Innehållsförteckning för August 2018 från Guns & Ammo

DOUBLE PINFIRE PISTOL Q: I purchased an old gun cabinet at an estate sale. While going through it, I found a double-barrel 6mm pinfire. Can you tell me who manufactured it, when and possibly the value of it? J.P. Email A: Most of the double-barrel pinfire pistols one comes across are cheap tourist junk, a good bit of them put together in Spain. Their poor workmanship is a dead tipoff. Your little pistol is another matter, however. Though somewhat pitted, it is very nicely made and engraved. The pearl grips also indicate a reasonable degree of quality. I can’t see any proofmarks in your photos, but I’ll bet the piece is Belgian, probably made circa 1870 to ‘80. Because of the poor condition, the value is somewhat diminished. I’d…

FROM THE EARLIEST DAYS of Col. Jeff Cooper’s Modern Technique, we’ve been taught that stance (Jack Weaver’s stance, of course) was the foundational concept that everything is built on. But is it? This is not a column pitting the Weaver stance against the Isosceles stance. It’s been debated to death, and as far as actual armed confrontations are won, it is irrelevant in my opinion. Before we go on, let’s first discuss what a gunfight actually is. A gunfight is an armed (with guns) encounter between two or more people who are shooting at and trying to kill the other person. There are many armed encounters that do not meet this criteria. They are called shootings. Like most children of the 1980s, I began my shooting career as a student…

ACCURACY KILLERS RATHER THAN DISCUSS how many shots per group there should be or how many groups are required to really know how well a rifle performs, I wanted to pass along a few things I’ve learned over the last few years of gun-wrasslin’ on how to get a rifle to shoot to its potential. I hope that you might learn a little faster than I did, knowing some of the mistakes I made. Getting the best out of a rifle has been an ongoing learning experience for me. No matter where I am on this journey, I remember that good rifle performance starts with building a good position. It isn’t as easy as it might seem and there are many considerations. Rest Be Wary My first recommendation is to…

Former reloading contributor, Dr. Ralph C. Glaze, explored the merits of adding longer barrels to both revolvers and semiautomatics in his feature “Long Tom Handguns.” Working with Jim Hoag, champion pistol shooter and master pistolsmith, Glaze experimented with a 10-inch bull barrel on a S&W M29 .44 Magnum and an 11 -inch barrel and slide on a Colt Gold Cup .45. With the Colt, the author fired 2-inch groups at 25 yards from a sandbag rest. They also developed a four-in-one combo of match barrels for Colt’s 1911.…

A spectacular four-gun set by master Versailles gunmaker Nicholas Boutet sold for an impressive $80,500 at the March 21, 2018, James D. Julia Auction. The assemblage, made circa 1810, consists of a pair of large dueling-style pistols and a brace of smaller greatcoat guns. Heavily engraved and embellished with gold and silver and exquisitely housed in a green velvet-lined mahogany and ebony casing, the guns – originally flintlock – were skillfully converted to percussion at some later point in their history. Appropriately, they are styled in the French fashion. They are in unfired condition and retain virtually all of their blue, gold and silver decoration. For more information about this and future sales, contact James D. Julia, Inc. (now a division of Morphy Auctions) at info@jamesdjulia.com ,…

LOOKING AT THE ADVERTISEMENT, two points drew my attention to DeSantis’ Slim-Tuk inside-the-waistband (IWB) holster: the price and the clip. The suggested price is a penny under $40, but I suppose writing it “$39.99” makes readers feel like they’re saving something akin to $10 rather than 1 cent. Still, two $20s isn’t much to give for a Kydex holster these days if it fits your pistol well, supports quick presentations and carries comfortably. Especially if it lasts a lifetime. At Guns & Ammo, we’re skeptics when it comes to holsters sent in with plastic clips. We’ve broken our fair share during our long-term evaluations, and I’ve managed to extract a few holsters when drawing a pistol because the hook on the usual J-shape doesn’t fully wrap around the bottom of…

DURING TRAINING COURSES, I’m always amazed to see some of the gear that is and isn’t available to the individual who decides to carry a gun at night. We each have our favorites, but what befuddles us is what isn’t coming from tactical light companies. In reality, we should all be ready to engage threats at night. That’s obviously not an earth-shattering statement, but here I am writing about it after seeing what happens when the lights go out. Rules of Light Let’s start with the basics. First, we should all agree that we need to have a light on our person at all times. We must also have a light that will work for shooting if the need arises. To shoot fast and accurately without worrying about having a…

REX HOETS is a professional hunter (PH) in Zimbabwe. Nearly 100 years ago, his grandfather Cornelius Southey stalked what was then called Southern Rhodesia. Southey experienced success working as a mine manager, and black-and-white photos show him posing with Africa’s most impressive animals. Hanging on Hoet’s covered patio wall are black rhino, a pair of lions and a very old “Dagga boy” Cape buffalo. I spent an evening with Hoets and his family learning the stories of his heritage and went with him to meet an old friend near Harare who owned a rifle like the one used by his grandfather — a Westley Richards bolt action chambered for the unusual .425 Westley Richards (WR) cartridge. Invented by Leslie Taylor of Westley Richards in Birmingham, England, and introduced in 1909,…

The Movie: The Outlaw Josey Wales, 1976 The Gun: Reproduction Colt Walker One of the most iconic images in western films is that of actor Clint Eastwood as the eponymous protagonist of “The Outlaw Josey Wales,” brandishing a Colt Walker revolver in each hand, on either side of his head, and grimacing directly at the viewer. In fact, there were nine reproduction Walkers used in the film. These guns were obtained from Hollywood prop houses Ellis Mercantile and Stembridge Gun Rentals. Some were converted to shoot blanks and two were left in their original percussion configuration for close-ups. The example seen here, manufactured in Italy by Replica Arms in 1962 and originally obtained from Ellis, is one of these. Sometime after the film was made, the gun was converted to…

CONSUMERS HAVE BEEN ASKING for a professional-quality, flush-fit white light to mount on compact pistols for some time. Several manufacturers have attempted to answer this call, but none have gotten it right until now. Meet Streamlight’s new TLR-7 and TLR-8. With the introduction of the TLR-7 and -8, Streamlight has made it easier to carry concealed, especially when carrying inside the waistband (IWB). The new models help continue the streak of success that the company has been on since its TLR-1 and TLR-2 pistol lights. With the new offerings, the lens will not extend beyond the front of the muzzle of a Glock 19 or similarly sized compact pistols. Guns & Ammo’s staff are fans of the TLR-1, but have at times found it challenging to conceal, especially when wearing…

WITH THE INCREASE IN INTEREST in long-range shooting, the terms extreme spread (ES) and standard deviation (SD) are being thrown around a lot. What exactly is ES and SD? More importantly, should you really care about them? And what do they mean to the expected performance of your ammunition? I will offer some definitions and examples for the first question and the answer to the second question depends on whether you are a handgunner or rifleman, a plinker or a precision shooter. First off, let’s discuss the definition of ES and SD.ES and SD are mathematical terms that define the extremes, uniformity and expected variation in a sample of data or numbers. ES is pretty simple, it is the extremes of values of a set of data or numbers. As…