#Handgun

Brazil’s premier small arms manufacturer is in hot water: Two former executives of Forjas Taurus SA have been served with charges of arms trafficking by the Brazilian government. The executives, Eduardo Pezzuol and Leonardo Sperry, allegedly negotiated deals to ship 8,000 handguns to Fares Mohammed Hassan Mana’a, a Yemeni arms trafficker active in Africa. Reuters reports:

During World War Two the American Office of Strategic Services (OSS) was known as a sort of lost child and wonder lab among all the war efforts. I mean compared to the 101st jumping into Normandy, operations that the OSS were interested in were very hard to be seen as tangibly successful to the overall war effort. Even the head and founder of the organization, General. William “Wild Bill” Donovan was considered off the wall by the establishment. I mean, this is the guy who walked into FDR’s Oval Office in the White House, unloaded an entire magazine from the newly designed .22 LR High Standard suppressed handgun into a a sandbag that he had brought, then essentially asked the President of the United States if he had heard any of the discharges just yards behind him while on the phone. Just to prove how quiet their new handgun was.

On the heels of the new FBI-inspired Glock 17M, and the possibility of the fifth Glock generation being right around the corner, it has been revealed that Smith & Wesson may also be about to introduce an update to its very successful Glock-derived Military & Police line of handguns. The company has recently trademarked the term “M2.0” in the category of bags and accessories, and according to soldiersystems.net this is in preparation for a launch of a new handgun line:

The 1911 wizards at Wilson Combat have come up with another handgun for your consideration. Called the X-Tac Elite, the new pistols are available in full and compact sizes and any of three different calibers: .45 ACP, 9mm and .38 Super.

CCI, popular manufacturer of high performance rimfire rounds, announced a new product line of centerfire handgun shotshells called the Big Four. As the name Big Four suggests, these are loaded with #4 shot.

In a previous article on TFB, we compared a Mauser 712 Schnellfeuer to a Glock 17 with an auto sear, and along the way discussed how very limited the usefulness of the modern machine pistol is. Fully automatic pistol-sized weapons have been around for over a hundred years, but they’ve only ever seen limited use in specialist roles, with their adoption and then subsequent abandonment coming seemingly in waves as departments and forces pick up the concept and then discard it upon learning how impractical the weapons are in actual use. The history of machine pistols is fascinating, and those who are interested can follow the link to a podcast I participated in on the subject to learn more.

Back in May, Chris Baker released these three videos on DA/SA handguns for the LuckyGunner YouTube channel. They are all of the same high standard of quality I’ve come to expect from Chris, so I recommend my readers watch all three of them before continuing:

Pistol shooting has never been my strong suit. I have always cottoned more to gravelbelly-style traditional American marksmanship than I have to running and gunning with a fantastic plastic piece. Pistol day for me has always been more on the side of a chore I undertake to keep my skills up to par with the weapon I’m statistically most likely to use, rather than my favorite time at the range. I’m sure many of my readers feel exactly the opposite way, and that’s great; it would be boring if everyone was enthusiastic about the same things in our hobby.

Magnum Research announced an upgrade to the BFR line. BFR, which ostensibly stands for Big Frame Revolver, is the company’s line of single action wheel guns. Some of these guns are chambered in seriously powerful cartridges for handguns including the .30-30 Win, .500 S&W Magnum and .45-70 Govt.

One of the common questions seen in hunting groups on social media is some variation on asking what caliber is best for X animal. It pops up everywhere and instantly results in dozens of opinions, all backed by the commenter’s claim of extensive knowledge and unbelievable experiencing bagging Boone and Crockett deer or Bigfoot. Here’s the thing about the perfect round: it doesn’t exist. Now, before you race to the comments section to explain how I’m wrong and clearly don’t know which end of the gun goes “boom,” allow me to explain.

American Tactical officially announced the German Sports Guns (GSG) FireFly pistol introduction into the United States market.

In the first post of the 101 level series on firearms operating systems, we briefly described what the word cycle means in terms of the operation of automatic firearms. However, there’s a lot more to the cycle of an automatic firearm than just the completion of one round of firing, so let’s take the time to explore the concept a little more deeply.

According to sources at the Eurosatory exposition in Paris, France, the Russian Army has nearly completed tests on the new pistol design likely to be adopted to replace the 9x18mm PMM Makarov and 9x19mm PYa Yargin pistols currently in service. The Udav (Russian for “Boa”) pistol is based on the previous Serdyukov SR-1 “Gyurka” (the Russian name for a kind of desert viper), and like it is chambered for the Russian 9x21mm armor-piercing caliber, what was developed for it. This means that at least for a time the Russian Army will be fielding no less than three 9mm calibers (x18, x19, and x21), until the Udav can replace the other two pistols entirely. According to IHS Jane’s:

Wilson Combat announced a new high end 1911 handgun designed with concealed carry in mind. Say hello to the Ultralight Carry Professional.

Previously in our introductory series on ballistics, we’ve discussed the concept of caliber, as well as ballistic coefficient and its close relative form factor. Today, we’re going to look at the concept of rifling, and how it relates to bullet stability.