Slowly morphing from Pistol Pete into Willie Wheelgun Guy

If you had told me a year ago I'd own eight revolvers from .22 to .44, I'd have told you your crystal ball was cracked. But during the past year working at a gun shop, I've slowly morphed into a wheelgun lover. I've still got a lot more semi-auto pistols than revolvers, but some days I do wear two revolvers to work instead of a pistol and a wheelgun.

Dave Campbell has an article in the current American Rifleman that sort of expresses this evolution I've gone through, titled Wheelguns Still Work.

It took more than a century, but the semi-automatic pistol is now the go-to handgun for self-defense. The revolver, which preceded the self-loader, had a pretty good run—about 150 years. Evolving tactics and modern manufacturing capabilities, along with popular culture, have brought semi-auto pistols to the forefront. Now the question is: Should the revolver be put out to pasture as a self-defense handgun?

The Simpler Choice
A self-defense handgun is an extremely personal choice. Choosing a particular handgun should be based upon reliability, ease of use, power, concealability and cost—in roughly that order.

Semi-auto pistols are great instruments, but they require more training than revolvers to be used effectively. Make no mistake, I am fully aware that all firearms require training and practice to be of any real worth, but the semi-auto is, by its nature, more complicated.

Family members who may not be enthusiastic about guns and shooting but still want to be able to defend themselves will often find that a double-action revolver is more to their liking. Tactics and prior contingency planning come in to play, of course, but all potentially life-threatening events induce a great deal of trepidation. In these types of situations would it not be better to have a loved one using a simpler tool?

Power, Baby
Another reason I often prefer revolvers is that they continue to win the power race, at least in terms of handguns that can be easily carried. There are numerous compact snub-nosed revolvers that can do the job including some in power-punching calibers. While most people only need a .38 Spl. for typical use, a .357 Mag. snubby provides the versatility to choose between .38s and more powerful .357 rounds if there is a need.

And in the same issue, a left-handed revolver, the Charter Arms Southpaw is featured. Being a lefty shooter I've entertained thoughts of adding the Charter Southpaw to my modest arsenal.

Like the S&W Airweight .38 Special revolvers, the Charter Southpaw is only 12 ounces empty. And it just so happens we have one in stock at the gun shop. Somebody stop me before I buy my ninth revolver.

My next .22 pistol may be a Glock/AA/Walther/ISSC

My next .22 semi-auto? Maybe so. I handled one of these at the gun shop today and took photos that I'll post on gunbroker.com in an auction page. It's a Glock-clone called the ISSC M22 .22LR semi-auto pistol that looks a whole lot like an Advantage Arms .22LR conversion kit on a Glock 19 compact 9mm black polymer frame.

And it not only looks like a Glock, it has the familiar slide-removal levers of the Glock. And the trigger has a Glock-like safety lever in the middle. Unlike the Glock, it's single-action-only with an external hammer, vs. double-action-only and striker-fired, but that's the chief differences.

'Net rumor has it the parts are actually made by Glock. Who knows? According to the manufacturer and importer, it has a Walther stainless-steel match barrel, which I guess makes it a Glock/ISSC/Advantage Arms/Walther. Whatever it is, it appears to be a solidly made .22 pistol that handles exactly like a Glock, which will make for good training for us Glock owners.

I've got two Glocks at present, both 10mm. My "bump in the night pistol" is the full-size G20, nearly stock except for a 3.5-lb. trigger and a stainless-steel Big Taco Sta-Tite guide rod with captured recoil spring assembly. And my subcompact G29 is heavily customized and one of my favorite carry pistols. It's a genuine pocket rocket, packing 10 rds. of 10mm projectiles.

The M22 has a 4" barrel, which sorta fills a niche for me as I have a S&W 22A-1 with a 5.5" barrel and have been thinking about adding a shorter barrel for practice and plinking. I can also use the M22 for the NRA Basic Pistol classes I'm offering. For students who don't have their own handgun, I will provide a .22 pistol and ammo for the course.

The ISSC M22 can handle standard velocity .22LR ammo as well as high velocity with an extra recoil spring included with the pistol. And it's got ambi safety-decocker levers, which is a must for me, being a southpaw. Even the price is right. We're selling the M22s for a mere $370.

It's made in Austria by ISSC Handels Gmbh and imported by Austrian Sporting Arms of Ware, MA, which says:

ISSC fits a Walther match barrel to bar stock steel components for endurance and precision. The M22’s Aluminum slide tops 390 Newton in hardness. The result is certified accuracy and rapid action cycling.

