Fred and Virgil Tripp and Sandy Strayer have been the hot ticket...

Always Try To Keep Track of Those Head Wounds.
September 1, 2001... New York-based writer William Milton had been bothered with headaches since the late '70s, but he kinda' figured they were caused by eye-strain-- you know, all of that small type and staring at computer screens. After a CAT-scan of Bill's...

HE WASN'T OLD ENOUGH TO RUN INTO A BAR.
September 1, 2001... It's not strange when a new customer, even a 17-year old boy, walks into a tanning salon and asks for 20 minutes on deep-fry. It is a little weird though, when that 17-year old comes sliding into a tanning joint at Mach-2, slams the door,...

OUTER LIMITED.
September 1, 2001... Photos By Ichiro Nagata Briley's Pistol Division Takes An STI Modular Pistol Intg The Stratosphere With A Highly Embellished, Customized USPSA Limited Class Gun. Exotic exceptions aside, the firearms industry has not really progressed...

SPYDERCO FOLDERS.
September 1, 2001... Knife companies are working more and more with custom makers to come up with new and novel designs, creating custom-quality blades at mass produced prices. Spyderco calls theirs "Custom Collaborations." Sometimes Spyderco solicits a...

WILSON "ARMOR TUFF" MAGAZINES.
September 1, 2001... Almost from the earliest days of IPSC, Wilson/Rogers magazines have been a standard part of a practical shooter's gear. In those early days magazine reliability was a big issue and matches were routinely lost when an ancient GI magazine fouled...

MITCH ROSEN "EXPRESS" HOLSTERS.
September 1, 2001... The only things wrong with Mitch Rosen's holsters are that it takes forever to get one and you pay dearly for it. To help solve those problems Rosen has come up with an "Express Line" that costs 30 to 50 percent less than his handmade rigs and...

C&S COLT SCREWDRIVERS.
September 1, 2001... The absolute fastest way you can decrease the value of any good firearm is to scratch the finish or bugger the screws. Both of these are frequent consequences of using a screwdriver that doesn't fit the screw slot. And while caution should...

YANEK VOTED PISTOLSMITH OF THE YEAR.
September 1, 2001... John Yanek, a consummate craftsman specializing in custom 1911s, has been voted Pistolsmith of the Year by his peers in the American Pistolsmiths Guild. "Once again the Guild has put their very best in the spotlight in choosing John for this...

WHAT A LONG, STRANGE TRIP IT'S BEEN.
September 1, 2001... Industry reaction to an all-handgun magazine in 1976 was not exactly positive. "What're ya gonna write about?" chortled a major player in the firearms business. "Which handguns are best to rob a liquor store?" Such was the public perception of...

A Brady By Any Other Name.
September 1, 2001... Handgun Control, Inc., is expected to announce that it will adopt a new name and henceforth be known as the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence. The group's sister organization, the Center to Prevent Handgun Violence, is to be called the...

ADD IT UP.
September 1, 2001... 152 Custom pistolsmiths featured in American Handgunner's 25 years of publishing 2 Female pistolsmiths featured in American Handgunner (Virginia Grieder in 1984 and Kim Stroud in 1995) 3 Authors of "Industry Insider" in...

25 YEARS OF TESTICULAR REPORTING.
September 1, 2001... American Handgunner's policy of putting the reader first, ahead of advertising concerns, has not been without its price. Massad Ayoob, the first author of the "Industry Insider," was once declared persona non grata at Smith & Wesson. He was...