Table of contents for January/February 2022 in Combat Handguns

“I HEARD SOMEONE SAY YEARS AGO, ‘If he shoots, he’s my friend, no matter what.’ That really resonated with me and has been my own personal belief ever since. We as shooters need to stick together. Every shooter from competition, hunting, the everyday gun owner. All of us who support the Second Amendment need to support one another.”—Matt Sims. Matt Sims has been a competitive shooter since the mid 1980s. He was the first Four Gun Master from the state of Alabama as recognized by the IDPA. To his credit over the years are numerous state and regional championship wins that span several states, along with impressive finishes in several IDPA National Championships. In addition to competitive shooting, Sims holds just as much experience when it comes to defensive firearms…

For as long as there have been handguns there have been holsters, and as pistols have evolved and become more size efficient, so too have their sheaths. My first real experience with a minimalist style holster was in 1982 at my first visit to Gunsite. Founder Jeff Cooper was still very much involved in teaching then and carried his 1911 in a Yaqui Slide—a term he coined for a holster he was first exposed to in El Salvador. Cooper brought the holster back to the states and along with famed holster maker Milt Sparks, refined its design and popularized it. Cooper and his chief instructor, Clint Smith (now of Thunder Ranch), inspected our gear before class started. He picked up my brand-new AMT Hardballer and smirked, while Smith told me…

Back in 2019 Mossberg introduced their first new handgun since the Brownie that was introduced a century before. The new MC1sc subcompact had a capacity of 7+1 9mm rounds and had a suggested retail price of just $425, with real-world pricing well under four Benjamins. Sales were good but could have been better. A few months before Mossberg introduced the MC1sc, Sig had introduced their P365, a gun with a really good factory trigger, night sights and a capacity of 12+1 with its extended magazine. The concealed carry market went into a frenzy, and demand far outpaced supply. Sig created a demand that they weren’t able to completely satisfy. Mossberg, like many other manufacturers, decided to upgrade their pistol’s capacity, hoping to get a slice of the higher capacity pie.…

In the past, I have mentioned that the greatest blessing of writing for the firearm’s industry is the people you meet and the lifelong friends that you make. I don’t remember when I first met Ken Kelly, but it was many years ago. Ken is the son of Mag-na-port founder Larry Kelly. Larry was a prolific handgun hunter whose favorite pistol was a .44 Magnum Ruger Super Blackhawk. Larry was the first hunter to take Africa’s “Big 5” with a handgun. While he enjoyed hunting, he did not enjoy the punishing recoil of the Ruger. In 1965, Larry started experimenting with cutting trapezoidal ports in the barrels using Electrical Discharge Machining (EDM). In 1983, Larry founded Mag-na-port Arms Inc. He also took the business international by adding franchises in Australia…

The new FN 502 Tactical is the gun all proper gun nerds have dreamt of whether we realized it or not. A beautiful, full-sized rimfire rendition of the storied FN centerfire combat pistols, the FN 502 packs all that is righteous and wholesome about those superlative tactical tools into a chassis that is versatile, rugged, cheap to run and fun. The FN 502 is the .22 LR combat handgun for grownups. Unlike most .22-caliber plinking pistols, the FN 502 Tactical is serious social iron. The polymer grip beautifully replicates that of its centerfire big brothers, while the bilateral controls and killer feature set will seem familiar to anyone who has ever hefted a modern FN defensive pistol. Additionally, the FN 502 is the gun world’s first rimfire pistol cut to…

CALIBER 9mm BARREL 4.46 inches OA LENGTH 7.56 inches WEIGHT 28.75 ounces (empty) GRIP Polymer SIGHTS Three-dot, white ACTION Striker-fired FINISH Nitride and Cerakote CAPACITY 18+1, 20+1 MSRP $520 During the past few years, I’ve had the opportunity to match up some fantastic handguns for CH “Tale Of The Tape” articles. Usually, one gun has one feature and the other gun has something else, or one performs better at one thing and vice versa. However, I don’t believe I’ve ever had a match-up so close in features and performance as I had for this particular article. After reviewing several different pistols from Canik, I’ve always compared them in my mind to models from Walther. Both have had excellent triggers, good ergonomics, awesome reliability and solid accuracy. So, when both Canik and…

