#S&W

The modern Smith & Wesson company has thrown its considerable weight behind the M&P line of polymer pistols. Frankly, the play seems to have been a good one as the original guns have been commercially successful and, in my experience, the new M2.0 guns are a nice improvement on the original.

Our first episode with Callum from English Shooting covered the intricacies of the laws and regulations that govern firearm and shotgun ownership in the United Kingdom. But in this episode, we discuss the growing sport of Practical Shooting. Essentially based on Three Gun, or Two Gun in the United States, the sport is appealing to British shooters for a number of reasons, one of which is that it offers a diverse and changing environment for shooters to compete in, unlike anything that has been available before.

The most common Crimson Trace laser grips out in the wild are for the 1911, most often found on Kimbers as well as other manufacturers’ pistols. The laser grips have become part of a daily carry for many 1911 guys to include many of the guys I know that carry a 1911 every day. Since being acquired by Smith & Wesson there have not been many changes made to the Crimson Trace product lineup with the new Master Series laser grips being the first refreshed offering.

SIG Sauer is not quite out of the woods yet regarding their recent Modular Handgun System contract win. Finalist Glock – who for many was the favorite to win – has protested the XM17 contract award. SIG won the MHS contract earlier this year with a variant of their P320 handgun based on the Compact frame. The news of SIG’s win was announced on January 19th, the day before the inauguration of the new US President and his administration.

Smith & Wesson has a lot of popular firearms in their inventory, but there are some that definitely pay the bills more than others. That short-hand list likely includes the Sport II 5.56 NATO, Shield 9mm/.40 S&W, and the Performance Center C.O.R.E. 9mm. Keeping that in mind, even if Smith & Wesson has some golden geese on their hands someone is bound to complain its the wrong shade of gold. Something more flat dark earth colored would obviously be better, right? Well, Smith & Wesson listened to consumers and added in some new variations of their bread ‘n butter models.

Smith & Wesson rolled out a number of new wheelguns this year. Two of those are given the revered Combat Magnum name. One is a Model 66; the other is a Model 69.

The rumor we reported on earlier appears to now be official: Immigration and Customs Enforcement has adopted the SIG P320C as their next service handgun. News of SIG’s win was confirmed by a post on pistol-forum.com containing a leaked screenshot of a new article on ICE’s internal website, with the headline ICE Picks a New Service Handgun.

Is the Steyr 1907 Still Relevant?

The Smith & Wesson M&P 1.0 or Classic series was introduced in 2005 with a heavy focus on the military and police market. This episode Patrick takes a look at the pistol that was derived from the “lesser” Sigma and was widely adopted by police all over the United States. The pistol even sees military use with the Singapore Armed Forces. This particular example is chambered in .40 S&W, but there are variants in .22LR, 9mm, .357 SIG, .380 ACP, and even .45 ACP in one form or another.

Battenfeld Technologies was acquired by the American Outdoor Brands Company back when AOBC was still Smith & Wesson Holdings Company. AOBC owns Smith & Wesson, the firearms maker, so it is no surprise that Battenfeld would take advantage of the name recognition of the Smith & Wesson and M&P brands to market new gear.

Caldwell released a new universal pistol magazine loader as part of the Mag Charger line. Magazine loaders are a popular accessory. Speed loaders sell well to the new shooter that has trouble stuffing rounds into high cap mags and also the seasoned shooter that has many magazines to load and needs to give the thumbs a break from loading.

So I am always enthused to hear about new guns coming to market, after all, more guns on the market means more variety and more things for me to shoot. I like excuses to go shoot. In a rather long press release, the Performance Center released their plans for 2017, among them was the new Performance Center Shield .45 that we leaked a while back. What we didn’t know was coming was the slide kits.

Our friends over at Guns America recently got some hands-on time with the new Smith and Wesson M&P M2.0 series of pistols. If you remember the TFB coverage of the apparent launch slip-up by Academy Sports a few weeks ago, the new guns sport some features that piqued everyone’s curiosity. The Guns America team got an advanced look at the upcoming production release.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to polymer pistol lovers everywhere. Back in August, TFB’s own Nathaniel F. penned a post about Smith & Wesson trademarking ‘M2.0’ for use in an upcoming product release. And from the looks of a silent Academy announcement by way of a plain old vanilla new pistol listing, rumors of an upgrade to the S&W M&P pistol line appear to be correct.

Is SIG about to win a major contract – likely worth more than ten million dollars – to supply pistols for the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency? That is the scuttlebutt on the street, as part of a wider theory that the agency’s Office of Firearms and Tactical Programs is in the pocket of SIG’s sales department. Whether this is true or not is unknown, but according to WeaponsMan’s Hognose, that’s the perception among the agency’s rank-and-file: