Table of contents for December/January 2025-26 in Handguns

Thoughts on Carry Reading Jack Hennessy’s article on competing with your carry gun (Speedloads, August/September) made me think of my own practices. I do compete in IDPA and GPA with a full-size SIG Sauer P320-XFive Legion or a Spectre Comp model, but I carry a P320 compact model set up the same way—the same red dot and Gas Pedal but slightly heavier tuned trigger. Shooting 600-plus rounds a month with my competition models has made me used to safely managing a light trigger, so why would I carry the same model with a heavier, stock trigger or none of the modifications on my competition guns? Other than weight and capacity, my carry gun has the exact same features I shoot all the time. It’s not necessary to compete with the…

BILL RUGER STARTED HIS COMPANY with a semiauto .22 pistol that was a huge hit, and more than 75 years later the firm is continuing to innovate with its rimfire semiautos. The Mark IV 22/45 Lite is a great example. Instead of the Nambu/Luger-inspired frame design found on the standard Mk IV, the 22/45 models mimic the 1911’s grip angle. That makes it a great trainer not just for 1911 fans but also an all-around plinking, competition or hunting gun for anyone—because the 1911’s grip rules. Just note that standard 1911 grip panels will not fit the 22/45. As a Mk IV 22/45 Lite, it’s built with an aluminum receiver and an aluminum shroud that surrounds the tensioned steel barrel. The shroud has lightening cuts that not only reduce weight…

IF YOU SIMPLY CAN’T GET ENOUGH GUNS and shooting, the My Outdoor TV (MOTV) app is a resource like no other, a curated treasure trove of firearms- and outdoor-oriented television shows and videos. For example, MOTV offers nine seasons—102 episodes—of “Handguns” (formerly “Handguns & Defensive Weapons”) alone. The show focuses primarily on personal protection and includes plenty of recreational shooting activities such as plinking and action-shooting competitions. It features reviews of the latest firearms, ammunition and shooting accessories, as well as advice on marksmanship, gun handling, self-defense techniques and a host of other handgun-related topics. But wait, there’s more! There are 10-plus seasons of the popular “Guns & Ammo” television shows, encompassing more than 200 episodes available on the app. You can also check out past episodes of shows like…

Concealable double-stack 1911s are arguably the hottest handguns out there these days. It seems everyone is making their own flavor of pistol in the 2011 style, with prices and quality ranging widely. One player in that market is Jacob Grey, a company built on the foundation of its founder’s machining prowess. The Jacob Grey Hex is a premium-priced handgun that is concealable yet highly capable. Jacob Grey, the company’s namesake, has been running CNC machining equipment since he was a nine-year-old kid and has spent most of his life in the trade of making things out of metal. In 2012 he founded Jacob Grey Precision Machining, a company serving the highly technical aerospace and defense industries. He’d long been a firearms enthusiast, and eventually Grey turned his machining expertise toward…

RUGER’S EXCELLENT GP100 TURNS 40 years old this year, and it continues to serve as one of the best all-around and most robust revolvers on the market. It’s available in standard, Super and Match Champion variants, and the newest Match Champion is chambered to the popular 10mm Auto cartridge. Because why should semiauto shooters have all the fun? A six-shot revolver, it features a 4.2-inch barrel with a half underlug. Overall length is 9.5 inches, and weight is 37 ounces. Sights include a fully adjustable white-outline rear and a green fiber-optic front set in a dovetail. The fiber-optic rod is protected by a cage that provides ample protection at the top and sides as well as at either end. The topstrap is flat, and forward of that the barrel is…

WITH THE EXPLOSION IN POPULARITY of red-dot sights, beginners and veterans alike are faced with a lot of decisions, not the least of which are how big a window and what size dot are going to suit them best—and how bright should the dot be? Windows on red-dot sights run the gamut from the large Vortex XL down to Leupold’s DeltaPoint Micro. And when it comes to dot size, some shooters believe the bigger the better, almost as if a hint of northern lights will always guide them to their dot—think Ruger’s 15 m.o.a. ReadyDot—while others prefer the tried-and-true three m.o.a. dot. But when does size matter and why? Simply put, a larger window means a greater chance of finding the dot upon drawing even if a shooter’s grip isn’t…

FIOCCHI HAS BEEN MANUFACTURING AM-munition for almost 150 years, but it wasn’t until 2025 that the company released its first defensive handgun bullet. This groundbreaking projectile will only be available in Fiocchi’s new CovertX line of handgun ammunition. The success or failure of a personal defense bullet boils down to construction. A well-designed bullet penetrates effectively but does not overpenetrate, expands reliably and is effectively “barrier blind” so it will perform well on FBI protocol tests. But building a bullet that does all this and is accurate, affordable and easy to manufacture at scale is no mean feat. Fiocchi began with a premium copper jacket and added a lead core—a pretty common recipe for a jacketed hollowpoint bullet design. However, there are some notable differences between CovertX bullets and other…

Rost Martin quickly established itself as a legitimate contender in the packed polymer-frame, striker-fired 9mm pistol market. That’s no easy feat, but its inaugural pistol, the RM1C, was no ordinary semiauto either. As a friend pointed out after picking it up, it feels like a Glock 19 that’s been customized for improved ergonomics. Although considered a compact, the RM1C isn’t small by today’s standards, and many people are opting for smaller pistols that are easier to conceal and more comfortable to carry, while still maintaining a respectable magazine capacity. The new Rost Martin RM1S is designed to stand out in this extremely competitive space. With a 3.6-inch barrel, it’s smaller—about a half-inch shorter and more than an ounce lighter—than the RM1C but still delivers 12+1 and 15+1 capacity. The downside…

