#Handguns

This video came out in 2012, so it has been out for a while, but this is the first time I’ve come across it. I can’t find much information about it, other than it is called the “Thunder” and appears to have been made by a company called Triple Action LLC, which is an FFL based out of Logan, Utah. The project must have been a local gunsmith put together without any serial production. It must have been created as an attempt to say, “Why not?”, along the lines of the AK50 project. The thing is so massive, it looks like it requires a breech block similar to a recoilless rifle or artillery cannon just to load. It includes a massive compensator, and iron sights. Why they even bothered with a compensator on a cartridge so large in something like a handgun is quite beyond me. But it certainly falls into the novelty category, like this German .50 BMG handgun, and there couldn’t have been many made. It seems to have been premiered at SHOT a couple years back, or a similar industry function, because of the photos on the internet with the function in the background. I would almost be concerned about the safety of the hand cannon, letting off a .50 BMG round in front of your face with nothing but a chunk of steel between you and the cartridge. That, or literally breaking your wrists.

In what is looking to be a real blast from the past, a group of individuals are putting together something called Resurgence 3-Gun. It is a 3 gun competition, but the similarity with current 3 gun competitions is where it ends. Unbeknownst to me, the sport of 3 Gun as we know it today, got its origins in the early 1980s with the Soldier of Fortune Magazine competitions that initially started the activity, basing it on realistic fighting conditions, using the three disciplines. The last Soldier of Fortune 3 gun match happened in 2001, and there hasn’t been one since. A number of folks have reinvented the matches, using the same rules as the original match, but there hasn’t been anything put on that level of organization. This “Resurgence 3 gun” match will be from September 21-25 of this year, in Logan, New Mexico, at the Blue Steel Ranch. The emphasis will be on military/LE rifles, military equipment, and physical fitness. It doesn’t seem that this is a Soldier of Fortune magazine officially sanctioned and sponsored event, but instead is taking the spirit of the original competitions as an avenue for competitors who may want something more than today’s 3 gun matches, or for those who want something more from the match.

Winchester was founded in 1866 and as you all know the legendary company is celebrating its 150th anniversary this year. That celebration kicked off at SHOT and will be continuing throughout the year. Next on the celebration agenda is an anniversary safe which was part of the company’s booth at SHOT Show this past January.

While this may not be the usual firearms or gear-specific post it is relevant to those of us who carry a gun for self-defense purposes. Whether your EDC is large or small caliber, semi-auto or revolver, five-shot or fifteen, the question remains. Do you select your chosen firearm to suit your wardrobe or do you adjust your wardrobe to fit your firearm? This is a question that arises on a fairly regular basis. It’s one I’m asked by both men and women but, yes, more often by women (or men trying to get their wives interested in concealed carry). And it’s one I always answer the same way.

An artist by the name of Lorin Michki has been making pen drawings of firearms for some years now, to combine his passion of shooting with his passion of art, and expressing the two together. I first heard of him through the various Facebook groups I’m apart of where he started posting some of his work. He has even had some success with showing them at local art galleries around his neck of the woods in West Virginia. The drawings are incredibly detailed, and the artist is a gun guy, so he does his best to represent the firearms he is drawing. Working from mostly images, his drawings of the guns by themselves are almost 1:1 in proportion, and are absolutely outstanding to look at and realize its not a photographic image, but a hand drawn piece of artwork. At this time he doesn’t have a website to showcase the drawings as he is working on one right now. However he does have his Facebook page, and if you’re interested in his work, you can contact him through there. He also does commission drawings, but I think this would depend on a case by case basis, and your location from him. I hope his career in firearms drawing continues into a successful career, and this is just the start.

SIG announced their Legion series just this past fall of 2015 and it soon became clear this wasn’t just about a gun or two but about a way of firearm life. The new series runs the gamut from guns to holsters to knives to lights and more. This year at SHOT during SIG’s special range event it was nice to get a closer look at the pistol part of the new series and rather than show just one, I’m going to go ahead and put all four pistols in this one post.

