Table of contents for November - December 2023 in Combat Handguns

As sizzling summer ’23 winds down, CH content creators are putting on the afterburners. We are covering the gamut of firepower for everyday concealed carry, LE duty, sporting purposes, and everything in between. Headlining the issue is a pair of winners from two of America’s most trusted and relied-upon makers. First is Springfield Armory, with its just-released Echelon series 9mm duty pistol. Garrett Lucas and his evaluation team ran the “modular to the max” handgun and experienced upper Echelon results. Next, FN America clearly has no plans of being left out of the micro-compact, EDC market mania. Welcome to the Great Reflex! Comfort, reliability, 15+1 capacity, red-dot ready and a sub $700 price point… What’s not to love about this FN gun? Be sure to watch the companion video by…

Bobby Tyler, of Tyler Gun Works, may have designed what is the perfect gun h for the rancher, hunter, farmer or outdoorsman. Based on a Ruger Vaquero and chambered for the .45 Colt r cartridge, Tyler’s modifications to create the Featherweight include aa lightweight frame to make the gun comfortable for the workingman to carry. But it doesn’t end there. The six-gun is given Tyler’s extraordinary action and accuracy packages and combined with some upgraded parts and cosmetic enhancements, makes the Featherweight a gun worthy of envy! I recently had the opportunity to interview Tyler at an event at Gunsite. “I wanted a ranch gun that I could wear all day without beating myself up,” Tyler said. “It needed to be in a serious caliber to take care of everything…

JOHN M. BROWNING began development of what would become the GP35 (Grand Puissance) pistol in response to specifications from the French military for a new service handgun. Browning died in 1926, but his design was carried to fruition in 1935 by FN in Belgium, and the 9mm Browning Hi-Power (P35) became one of the most successful pistols in the world. It was adopted as the sidearm of dozens of armies and police forces around the globe and was a favorite with civilian shooters. After 82 years of continuous production, FN decided in early 2018 to discontinue the Hi-Power. When that happened, instead of demand going down, it shot up like a rocket, and prices for used Browning P35s headed for the ceiling. Almost immediately, foreign and domestic clones of the…

Evaluating firearms might just be the best job in the world. Being paid to shoot and then tell the tale is about as fun as it sounds; however, make no mistake, some days it is indeed work. I recall a day when I had to bench-test a compact .460 S&W revolver and eventually build a handload for it. This particular firearm was intended for backcountry grizzly bear defense, not target work, not even regular hunting. Therefore, pressing the trigger was not pleasant. With each shot, the recoil seemed to get worse, especially because my body had nowhere to go. It got to the point where I was single loading it because it was that hard to maintain a grip, and I was worried that, albeit briefly, I was looking down…

On June 23, 2022, the U.S. Supreme Court announced its landmark decision in the lawsuit New York State Rifle & Pistol Association vs. Bruen, shocking many on the anti-gun side of the equation and thrilling Second Amendment advocates from sea to shining sea. At the time of this writing, the decision is quickly approaching its one-year anniversary, and the number of things that have changed for American gun owners because of the ruling—all for the better, I might add—is almost unbelievable! WHAT BRUEN DID Up for debate in the case was whether the Second Amendment protected the right of everyday Americans to carry a firearm outside of the home for protection of self and others. Cynical New York State politicians had, over the years, made getting a carry permit nearly…

THE PROBLEM:unauthorized people getting their hands on other people’s loaded guns that were kept originally for self-defense. The solution: more complicated than the problem. Case One: Virginia, 2023. The mother of a very troubled and violent 6-year-old boy leaves her Taurus 9mm pistol where the child can reach it. The boy takes it to school and shoots his teacher, wounding her seriously. The mother is facing criminal charges at this writing. The charges are “‘felony child neglect and misdemeanor recklessly leaving a loaded firearm as to endanger a child.” Cases Two and Three: CNN reported in 2023, “‘A woman in Pennsylvania and a man in North Carolina were charged this week after a six-year-old in each case brought a gun to school.” One solution is “Keep those guns securely under lock…

5.11 TACTICAL SKYWEIGHT PACK SERIES If you are going to be out and about, keep all your needed gear close at hand with the Skyweight series of backpacks and chest packs. Designed for lightweight modularity and custom fitting, this gear will be at home on any outdoor adventure. Coming in either 24- or 36-liter sizes, the Skyweight Pack gives all-day comfort with its padded back panels with airflow channels, load lifters, lumbar pads and padded shoulder harnesses with adjustable sternum straps The Skyweight Utility Chest Pack and Survival Chest Pack offer additional load-bearing options with easy access while mounted to the chest. The unique design of the chest packs features removable chest harnesses and rear pass-through ports to allow for hip carry as well. The harnesses are adjustable and breathable, delivering…

