Table of contents for February/March 2023 in Handguns

A Model 27 Alternative Enjoyed Trzoniec’s piece on the S&W Model 27. Love those old N frames. For those not ready to pay big money for a 27, may I suggest a Model 28? It was the unpolished version of the 27. Known as the Highway Patrolman, the 28 was carried by a lot of cops—carried a lot and fired infrequently. I bought mine from a retired sheriff’s deputy. The finish is rough, but the action is a smooth as new. JOHN SCHROEDER, WISCONSIN The More You Know I read with great interest your article on the Colt 357 in the October/November issue. I have a vintage 1966 Colt Trooper with a six-inch barrel. Your article and picture of the 357 looks very much like mine, except for the barrel…

DESIGNED BY ARMY ORDNANCE MAJ. Elbert Hamilton Searle under patents issued to him in 1905, the first Savage .32 ACP guns were designated the M1907. Collectors will find at least 12 variations thereafter. They all featured Searle’s locking system. He used the torque of the bullet going through the rifling to slow the rotation and unlocking of the barrel lug a bit—enabling the recoiling parts to be made two ounces lighter than on a pure blowback-operated gun. He also used this system on his .45 automatic that competed with Colt in the Army trials that led to the M1911 being adopted. It was available in both .32 and .380. The former fed from a double-column, single-position-feed 10-round magazine, providing a lot of firepower out of a gun that was just…

IN AN ISSUE OF HANDGUNS A COUPLE years ago, I wrote about the best concealed-carry holsters and garments designed for runners. That article led me to try just about every popular product available at the time for carrying a concealed firearm while exercising. The clearest takeaway was this: Those who wanted to carry a gun comfortably while running had limited options. Alexo Athletica is seeking to change that. The company is the product of one woman’s desire to design athletic clothing that is comfortable enough to wear while exercising yet offers a stable, secure place to store a firearm. Several years ago, while training for a marathon, founder Amy Robbins discovered what many other CCW permit holders have found out along the way: You can either exercise comfortably or exercise…

Just when you think that Springfield’s XD family of semiautos is complete, a new addition arrives. The latest member of the XD clan is the XD-M OSP Elite 4.5-inch 10mm Auto with a Hex Dragonfly optic. Even though the most obvious use for such a pistol is for defense against the largest predators, the XD-M 10mm is a surprisingly versatile firearm. Sure, it gives you a fighting chance against an irate griz, but this 10mm is also suitable for self-defense. And it’s just plain fun to shoot. Not all 10mms fall in the “fun to shoot” category, but the XD-M 4.5 Elite OSP is an exception. The architecture that underpins this pistol is nothing particularly new for Springfield. It’s based on HS Produkt’s series of polymer-frame pistols that have been…

WITH SO MANY NEW MICRO 9MM PIS-tols on the market it can be difficult to choose which gun is right for you, but one pistol that caught the attention of lots of folks was the Taurus GX4. The gun was a success right out of the gate, and it didn’t take long for the GX4 family to grow—figuratively and literally. The GX4 XL, the newest member of the GX4 line, comes with a 3.7-inch barrel. That’s considerably longer than the 3.06-inch barrel on the standard GX4, but at 6.05 inches long, the new XL version of the GX4 is hardly difficult to conceal, and the extra barrel length is designed to extend the sight radius and help control muzzle rise. Width stays the same at 1.08 inches, so the XL…

RED DOTS ARE A BIG THING THESE DAYS. But many shooters have questions about whether a dot sight is right for them or unsure about what they need to consider when looking for one. Here are some considerations. Should You Get One? Red dots simplify the aiming process and permit a target focus. Rather than trying to align rear sight and front sight and place that proper alignment on the target—while maintaining focus on the front sight—a red dot allows you to just paste the dot on the target and fire. Plus red dots can be a godsend for aging eyes that have lost or are losing the ability to shoot irons well. But nothing comes for free. Red dots can be slower to use because you have to find…

THE FIRST SIX OF THE WIDELY ACKNOWLedged fundamentals of marksmanship—stance, grip, sight alignment, sight picture, trigger control and breath control—are relatively straightforward. But the seventh and final fundamental, follow-through, isn’t as easily understood and therefore tends to be deempha-sized. Since it occurs after the shot is fired, many view follow-through as merely an afterthought. However, follow-through matters. In armed conflict, lack of follow-through may cause you to miss your adversary, fail to stop him or fail to detect an additional deadly threat. There are two components to follow-through: mechanical and mental. Mechanical follow-through means ensuring your gun is ready to fire another shot. This entails resetting the trigger and reacquiring your sights. If your gun is empty, mechanical follow-through encompasses reloading. If your gun has malfunctioned, follow-through mandates you clear…