Oregon Trail Defense has come out with a “stippling” kit of sorts. Comprised of 5 screw on heads, these mount to a Wall Lenk 25 Watt Stippling gun, so if a gunsmith or a shooter is so inclined, they can stipple the polymer frame of a handgun, without having to use the current method of a small prick to stipple each individual dot on the frame. The main stippling tool is in the shape of a circle, with pyramid like texture to allow a multitude of individual holes to be created at once. The other screw on heads are of different shapes and sizes, to aid with the larger depressions that might need to be created as well. The entire kit sells for $39.95. This includes the Wall Lenk 25 Watt Stippling gun, and the five individual head pieces. If you want to just buy the head pieces for a heating gun that will take them, they are $17.95, while if you just want the one piece with the circular shape and pyramid shaped indentations, that’ll be $8.95 on its own. For those who still want just that individual prick, the kit also includes one of those, so you can still get in that really detailed work, or drag the piece across the frame to create lines instead of dots.

Winchester as founded in 1866 by Oliver Winchester as the Winchester Repeating Arms Company. The company’s first gun was, of course, the Model 1866, a lever-action repeating rifle chambered in .44 Henry. The Model 1866 was nicknamed the “Yellow Boy” due to the color of its receiver which was made from a bronze and brass alloy that resulted in a dull yellow coloration. Then there was the Model 1873 which became known as “The Gun That Won the West”. Over the years there have been many changes as is the norm for the majority of companies, but the name of Winchester remains synonymous with the Wild West and a certain dedication to quality. This year, in 2016, Winchester is celebrating 150 years.

Recoil. It’s an expected part of shooting firearms, so much so that many shooters begin anticipating it early on. And while it’s true that felt recoil depends on many factors from caliber to model of gun to the rounds being fired, it’s also true that handling said recoil depends entirely on the individual shooter. No two shooters are alike, and no two shooters have identical experiences even while using identical firearms. What may be simple for you to shoot proficiently may be a struggle for someone else – even someone with a certain level of basic experience – and vice versa. Crimson Trace is looking to improve the odds a shooter can handle felt recoil with their new product, the ShockStop System.

Discussions about smart guns have been underway for some time now and has, in recent years, been actively pursued by a handful of tech companies. In fact, Jonathon Mossberg who is indeed part of the almost 100-year-old O.F. Mossberg and Sons company, started his own smart gun research a few years ago. His company, iGun Technology Corporation, first set its sights on shotguns. Their idea was to use magnetic spectrum token technology which works much like RFID. The 12-gauge shotgun was designed to fire only within a certain range of the token which was, in this case, a ring meant to be worn on the shooter’s trigger hand. In 2013 the National Institute of Justice called the gun “the first personalized firearm to go beyond a prototype to an actual commercializable or production-ready product.” And, of course, Jonathon Mossberg is not the only one involved in the smart gun race.

In the world of firearms practice really does make perfect. You can never have too much target practice or too much ammunition, and the two conveniently go hand in hand – or hand-on-gun, as it were. Most shooters use a variety of methods to practice including visiting their local range to shoot paper and hitting their favorite outdoor shooting spots to blow away a variety of stationary objects. Some ranges employ moving targets or have small shoot houses available as well. Then there’s participation in events designed to hone marksmanship while also being enjoyable such as the steel plate shooting matches that many ranges host on a regular basis. There are quite a few options out there for the general public, and now there’s something new: Plinker.

Next up in the race to SHOTShow is Kimber, which announced a veritable plethora of new firearms for the new year. Their core line of 1911s is no slouch for new offerings including multiple new SKUs and new chamberings for older models.

Trigger Point Technology is a company in California that was started by a certain Terry Abst, a former airline pilot. They have a very interesting and innovating device that they claim will help prevent negligent discharges primarily among Law Enforcement and Military users, but it can also be applied to all manner of civilian firearms. The company has a website up that attempts to explain things in detail, but as admitted by Terry, it needs some serious revamping and changing because if you go on it, you won’t understand what they are trying to get across. Initially I thought they had a trigger mounted magazine release, but after a lengthly phone call with them, I was able to acquire the straight dope.

JT Defense, out of Northern California has recently released a Glock red dot optics mount, to fit into the dovetail of an existing Glock. In addition to being mounted in the dovetail, an extra layer of stability is added by replacing the rear slide locking plate and having this connect to the JT Defense mount. Currently the company lists these optics as compatible with the pre drilled threaded holes on the plate:  Burris Fastfire II or III, Vortex Viper, Docter Optic, Primary Arms Reflex. It says “in addition to others” but I would have liked for the company to list these “others”.

Warning: PSA contains graphic images of an injury.