Free Republic

Semi-automatic pistols dominate the handgun market in the United States. There are ten major manufacturers of revolvers in the United States who made more than ten thousand revolvers each in 2021. 2021 is the latest year on record where the ATF has published the numbers of pistols made by United States manufacturers. There were only five major manufacturers of .22 caliber or smaller revolvers in 2021. There were 40 manufacturers in the USA who made over 10,000 pistols (handguns, not revolvers) in 2021. There were 16 who made over 10,000 .22 caliber or smaller pistols in 2021. This article will...

A surprising result of the research to determine if handguns are effective when used in defense against bears is that they appear to be more effective than rifles or shotguns. This is a surprise. Rifles and shotguns tend to be more powerful than pistols. They are also easier to use accurately at a distance. When expecting a bear encounter, the preferred firearm is almost always a high-powered rifle or a shotgun.Terms become very important in this discussion. Rifles and shotguns are better tools for hunting bears than most defensive handguns.Hunting is not the same as defending.Much of the advantage of...

On Thursday, 9/21, local farmer militiamen in South Africa stopped a gang of 15 armed robbers armed with AK-47s who had just robbed an armored car, killing the driver. The local volunteers apprehended the fugitives after a high-speed chase, including a dangerous Mozambican criminal wanted for murder of a police officer. The robbery took place in Hoedspruit (Hat Springs) outside Polokwane in Limpopo Province, which were named Pietersburg and North Transvaal by the original settlers before the campaign to ethnically cleanse the Afrikaner language and culture from South Africa. Heavily armed attacks on armored cars are so common in South...

The U.S. Marine Corps has removed the last of its .45 caliber M45A1 Close Quarters Battle Pistols from service. The M45A1s, which are heavily upgraded variants of the venerable Colt M1911, have now been replaced by 9x19mm M18 pistols. The Marines had been the last major American military user of M1911-series pistols, though other versions remain in increasingly limited service in the U.S. special operations community. Marine Corps Systems Command (MARCORSYSCOM) confirmed to The War Zone that the replacement of the M45A1s with new M18s began last year and was completed by October 2022. M45A1s had previously been issued primarily...

Published velocities for .22 Long Rifle cartridges are generally available for rifle-length barrels. Finding the velocities for pistol-length barrels is more difficult. Searches on the Internet did not yield results for several subsonic .22 Long Rifle cartridges. This article shows velocities measured from three pistols for five different cartridges. Velocities in a particular barrel length can vary with individual barrels. Some barrels are smoother than others. Even the temperature of the cartridge when the round is fired can make a measurable difference. To see the differences for pistol length barrels, three handguns were used because they were handy and were...

I have been researching the effectiveness of pistols when they are fired as a defense against bears for several years. The research started as an attempt to find cases where pistols were ineffective. In October of 2016, a poster on freerepublic.com claimed (post 28 at the link) that there were numerous failures when people attempted to use pistols as a defensive tool against bears. The author knew there were several cases where the use of a pistol resulted in an effective defense. Because access to handguns, bear spray, knives, rifles, and shotguns all involve similar problems, only cases where a...

The last year has been pretty interesting, to say the least. It is hard to accurately interpret the information from the recent gun-buying trend. Normally, popularity is focused on what is selling and what is not. This type of sales information greatly helps the industry adjust and innovate. However, a pandemic, rioting and calls to defund the police have changed the paradigm so that just about anything that goes bang is (or at least was) selling. The other problem is restocking and being able to keep the best performers on the shelves. There were several cases where I was...

On the East Fork of the Wind River, near Lander, Wyoming, three bow hunters were walking to their hunting grounds, bows in hand. An old boar grizzly suddenly charged them from a few yards left of their approach. The bow hunters had set up base camp the day before at the East Fork trailhead. The next morning, they rode horses six miles up the trail, turned west, and rode uphill until the terrain was too steep for the horses. At about 7:30, they dismounted and continued up the steep slope of the trail on foot, in line.Wind River Peak from...

The merits of each have been debated for decades; here’s one shooter’s take. - The relative merits of the three basic types of pistols – single-action, double-action and automatic – has rarely been discussed in an impartial manner. All have their place and their advantages and disadvantages, depending upon their use. There is a lot of misinformation and even brazen lies that have been repeated for so long that many people believe them. Chief among these is the lie that revolvers are more reliable than automatics. We need to get that lie out of the way before we go any...

In January 2018, I published some original research on the efficacy of pistols in stopping bear attacks. It started with this observation, on the Internet, and in print, many people claim that pistols lack efficacy in defending against bear attacks. Here is an example that occurred on freerepublic.com: “Actually, there are legions of people who have been badly mauled after using a handgun on a bear. Even some of the vaunted magnums.” OK, give us a few examples. As you claim “legions”, it should not be too hard. I never received a response. I believe the claim was made in...