After a long day of carrying your CCW gun IWB, you may need a break before starting your drive home. Mission First Tactical has come up with a great idea that allows you to take your IWB holstered gun off and clip it onto its Multi-Mount Platform. It features a 1.5-inch polymer strip to attach the holster clips to, and the platform can be wedged into a car’s console or a bed’s frame. The Multi-Mount Platform comes with a piece of adhesive back hook, which can be adhered to the back of the mount’s wedge-shaped backing and will securely attach to the Velcro loop that we often see inside and out of backpacks and sling bags. MFT also includes a 3M adhesive in the event you want to attach the…

The 10mm round has suddenly seen a whole lot of love in 2023 with the release or revamp of several offerings chambered for 10mm. Personally, I love it because I absolutely love the 10mm round and pretty much anything that I have ever shot chambered in it. That said, I honestly was not a huge fan of the M2.0 10mm pistol that S&W released originally in 2021. Not that it was a bad pistol, however for me, it just didn’t feel great in my hands, and I never shot it very well. I wanted to like it, but it just never did it for me. So, when I saw that S&W was coming out with a variant from the Performance Center, I didn’t really get that excited. I figured they…

Regardless of how you feel about her, America is the most fortunate country in the world. Whatever the resource in question, it is safe to say that we have it in excess. This notion is so ingrained in our society that it has created trends. We don’t need 750-horsepower cars, six-bedroom homes or a walk-in pantry full of junk food, but nonetheless, these items are all highly desirable, and we are willing to put in the work to get them. Why do we do this? Well, if you’ll allow me to share my limited experience with luxury, it’s because of the feeling you get when you are enjoying these items. It goes beyond the experience; the feeling resonates from a thorough understanding that you’ve set and met your goal. The…

In 1985, I received an exotic, modified 6-inch S&W K-38 revolver from the Phillips and Rodgers Company in Texas. What was different about the gun was its special smooth, round cylinder, still in the white with no flutes, but that wasn’t all. This gun’s cylinder would accept virtually every 9mm and .38-caliber handgun cartridge in the world. The list included .38 S&W, .38 Short Colt, .38 Long Colt, .38 Special, .357 Magnum, .380, 9x19, 9mm Ultra, 9mm Bayard Long, 9mm Styer, 9x23 Winchester, .356 TSW, .38 Super. .38 TJ, 9mm Winchester Magnum and more. How is this possible? The chambers of this revolver were like no other. I described the drawing as three chambers within a chamber with all six chambers able to be loaded with any of the above,…

There is a formation in the military that has men or vehicles staggered diagonally with one element behind and slightly offset to the one in front. The name of this formation is echelon with a general meaning of rank, level or tier. This is an appropriate name for Springfield Armory’s newest pistol designed for duty or service use. With a host of innovations and patent-pendingending design implementations, the Echelon is Springfield’s next evolutionary step in the world of hard-use service pistols and is the culmination of the company’s experiencee designing and manufacturing striker-fired pistols. A NEW PARADIGM From the outset, the Echelon was intended to be a go-to service pistol that just got everything right. There was a particular focus on important aspects such as grip texturing, the optics mounting…

One of the hottest firearms trends in the past few years has been the proliferation of Glock-style pistols that either have improved features or offer strong value for the money. Usually, a manufacturer targets a specific segment and decides whether it’s going after the budget-oriented consumer or the buyer that’s looking for an upgrade. Every now and then, a company will swing for the fences and decide to try and capture both segments in one fell swoop. This is exactly what Anderson Manufacturing appears to be attempting with the new Kiger-9c Pro. Known for its prolific production of value-oriented AR receivers and rifles, Anderson recently got into the pistol market with its Kiger 9c, a G19-pattern pistol with a 15+1 capacity. It didn’t take long, however, for the company to…

Of all the firearms platforms at our disposal, the handgun poses the greatest challenge in accuracy. In short, it takes a lot to be super accurate with a handgun. It has a short sight radius, we only have two points of contact on the gun and then there is the trigger. In most factory guns, the trigger pull is almost two times the actual weight of the gun. Add to that the fact that most factory triggers can be less than stellar, and we have a real issue. The solution is to change the trigger to something more shooter friendly. The handgun market is awash with aftermarket trigger options. Some are great and some are less so. One that lands in the great category is the RAMM Tactical Leverage Trigger…

Bipods built to the same tolerances as receivers? That’s Accu-Tac. The FC-4 G2 is milled from the same aircraft-grade aluminum used to make AR-15s and offers F-class and other precision shooters that rare combination of rock-steadiness and adjustability. With a simple pull and swing motion, the legs can be set to four different positions while allowing the rifle to tilt, pan and cant. Adjusting the height is also equally smooth and fast. I like this design because its wide stance and unique mounting hardware take the firearm off the top of the “A,” delivering stability that has never been seen before from a bipod. This offers immensely fast recoil recovery and your best chance of spotting your impacts. Available in either Picatinny or ARCA, it can easily be added to…