In the year 2022, the 1911 pistol is right at 111 years old. I’ll say that again—111 years old. Yet, despite being a century-plus-old design, it remains one of the most effective fighting pistols ever designed, is still relevant, and is still carried by professionals and well-trained enthusiasts to this day. Aside from having a form factor that points naturally and balances well, the typical 1911 delivers a man-stopping payload otherwise known as .45 ACP. Yes, 9mm is all the rage these days since the FBI flipped back to it because of improved bullet technologies and performance. But those improvements weren’t limited to just the 9mm cartridge; they were visited upon all calibers. So, no matter how good 9mm gets, .45 ACP is and always will be better. Well…at least…

Beretta’s APX has been one of my favorite striker-fired pistols since it was first available. My introduction came while attending Beretta’s Tactical Summit a few years ago. John Chapman, co-founder of Forge Tactical, provided much of the training. John is an excellent teacher with an extensive law enforcement background. His input was a big part of the APX, and it shows. As Beretta’s entrance into the Army Pistol solicitation, it was designed for combat, making it simple and functional. Since then, I have tested the APX in every configuration offered to date and taken the full-sized model to training, media events and used it as a teaching pistol when working at the Gunsite Academy. Each and every APX I’ve used has been accurate, reliable and dependable with features built to…

ADAMS ARMS AA19 HANDGUN Well-known for being a top-quality piston-driven AR-platform firearms maker, Adams Arms has introduced a new 9mm handgun. The AA19 combines Adams Arms’ years of experience with handgun barrel and slide innovations with its mission of elevating firearm reliability and performance. Features include enhanced front and rear cocking serrations, a double undercut triggerguard, Ameriglo Defoor EDC sights, a profiled and lightened slide, and a threaded barrel. Additionally, the slide is cut for an optic. The pistol has an overall length of 7.6 inches and weighs 1.26 pounds empty. (adamsarms.net) REAL AVID BORE-MAX SPEED CLEAN SYSTEM If you think that cleaning your gun takes too much time and effort, the Bore-Max Speed Clean System from Real Avid includes brushes, jags and patches designed as a faster, easier way…

Who said all striker-fired handguns chambered in 9mm must have polymer frames? No one I know. Even so, the popularity of the Glock 17 and all the other polymer-frame striker-fired pistols on today’s market have probably planted that thought in the minds of a lot of us. That may be about to change because Rock Island Armory has just introduced an aluminum-frame striker-fired 9mm pistol called the STK 100, and it’s beginning to turn heads. KNOCK-OFF OR NEW? This new pistol resembles the full-size Glock, but important differences set it apart. It weighs about 5 ounces more and its balance is distinctly grip-heavy. Part of the reason for this is that its steel slide has seven weight-reducing ports located on its top and sides in front of the chamber. In…

Lately the .40 S&W has been awash in a stormy sea of unflattering ink. But why are some experts convinced that the .40 is dead and buried? The most common answer is that improvements in 9mm ammunition have made the .40 obsolete. Well, it’s true that a number of federal and local police agencies have switched to the 9mm. But are some people just getting on the 9mm bandwagon assuming that what’s good for the police is good for them? And just because the 9mm is getting better does it mean that the .40 is getting worse? No, it doesn’t. A lot of people declared the .45 ACP was dead when most American military units traded their .45-caliber 1911s for Beretta 9mms. However, the .45 ACP didn’t disappear, and .45-caliber…

I’m mthe first to admit I’m not much of a revolver guy, but after re-reading Unrepentant Sinner by Colonel Charles Askins last year I got a hankering to own a vintage Colt Officer’s Model Match revolver. Askins’ book serves as a reminder of just how much our country has changed in the last 100 years, good and bad, and documents the way things used to be. The good Colonel was an inveterate bullseye pistol competitor and he, like most other serious competitors, used Colt revolvers because of their legendary accuracy. The first Officer’s Model Match was introduced in 1904, based on the medium-framed Colt New Army & Navy revolver. It had a flat-topped frame, windage-adjustable rear sight and a 6-inch barrel. Guns were made in .32 Colt and .38 Special.…

VICTORY FOR THE GOOD GUYS The defeat of David Chipman, President Joe Biden’s nominee to head the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), is one of the biggest wins for the Second Amendment in quite some time. And it shows what can happen when pro-gun advocates work together on a critical issue, even with a devoutly anti-gun administration and Democrats in control of the U.S. Senate. While 2A advocates cheered the victory, those on the other side of the gun debate weren’t quite so happy. In fact, the Brady Campaign seemed surprised that the Senate wasn’t able to just ram the nomination through. “It is hugely disappointing and unconscionable that 50 members of the U.S. Senate as well as at least one senator who caucuses with the President’s…