Larry Vickers’ TacTV YouTube channel has updated with an excellent series of videos on the major full-size service pistols used by the German Wehrmacht in World War II. The videos include both an overview of the handguns’ histories, as well as timed shooting trials with each. Larry’s claim, early in the first video, that viewers will learn something certainly held true for me:

The high performance of the Polish Vis pistol was notable, as is the relatively small gains of the excellent sights on the P38. Certainly, post war handgun designers knew this, too, and the handguns of the fifties through ’70s are generally amalgams of features from these four designs, and the 1911.

Though its flash can sometimes make TacTV blend in with some of the more poorly produced firearms programs out there, I have not at all been disappointed with its content. Larry’s channel is one I watch intently.