The Firearm Blog

This monster of a gun is manufactured by German firm WTS Waffentechnik in Suhl GmbH. While it is technically a pistol, it weights just about the same as the M1918 Browning Automatic Rifle!

The action is of a single shot design which requires the bolt to be removed in order to load another round. Two large lugs keep the bolt in place.

German gun magazine Visier are featuring the pistol in their December issue. This is a real gun, not a hoax!

Translation: "Giant Pistol"

Many thanks to Sven (Defense and Freedom) for emailing me the info about the pistol.

A strange marketing decision that is sure to lead to some confusion. From the press release ...

The new FNX 9 and FNX 40 pistols offer the key features demanded by today’s serious handgunner. New ergonomic polymer frames have a low bore axis for flat shooting and less felt recoil resulting in improved control. Deep checkered grip panels are comfortable and designed for no-slip shooting. Four interchangeable backstrap inserts quickly offer a custom fit and feel. The profiled stainless steel slide has cocking serrations front and rear, a 4” hammer-forged stainless barrel delivers long life and pinpoint accuracy. Fully ambidextrous operating controls make the FNX perfect for competition and personal defense for both right and left-handed shooters. Each FNX comes with both a decocker and manual safety making it one of the safest hammer guns on the market. Every part is proudly made in the USA.

FNP-9 is now the FNX 9

Hat Tip: Caleb @ Gun Nuts

Designed to be as inexpensive as possible, assembled from mostly stamped sheet-metal parts, the Liberator was a single shot pistol chambered for the .45 ACP cartridge the US military was using for standard handguns and submachine guns. It was so cheap that each one set the US government back only $2.40 in 1942 money. A million were made in less than three months during the darkest days of WWII, to be airdropped to Resistance fighters in enemy occupied territory.

Read about it at Hell in a Handbasket.

The short answer is “absolutely”, and the longer answer is “yes, think of it as a hot 9mm.”

Caleb, whom I sometimes think has more carry guns than I have guns, writes about the suitability of the .38 Super for self defense.

Kel-Tech have developed a new pistol which chambers the .22 Magnum (WMR) rimfire cartridge. The small size of the .22 WMR has allowed Kel-Tec to squeeze 30 rounds into the double-stacked magazine (a new original design), yet maintain a comfortable grip size.

The PMR-30 has a unique hybrid blow back / locked breech recoil system. In order to accommodate a wide range of ammunition, the pistol automatically adjusts between locked breach and blowback based on internal pressure. I look forward to seeing how this system works.

One problem with the .22 Magnum is that because it was designed as a rifle cartridge, the powder load is slow burning. This maintains high pressure in the barrel for a longer period of time. This high pressure can prevent extraction during recoil because the gas pushes out against the brass and presses it into the chamber wall. Shooting Log report that the PMR-30 has a fluted chamber to prevent this type of extraction problem. The gas enters the flutes and counterbalances the pressure against the case wall and also acts as a lubricant.¹

The PM-30's frame is aluminum. The slide and barrel are steel. Interestingly, the barrel is fluted.

Regarding the .22 Magnum performance compared to the FN 5.7x28mm round, read this article.

Oleg Volk has taken some photos of the pistol...

30 Rounds is a lot of ammo!!!!

UPDATE: Bill pointed out that the Grendel P30, which was manufactured in the early 90s, was designed by George Kellgren, the founder and chief designer at Kel-Tec. I suppose the PMR-30 is an improved P-30.

Jim Shepherd writes that Remington is entering the handgun market! From The Shooting Wire (scroll down half way) ...

The Outdoor and Shooting Wires have received- and verified the accuracy of an internal Remington memorandum that effectively answers most of a question that has been making the rounds of the industry: Is Remington getting into the handgun market?

Short answer, yes.

...

A 1911 is in first-production testing, and may be ready for introduction at SHOT Show in January.

This is incredibly interesting news! I have wondered for a long time why Remington did not seem to want a piece of the handgun market. Not wanting to be associated with "evil" handguns was my guess.

I do find the suggestion that they are going with the 1911 platform odd. While the 1911 is a very popular pistol with civilians, police departments are not adopting it. Instead they are dropping the Glock in favor of other polymer pistols like the Springfield XD and Smith & Wesson M&P pistols.

We know Remington loves military and police contracts and that they are willing to delay consumer products in order to make a grab for lucrative military contracts. The constant delays of the Bushmaster ACR are a testament to this.

So is Remington making a 1911 because they know something we do not? Will we soon be hearing about a new military competition for a .45 ACP pistol¹ ? Or are they developing a polymer 1911 or some other polymer pistol ² ?

I first learnt about the Ares Carbine from GunPundit who spotted it at SHOT Show '09. It was supposed to go one sale in the first or second quarter but nothing was seen of it since SHOT.

Tyler Kreis, the NRA's Firearms Inventory Manager, is the first to have gotten his hands on the Ares Defense Systems Ares-22 RCU and has shot a video of it in action. It looks like a very fun system.

I recently blogged about a fancy one-handed reload technique. This video demonstrates another technique, although I would be very surprised it is achievable with an unmodified handgun. The reload starts 7 seconds into the video.

Has anyone been able to do this on pistol without any modifications to the recoil assembly? On a Glock, for example, I cannot see any way to do it unless the pistol is flip completely into the air, caught just far enough down the slide that the thumb can just reach around the grip and only then, assuming big enough hands and very strong muscles, could the slide be pulled far enough back. Maybe I just have small hands ... ?

Hat Tip: Mike @ Everyday, No Day Off.

Yesterday I blogged about the trick of racking a Glock slide by using the slides' own inertia.

Sebastian has calculated the acceleration needed to achieve the trick.

This video shows a USPSA shooter load a Glock 35 and rack the slide with just one hand. He uses the inertia of the slide to rack it. It is very impressive.

The shooter claims that the Glock is stock standard and that their have been no modifications to recoil spring.

How long till we see this in an over-the-top action movie?

Many thanks to Advocate for the links and slow-mo video.

Talo is selling a special edition Colt 1911 named the Colt Ghost Commander. It is a limited edition with just 400 being manufactured.

I let y'all down! Somehow the Taurus 1911 pistols chambering 9mm Luger/Parabellum and .38 Super which were launched earlier this year slipped below my radar.

I also did not realize they were now available in stainless!

The .38 Super model is very similar to the 9mm. Both types of are also available in a blued finish.

You can browse the line of 1911's at TaurusUSA.com.

Carl Walther GmbH has filed for a patent on a mechanism which prevents a pistol being disassembled if a round is chambered. It works by using the extractor to manipulate a pin which prevents the disassembly.

Diagram from the patent.

Personally, I think all gadgets like this are unnecessary. Police departments, on the other hand, love these kind of features. That the Glock requires its trigger to be pulled on disassembly has often been cited as a reason police have switched away from the Glock in favor of its competitors.

The patent application can be viewed online at Scribd.com.

STI International recently announced that their 1911 Off Duty, Guardian and Escort pistols will be soon be available in .40 S&W. They were all previously chambered in both 9mm and .45 ACP. This is a logical move for STI as the .40 S&W nowadays is as ubiquitous as the other calibers they were offering.

STI's compact Escort