Tabla de contenidos para July/August 2021 en Combat Handguns

CZ-USA manufactures and imports some of the finest firearms and firearm accessories available on the market today. Pistols, shotguns, rifles and suppressors all fall under the CZ-USA umbrella, as well as the highly coveted 1911s and revolvers made by Dan Wesson. CZ-USA has been headquartered in Kansas City, Kansas, since 1998, consistently growing and proving to be one of the most formidable brands in the firearms industry today. CZ-USA also has a very large, die-hard fan base of firearm owners who swear by their brand, which brings us to CZ-USA’s Jared Fox. Fox works for CZ-USA as an inside sales representative, handling dealer sales for the Northeast region of the country from Ohio through Maine. Not only is Fox an employee of CZ-USA/Dan Wesson Firearms, but he has also been…

If there was ever a cartridge lurking in the shadows today, it seems to be the .38 Super. Overshadowed by cartridges like 9mm and .40 S&W, the .38 Super was at one time the choice of law enforcement simply because of its ability, compared to the .45 ACP or puny .38 Specials of the day, to launch a bullet at higher speeds to penetrate car bodies and then-manufactured ballistic body armor in the 1920s. Although the cartridge had a formal introduction of 1929, John Browning himself designed the original .38 Auto in 1900 that was chambered in Colt pistols of the time. Some three decades later, the .38 Auto was improved and introduced as a more powerful cartridge and named the .38 Super. Enjoying its nearly instant claim to fame,…

Combat proven, iconic design, superior ergonomics, thin and light. Three of these descriptors have traditionally been associated with the 1911 pistol. Ed Brown Products decided to add the last two when it created the EVO CCO9 Lightweight pistol. I’ll save you the trouble of reading this article: The pistol is a complete success. BEHOLD, PERFECTION Other companies lightened and shortened the 1911 by chopping off the barrel or cutting down the grip, but Ed Brown Products took a different approach to its new self-defense 1911 pistol, and the results are exceptional. The company built the gun around the 9mm cartridge. While the cartridge isn’t a newcomer to the platform, few companies ever build a 1911 specifically for it. Rather, companies tend to adapt a gun chambered in .45 ACP to…

It was 1984, and director Michael Mann was hard at work on a new TV show set in Miami. Mann had previously directed the James Caan film Thief, and the propmaster for that movie had outfitted a minor character with a Jackass Rig from The Famous Jackass Leather Company. Mann thought such a dramatic and photogenic holster rig would be ideal for the hero of his new show, a vice detective named Sonny Crockett, portrayed by Don Johnson. However, by the time production on Miami Vice began, Propmaster Charlie Guanci was unable to contact The Famous Jackass Leather Company. In 1980, Jackass founder Rick Gallagher had changed the company name to Galco—the Great American Leather Company—and in 1983 had moved it from Chicago to its present home in Phoenix. In desperation…

As I mentioned in the beginning of this piece, it was incredibly hard to trim my list to just five guns. I have to admit I was ultimately unable to and thus we will look at just one more gun. The gun I just could not leave off is another pistol from the master gunsmiths at Nighthawk Custom. The Nighthawk Turnbull VIP 1 is just that impressive. As one of their most exclusive models, the VIP is built as a true heirloom piece that is the result of a collaboration between Nighthawk Custom and Doug Turnbull (turnbullrestoration.com). Because of the time and skill that is required to give this 1911 its unique appearance, it is very limited in availability. This pistol is crafted with all the finest customizations, including a…

Approximately 20 million Americans now have concealed carry permits, and millions more keep handguns for home and business protection. In addition, a handgun is the basic firearm of almost every law enforcement agency in the United States. Given this large and competitive market, it’s easy to understand why ammunition companies, both here and abroad, frequently develop new and improved handgun ammunition to stay ahead of the competition. However, 2021 is a rather unusual year. Concern that the pandemic could cause social unrest, the existence of political violence in some large American cities and the possibility of more restrictive gun control legislation have combined to cause a run on ammunition in most parts of the country. The result is that most ammunition companies are back-ordered from six to 18 months, and…

Your antagonist attempts to run you over with a car or truck. Is it considered deadly force? Does it warrant your recourse to a defensive firearm? In September of 2020, in what we’ll use as Case One, prosecutors announced that they would not bring charges against a man who had shot and killed a car thief in Miami Beach, Florida, two years before. A middle-aged man named Stephen Allen Lott had taken his boss’s luxury SUV, a G-class Mercedes-Benz, to a car wash. As the vehicle emerged, now clean, Jose Antonio Reyes Bermudez, 58, jumped into it and attempted to drive it away. Lott, licensed to carry a gun, drew a pistol from his pants pocket and stood in the path of the vehicle, hoping its driver would stop. Instead,…

