#S&W

CrossBreed Holsters announced it was now offering rigs that fit the new Smith & Wesson M&P 2.0 Compact pistol. As CrossBreed is one of the more popular carry holster companies, this should make a lot of shooters happy that want to get one of the new guns for concealed carry.

We shoot Remington 9mm 124gr Golden Saber brass jacketed hollow point ammunition from a Smith & Wesson Shield with a 3″ barrel into Clearballistics ballistic gel to measure velocity, penetration, expansion/fragmentation, and retained weight. Buy it at Ventura Munitions.

It’s Wednesday so time for some Wheelguns!

We shoot Federal 9mm 150gr HST jacketed hollow point ammunition from a Smith & Wesson Shield with a 3″ barrel into Clearballistics ballistic gel to measure velocity, penetration, expansion/fragmentation, and retained weight. Buy it at Ventura Munitions.

The current US administration is looking to release many of the restrictions on weapons exports, according to a recent article at Reuters. Currently, International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) limit the ability for US arms companies to sell weapons overseas. However, the Trump administration is reportedly planning to change the jurisdiction for most arms exports from the State Department to the Commerce Department, which would likely make such exports substantially easier. The State Department’s focus is primarily on security and stability, which means they generally err on the side of less exports rather than more, but the Commerce Department is primarily focused on facilitating international trade. This strongly suggests that arms exports as handled by the Commerce Department would be facilitated by the agency, rather than obstructed, as the trend has been under the State Department.

I do not like reporting bad news – there’s plenty of it everywhere else in the world, why does it need to creep into one activity that I do primarily for fun. In any event, as confirmed by multiple industry sources, Smith and Wesson has fired Rob Martinez as CEO of Gemtech effective immediately. It is rumored that Mark Thompson, CFO, will hold an interim leadership position at Gemtech

The recent controversy regarding the drop safety characteristics of SIG’s P320 handgun has some taking a closer look at their handguns. Drop safety is something that – in theory – is so mature in modern handguns that it should be a non-issue, but with so many different variations on the same theme ( that theme being “Glock”) in the market today, how do we know these guns are really as safe as they could be? With that in mind, it’s worth taking a closer look at what makes a modern striker-fired handgun drop safe, and that’s just what Tom Jones of Pistol-Training.com has given us in a recent forum post. Jones lays out what makes a Glock a “Glock”, in other words, the carefully designed safety features of the company’s handguns which make them as difficult to accidentally discharge as possible:

The SIG Sauer P320 – scion of the Army’s new M17 MHS pistol – is the only handgun out of eleven different weapons to fail a comprehensive test released today by Omaha Outdoors. The testing protocol involved dropping the handguns at different angles with a primed case in the chamber (no bullet or propellant). None of the ten other handguns – which included four Glocks, two H&Ks, two S&Ws and a 1911 – tested after the P320 fired when dropped. The video released by Omaha Outdoors describing the tests is embedded below:

The following is the opinion of the author, and his alone. It does not represent the views of The Firearm Blog or any other TFB staff member. But I bet it represents the views of many of our readers.

Red dots on pistols are the bee’s knees these days, everyone is doing it. There are a few different ways to mount a red dot on your pistol. You can have your slide milled to accept one of the various pistol red dots on the market. You can turn your gun into a space gat by using a frame mounted red dot system like the 6 Second Mount from ALG Defense, this method requires a custom holster and you do lose your iron sights however. Or you can use an adapter that mounts to the rear sight dovetail with no milling needed. Or you can just use your pistol’s iron sights like people have been doing before newfangled red dots were invented.

Chris Cheng take a look at the S&W .460 XVR revolver. It has a 12″ barrel and if an optic is mounted it is recommended to be zeroed at 200 yards.

Glock isn’t done yet: Despite being passed over by the Army and having their protest of the MHS contract rejected by the GAO, Glock is still hoping for a chance. In a recent interview with Matthew Cox of Military.com, Glock Vice President Josh Dorsey spoke out against the Army’s decision to adopt the SIG Sauer P320 as the new M17 Modular Handgun System. Dorsey’s comments, excerpted below, express dissatisfaction with the Army’s selection process:

Hadoken! Is what I’m sure James’ is thinking in his head as he shoots a .44 Magnum. It throws fireballs.

Just when you thought a week would go by without something new from the folks over at Strike Industries, nope. They having something new coming down the pipeline. This time it’s their EMP mag extension for the Smith and Wesson M&P Shield for both the 9mm and .40SW models.

When the Smith & Wesson M&P22 was rolled out in 2011 many shooters rejoiced that there was a new full size .22 on the market that closely resembled a centerfire handgun. At the time of its introduction, the number of choices in that segment was rather limited.