Opinion Flurry of Bear Attacks in Fall of 2018, Are You At Risk?Arizona -(Ammoland.com)- It is the season for bear attacks. Bears are very active in the fall, when they must accumulate enough calories to lard up for hibernation. At the same time, human hunters are out and about, hunting all game animals, putting human hunters in the same areas with heavy bear populations. In the last month, there have been several bear attacks in the news. On 9 September 2018, Dr. Brad Johnson was attacked and severely mauled. He had bear spray in his hand.  He was attacked...

During the week of 28 May to June 3rd, 2018, the TSA discovered 97 pistols in carry-ons at airports where security is controlled by the TSA. The collage of pistols shown above is a sample of those found. TSA gives a list of the pistols found. The list shows the make, model and caliber of most of the pistols. There were 93 pistols where the caliber was identified.9 mm pistols were still the most common, with 36 represented. .380 pistols, known in Europe as 9X17, 9 mm Kurtz, or 9 mm Corto,  were the next represented, with 24 present....

If you’re into hunting smaller things and want to get a handgun for this, here are some things to consider. Having the right handgun is a plus, don’t get stuck with the wrong one, you’ll just be wasting your time. So here are some tips that can help you make the right choice.What's your Game? So what are you hunting? If you're going for bigger animals its going to require bigger bullets, which has power. For that bigger game, you shouldn't be dinking around with anything smaller than a .357 Magnum. Revolver or semi-automatic? Here’s a quick pros and con:...

The Transportation Security Agency (TSA) discovered 101 pistols in carry-on luggage at TSA covered airports in the United States during the week of 14-20 May, 2018.  The above collage of 27 pistols pictures are a sample of those found. The characteristics of the pistols found included caliber, make, and model for most of the pistols.  Seven pistols did not have a caliber listed. 9mm pistols were the clear favorite, with 43 of the 94 pistols being in 9mm. Another 23 were in .380 caliber. 9x19 and 9x17 (to use the European designation, made up 66 of the 94 pistols...

The collage of pistols discovered by the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is a small sample of the 84 pistols discovered in carry-on luggage the week of May 7th to May 13th, 2018. TSA writes the total number of pistols discovered was 84, with 75 holding ammunition, and 29 of those having a round in the chamber. From tsa.gov: TSA discovered 84 firearms in carry-on bags around the nation last week. Of the 84 firearms discovered, 75 were loaded and 29 had a round chambered. Firearm possession laws vary by state and locality. TSA may impose civil penalties of up...

J.W. Ramp captured a series of images of pistol sights under various lighting conditions. Some of these photosshows you the different conditions and the pistol sight picture. Recently a discussion came up in the Primary & Secondary Discord chat server regarding recommended pistol sights for defensive use. The two non-red dot suggestions that seemed the most popular were Tritium-based "night sights" (either front-only or all around) and a fiber-optic front sight with blacked-out rear. Having a handful of different sight setups on a few of my Glocks, I figured it’d be handy to compare them side-by-side in various lighting conditions...

Small arms manufacturer Browning has ended production of the Browning Hi Power semiautomatic handgun. The legendary pistol served in armies worldwide, from Nationalist China to the British Special Air Service and was one of the first high capacity pistols ever invented. An invention of prolific arms designer John Moses Browning, the Hi Power was the inventor’s last pistol design.

Those who campaign for a disarmed population take comfort in persuading themselves that gun ownership is declining in the United States.This is the primary goal, after all. If gun ownership is declining, they can claim they are “winning”.The most commonly cited evidence that gun ownership is declining is the General Social Survey, which shows a gradually declining percentage of households in the United States that tell survey-takers they have guns in the household.But the number of guns sold in the last decade skyrocketed.  At the beginning of 2008, there were about 301 million privately owned guns in the United...

While discussing bear attacks, a consistent refrain is that pistols are useless as a way to defend yourself against bears.  In discussion groups, nay sayers claim that pistols are difficult to use, of insufficient power, and there are numerous instances where people who attempted to use pistols to defend against bears are badly mauled. I have read of numerous cases where people used pistols to successfully defend against bears, so I asked one poster to give some examples where pistol defenses failed. The exchange occurred on freerepublic.com: “Actually, there are legions of people who have been badly mauled after...

When we talk about deer hunting everyone usually thinks of going out with a rifle, bow or a shotgun to hunt with. What you don’t hear much (if you’re not into hunting) about is hunting with a pistol. Depending on where you live hunting with a pistol is considered in the “unconventional firearms” category. If you’re lucky enough to be in such areas, here’s a list of pistols that you can check out for hunting: Magnum Research Desert Eagle The Desert Eagle weighs 4 1/2 pounds, with that weight, along with its gas-operated action, makes it one of the more...