One of the hottest carry pistols to hit the market in the past couple of years was Sig Sauer’s P365, and by extension, the slightly larger and higher capacity P365XL. With its revolutionary magazine design, the P365 was essentially built around the magazine to be a high-capacity, micro-compact pistol that was just as easy to carry as it was to shoot. With solid ergonomics, a good sight package and excellent-for-size controls (not to mention the 10+1 capacity), the P365 series has proven to be extremely popular with concealed carriers. As good as those pistols are, and as with all other things, there was still some space left for improvement. The folks at Zev Technologies make their living by setting up shop in that kind of space to tweak aesthetics, improve…

Kimber has been around in some form or another for the last 40 years. The company has never followed a traditional path, and when it introduced a revolver a few years ago, it had a concealed hammer, making it DAO. The K6s was rather unconventional looking with an angular/squared-off appearance, and the cylinder had flats instead of flutes. The good news was that it was about the same size and just a bit heavier than a Colt Detective Special, was fashioned from stainless steel and chambered six rounds of .357 Magnum ammunition. It had a double-action mechanism that was smooth as silk, giving a very easy and controllable trigger pull. The grips (on the 3-inch version I tried) were tailor-made for my medium-sized hand. Steel three-dot sights consisted of a…

RUGER AMERICAN COMPACT CALIBER .45 ACP BARREL 3.75 inches OA LENGTH 7.25 inches WEIGHT 28.6 ounces (empty) GRIP Glass-filled nylon SIGHTS Novak Lo-Mount rear, Dot front ACTION Striker-fired FINISH Concrete Cerakote CAPACITY 7+1 USED PRICE $579 SMITH & WESSON CS45 CALIBER .45 ACP BARREL 3.25 inches OA LENGTH 6.6 inches WEIGHT 23.9 ounces (empty) GRIP Hogue wrap-around SIGHTS Novak Lo-Mount rear, Dot front ACTION DA/SA FINISH Stainless CAPACITY 6+1 USED PRICE Varies (used) Older folks like myself (I did not say elderly) tend to romanticize things from our youth and talk about how things were better back in the day. With the age of polymer-framed, striker-fired pistols squarely in our face, I often lament the bygone era of more aesthetically pleasing pistols that have a little more character and feel…

I was born in the late 1950s and grew up on a variety of detective and private eye TV shows. I’d watch in awe as my favorite gumshoe drew his snubby .38 from his shoulder holster and made an impossible shot. While some might consider the shoulder holster old fashioned, it was and is an effective carry method that takes the weight off the beltline and distributes it across the shoulders. For those constantly in and out of their chairs, like a detective, and those sitting for long hours at a time, like during a stake-out, the shoulder holster makes a lot of sense. In the mid-’80s, Miami Vice reinvigorated interest in shoulder carry, but this time with the horizontal holster. GOING FOR GALCO Galco’s Miami Classic II Horizontal Shoulder…

The FAL design is time-honored and battle-proven, originally designed at FN largely by Dieudonné Saive, the same guy who did a major part of the Hi-Power 9mm pistol development work with John Browning. The FAL in full military trim is a gas-piston, selective-fire 7.62x51mm combat rifle first introduced in 1953, and while its popularity has dwindled in modern times in favor of lighter calibers, the FAL served honorably and reliably in some 90 countries during a long service life. Today, the FAL is no longer in military production, but the banner’s been raised in the U.S. by DSA, who builds a line of quality semi-auto variants on the theme. The company currently offers five pistol versions: three with 11-inch barrels and two with 8.5-inch barrels. Of those two 8.5s, one…

When you are assigned to write a profile about someone who is a friend, it’s hard to know where to start. However, even after knowing Stan Chen for 15-plus years, I had never heard his complete story until our recent phone conversations. The “American dream” is an often used—even overused—cliché. However, it is an absolutely fitting description of Stan and his family. CHEN’S ROOTS In early 1963, Stan’s parents fled China, Mao and communism, landing in San Francisco on November 22. If that date sounds familiar, it should. It is the day that JFK was assassinated. Both his mother and stepfather went to work at Lockheed and eventually retired from there. Stan worked on his family’s small ranch in northern California. The days were hard, stringing barbed wire and doing…

CALI TRIES MAG CRUNCH…AGAIN The court case concerning California’s ban on firearm magazines holding more than 10 rounds of ammunition has taken more twists and turns than an Arkansas backroad. This spring, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals granted en banc review of the court case concerning California’s ban, which sends the case before an 11-member panel of the court. Earlier, a three-judge panel ruled that the magazine restriction violated the Second Amendment. At the time of that decision, the court majority wrote: “The record shows that such magazines are overwhelmingly owned and used for lawful purposes. This is the antithesis of unusual. That LCMs (large-capacity magazines) are commonly used today for lawful purposes ends the inquiry…” While the 9th Circuit has a strong anti-gun reputation, former President Donald Trump…

KERSHAW RANDOM LEEK BLACKWASH A new blade shape and an all-Black-Wash look bring the newest Leek to the next level. With its 3-inch blade, Kershaw’s Random Leek - BlackWash is a good-sized knife, but not too big. The reverse tanto blade shape adds durability and provides an ideal angle for cutting through boxes and other everyday jobs, while the BlackWash finish gives the Random Leek an already-broken-in look. Overall length of the assisted-opening knife is 7 inches, and it weighs just 2.9 ounces. (kershawknives.com) CAA USA MICRO CONVERSION KITS A designer, developer and distributor of modern tactical accessories and handgun conversion kits, CAA USA is expanding its Micro Conversion Kit (MCK) product line to include conversions for Glock 26/27; GLOCK 43, 43X and 48; Glock 21; and Springfield XD, XDM,…

COMPETITION IS A WONDERFUL THING! In an unrestricted market, competition ensures that consumers get the best products and services for the best price. This is especially true in the firearms industry. A good case in point is the Sig P365. Introduced in 2018, the gun possessed petite dimensions yet had a magazine that offered shooters 10 rounds of 9mm. It shot well, carried even better and retailed for what everyone thought was a fair price. Fifteen or so months later, Springfield Armory introduced the Hellcat, which they billed as the highest capacity micro-compact available—13+1 capacity with its extended mag or 11+1 with its flush fit magazine. Both of these guns did not go unnoticed by Ruger, who has just introduced their MAX-9 micro-compact that comes with a 10-round flush-fit magazine…

The race has been on for quite some time now. Gun sales are skyrocketing, and in August of 2020 sales had already eclipsed 2019’s numbers. Some reports estimate that 40 percent of new gun purchases in 2020 were by first-time buyers. There’s no sign of things slowing in 2021, either. There’s no question that new buyers are looking for concealed-carry handguns that are accurate, reliable and affordable. With its latest entry into its XD-M Elite lineup, I think Springfield Armory might have just hit the sweet spot for that market with the new XD-M Elite 3.8 Compact. THE NEXT EVOLUTION In 2020, Springfield Armory announced a new lineup of XD-M pistols known as the Elite series. Every so often, the fine folks at Springfield push their product lines forward with…

Without a doubt, most people in the firearms world have guns they dream of having. In most of those cases, the price tag attached to their dream gun can make the goal of ownership seem unattainable. For me this is especially true regarding 1911s. There are certain guns that have come across my radar that made me do a double take and drool. The mix of classic gun with modern manufacturing is the canvas for some of the finest pistolsmiths in the world. Their creations are as much art as they are functional handguns. So, without further ado, let me share with you five 1911s you should consider owning if money is no object. WILSON COMBAT LIMITED 10 NUMBER FOUR Rare is the list of high-end 1911s that does not…

No one can deny that Colt Firearms has had its ups and downs, hits and misses. However, in the past few years the company has put out some top-class work, most notably the King Cobra, the Cobra and the new Python. Now, Colt has introduced a Colt Commander that might well be the best 1911 they have offered in many years. The new Custom Carry is produced in the Custom Shop with options not found on any production 1911. According to Colt’s Mark Redl, they reached out to Colt fans on social media and asked what they would want in a dream gun. The result is the recently announced Custom Carry. It is the most feature-rich pistol that Colt has ever produced. Colt selected some of the best parts from…

Ready to add some zing to your mouse gun’s punch factor? Federal Premium might have exactly what you’re looking for. Combat Handguns recently got word that Federal is shipping us its newest Punch 22 LR ammunition. The first-of-its-kind, 29-grain, nickel-plated, lead-core bullet rides along at 1,070 fps through 2-inch-barreled handguns and 1,650 fps out of 24-inch rifle barrels. According to Federal, its projectile profile and composition are optimized for the deepest penetration through short-barreled handguns. We’ll be thoroughly testing these claims in the next issue and will have companion video online at personaldefenseworld.com.…