The SIG Sauer P320 is arguably the most successful striker-fired design the U.S. market has seen in the past decade. After all, a gun doesn’t get chosen to replace a longstanding U.S. service pistol—as the P320, in its M17 and M18 guises, did in 2017 when it supplanted the Beretta 92/M9—if it doesn’t have a lot going for it. And it’s particularly impressive when you realize the P320 was SIG’s first striker-fired pistol. The P320 is currently available in two dozen configurations, with about every feature you could think of. But what if none of these is exactly what you are looking for? SIG has a solution for that: Build your own, through its concierge service. SIG kindly extended an offer for Handguns to do exactly that, and the resulting…

FOR SMALL GAME HUNTING, SURVIVAL, plinking or just good ol’ target shooting, while still offering some personal protection, a good .22 rimfire revolver is a good bet. While there are plenty on the market today to satisfy most shooters, occasionally one comes along that just says, “Buy me!” The new nine-shot stainless revolver from Rock Island Armory is one such gun. From its clean lines to its fine fit and finish, the gun has the feel and heft of a larger gun. And it should, as it’s built on the same frame as its .357 Magnum cousin. In fact, in its overall profile, it reminds me of the semi-custom guns of years past when gunsmiths combined the fine shooting qualities of the Colt Python barrels with a Smith & Wesson…

VIRIDIAN WEAPON TECHNOLOGY’S RFX 15 reflex sight is light, strong and versatile. Sturdy enough for powerful defensive pistols, it is perfectly at home on rifles and rimfires as well. The three-m.o.a. green dot is easy on the eyes, easy to pick up and small enough for precision shots. The dot fits comfortably inside a Birchwood Casey two-inch Shoot-N-C bullseye at 15 yards. Designed for pistol slides with the Shield RMS footprint, it also comes with a Picatinny base. This sight doesn’t dominate the Ruger 22/45 Lite I mounted it on or mess with the balance as did older tin-can red-dot sights. The RFX 15’s three-m.o.a. dot appears in a 17x24mm window (roughly 5/8 inch high by 15/16 inch wide) and runs on one CR2032 battery. From sight base to window…

SPRINGFIELD HELLCAT COLORS If you like the Hellcat but want one with a little pizzazz, Springfield has you covered with a new robin’s egg frame with a stainless slide and a bronze Cerakote slide with a black frame. The robin’s egg/stainless is offered in the standard Hellcat as well as the optic-cut OSP and the Pro, the latter featuring a longer 3.7-inch barrel and 15-round standard-capacity magazine. The bronze/black is offered in OSP and Pro versions. The standard and OSP versions come with an 11-round and an extended 13-round magazine. {$635–$677, SPRINGFIELD-ARMORY.COM} STEINER MPS The Micro Pistol Sight (MPS) from Steiner is an enclosed red dot built on an all-metal housing, and its sealed emitter can withstand submersion down to 10 meters. It features a 3.3-m.o.a. dot powered by a…

Thanks to the widespread use of polymer and aluminum in their construction, modern handguns have become lighter than ever. Lighter is always better, right? Well, not always. Lighter guns are certainly more comfortable to carry, but they’re not always an asset when it comes to putting rounds on target. The fact is that, within reason, heavier guns are more forgiving to shoot than lighter ones. It’s pure physics. Simply adding weight to a handgun can reduce felt recoil and muzzle rise and result in faster hits, and for those who value shoot-ability over portability, Smith & Wesson has developed the M&P9 M2.0 Metal Series handgun. This steel and aluminum-frame handgun combines the best elements of a modern striker-fired handgun with metal construction. The Smith & Wesson M&P has been one…

There’s no more cramped segment of the firearms market than striker-fired 9mm pistols. It seems every gun manufacturer has launched one, and sorting through the varied makes and models and all their overlapping features can be a chore. Why, then, am I excited about Shadow Systems’ new Foundation Series line of pistols? For starters, even though these guns are entry priced by Shadow Systems standards, they’re still packed with features you won’t find on most $600 striker guns. To understand what makes Shadow Systems guns different from other brands, you must first understand what makes Shadow Systems different than other gun manufacturers. The company was founded in Plano, Texas, in 2016 by Trevor Roe, who might be the most qualified person on Earth to design his own line of handguns.…

SO-CALLED “POCKET GUNS” CAN BE mighty handy, and one that has recently crossed my desk is a cleverly designed single action handgun made by Heritage Manufacturing of Bainbridge, Georgia. Called the Barkeep Boot, this downsized gun chambered for the .22 Long Rifle may be just the answer for pocket or purse. With its one-inch barrel it checks in at under two pounds with an overall length of a curt 6.5 inches. On this particular model, the round butt features a custom-engraved “snake” laminated grip; plain black or gray pearl grips are available as well. With this type of grip, I found it much easier to cock the gun because the hammer was in comfortable reach of the thumb. The hammer is stainless, finished bright and serrated. The smooth trigger gave…