Girsan of Turkey has been producing some very desirable guns of late. Its Browning Hi-Power clones have earned high praise—certainly from me, since I recently bought one I’d tested. The company’s 1911 pistols offer high quality at a reasonable price as well. But of all Girsan’s offerings, perhaps the most interesting is the MC 14 line of tip-up barrel pistols. And its newest version—the MC 14T X Solution in .380—offers features never before available on a tilt-barrel handgun. Firearms enthusiasts will immediately recognize the profile of the MC 14 as similar to Beretta’s popular tip-up pistols. While it wasn’t the first tip-up, the first such gun to gain mainstream acceptance and market success was the Beretta 950 Jetfire from 1952. It was a compact semiauto carry pistol that had a…

IF THE ONLY THING SMITH & WESSON HAD changed with the new Performance Center Bodyguard 2.0 Carry Comp was the addition of a compensator, I wouldn’t have been as impressed as I am with it. Yes, it jumps on the compensator bandwagon, but changes to the slide and the sights are almost just as big a deal. This new Performance Center version of the Bodyguard 2.0 has an overall length of less than six inches, a weight of just under 12 ounces and a 0.9-inch width. Those dimensions make it a third of an inch longer than the standard Bodyguard 2.0, thanks to the 3.1-inch ported Carry Comp barrel; the standard 2.0’s barrel is 2.75 inches. With its longer barrel, the Performance Center gun is two ounces heavier. The gun…

FEW GUNS ARE ACTUALLY CUTE—PER-haps a Baby Browning or the Taurus PT22 qualifies—but the Rossi Princess is a cute gun. Manufactured long before Taurus purchased Rossi, it was popular in its day. The seven-shot .22 Rossi Princess was sometimes referred to as a Rossi Ladysmith, as it is clearly a clone of the Smith & Wesson Ladysmith. The Rossi was manufactured from 1965-69, but its importation was largely curtailed by the Gun Control Act of 1968 thanks to its two-inch barrel. The Princess is indeed a small revolver at six inches long and 3.75 inches tall, and it weighs only 11 ounces. It features a bright nickel finish that on my sample has worn well. Blued Princesses exist but seem rare, as are barrel lengths of three and four inches.…

AT THE HEART OF DEFENSIVE HANDGUN-ning is the balancing of speed and accuracy. If you’ve been shooting for a while, you’ve probably heard the saying, “You can’t miss fast enough to win a gunfight.” While true, that sentiment doesn’t account for the fact that it’s also possible to shoot too slowly to win a gunfight. It’s important to know how fast you’re capable of hitting your target. That will depend on such factors as the size of the target and the immediacy of the threat. Skill level plays a pivotal role as well, but unlike target size and immediacy of the threat, it’s something you have a say in. Having learned to shoot in the police academy, I was taught to maximize my chances of hitting the target, and that…

Collaborations are currently quite popular in the firearms industry. Ruger teamed up with Magpul to introduce the RXM pistol while Glock and Aimpoint paired up for the COA red-dot optic and the A-Cut system. The new Fueled Prodigy 4.25 from Ed Brown is another collaboration, one that takes Springfield’s Prodigy 4.25-inch double-stack 9mm 1911 and adds a number of significant upgrades normally available only on Ed Brown custom 1911s. The resulting pistol is reliable, accurate and easy to shoot, and it might be the most versatile duty/defense 9mm 1911 available today. This is not the first time Ed Brown has collaborated with a major manufacturer to develop a Fueled-series pistol. In 2019 Ed Brown offered the Fueled M&P, which I reviewed for Handguns, and while that union resulted in one…

In 1985, the U.S. military made a decision that deeply divided the handgun world. The move to adopt the double-action/single-action Beretta 92 handgun to replace the mighty single-action 1911A1 as its official sidearm forced shooters to recognize the DA/SA semiautomatic handgun as a mainstream option for duty, defensive and sporting use. Some shooters never got over that. The Beretta, which wasn’t well-known to civilians at the time, became one of the most successful handguns of all time thanks to its military endorsement. Virtually overnight, the Beretta effectively converted the single-action handgun market into one dominated by double actions. In an ironic twist, 40 years later Beretta has gone back to the system it replaced by introducing the competition-minded single-action Beretta 92XI SAO Sabbia. For as long as double-action/single-action handguns have…

EVERY SHOOTER I KNOW HAS HIS OR HER favorite handgun, but regardless of type, I’ve noted that more and more folks value the established and older designs. So they should be happy about the new Model 19 Classic from Smith & Wesson. Lacking an internal lock, this reintroduction brings the gun back to its roots. As the story goes, in 1954 S&W president Mr. Carl Hellstrom asked well-respected handgunner Bill Jordan, who was employed with Border Patrol, what he thought would be the ideal law enforcement handgun. Jordan proposed a K frame with a four-inch barrel and ejector shroud. He also suggested target grips and target sights and, best of all, a .357 Magnum chambering—a first for a gun as relatively small as the K frame. The resulting gun was…