The M22 is the ideal range pistol. The M22 brings you handling and performance that is closer to the modern defensive handgun than any other rimfire pistol. Designed for inexpensive high velocity 22LR ammunition the accurate rapid fire performance of the M22 offers the shooter an economical shortcut for modern pistol practice.

YOUR M22 PROVIDES

• Easy to load ten-round magazines


• Single action trigger offers precision with every shot


• Accessory rail lets you train with lights and lasers


• High visibility adjustable rear sight.


• Handles like your carry gun.

Austrian manufacturer ISSC Handels Gmbh adds:

Made in Austria and combining advanced technology with foward-looking innovation, ISSC M22 delivers performance at the highest level.

The M22 exceeds all requirements for modern pistols:
- Match bull barrel and match trigger delivers highest accuracy.
- Unmatched safety with 5 different safeties working independent of each other.
- Weaver rail for light and laser systems.
- Precise handling due to perfectly-contoured grip.
- Adjustable rear sight for target shooting.
- Design and manufacturing quality of Austraian-made firearms.

Here's the manufacturer's video, not terribly informative but featuring a good-looking chick shooting the M22 with a catchy upbeat tune playing to the "bang, bang, bang" of .22s popping.


Here's a video review comparing the ISSC M-22 to the Glock 19 9mm Pistol for pistolbuyersguide.com by www.GunWebsites.com:

Single-Action bug bite may be worse than swine flu

A funny thing has happened again on the way to downsizing my handguns.

I keep getting sidetracked in my plan to downsize from full-size pistols to subcompact, light carry pistols. I nearly gave in to the lure of my first single-action 6-shooter a couple of weeks ago when I took a Hy Hunter Six-Shooter for a test run from the gun shop where I'm working. That's it in the top photo.

The beautiful black-steel single-action with fake pearl grips caught my eye when someone traded it in and with a bit of googling, I discovered it's a copy of the Single Action Army Colt known as the Peacemaker. And the killer is this particular model was made in what was then West Germany in the 1980s by J.P. Sauer & Sohn. In case you're not a gun nut like me, that's the Sauer that merged into Sig Sauer, which IMHO makes some of the finest handguns in the world, bar none, at any price.

So I shot it, which I loved, but I reloaded it very slowly, which I don't love. As I reported at the time, now I know why all the old cowboys are dead. They got killed while they were reloading, one cylinder at a time.

So I thought I was over my single-action pistol desires. And then this week, somebody traded in a Ruger Blackhawk .41 Magnum with a 4-5/8" barrel, second photo. My S&W 29 .44 Magnum has a 4" barrel which I think is just about perfect for balance while shooting as well as ease of carry and quick handling. And the extra 5/8" on the Ruger .41 Magnum barrel feels pretty darn handy, too. I may have to beg the shop owner to let me take the Ruger for a test fire run, too. God help me, I think I'm getting bit by the single-action bug. Again.

I've always wanted a .41 Magnum but never shot one. I love 10mm pistols and .41 Magnum is the revolver equivalent of 10mm in semi-auto pistols. Maybe somebody in the shop or on gunbroker will buy this Ruger before I can find time to scratch this itch. I've already made plans this weekend so I can't make it to the range. But if it's still there next weekend...

Like-New .45 ACP BHP Shooter needs a good home

Another of my "too big to carry pistols" is up for sale on gunbroker, my Like-New Browning Hi-Power .45 ACP clone, an FEG GKK-45 made in Hungary during the Cold War and imported into the U.S. by KBI Inc.

It's a great shooter with 8-rd. magazines of my first love in pistol calibers, .45 ACP, and I hate to let it go. But us poor, bitter, backwoods, God-clinging rednecks have to make some sacrifices in these troubled times, since this particular redneck ain't got enough money to buy more carry pistols without selling off some of my full-size pistols.

When I bought it, I found the existing 3-White-Dot sights shot about 2-3 inches low, which is close enough for most folks but not yours truly. So I bought and had installed an LPA rear sight fully adjustable for windage and elevation to replace the existing dovetailed rear sight. Then I discovered with the LPA rear sight adjusted all the way down, it shoots about 1-2 inches high!

But I found if you draw a fine bead without about half of the front White-Dot sight peeping through the LPA rear sight, you can shoot the hairs off a gnat's behind. Close enough.

Ships with original FEG Two-White-Dot Dovetailed Rear Sight, LPA Rear Sight package with Sight Adjustment Tool and Allen Wrench, (1) 8-rd. FEG GKK-45 magazine and (4) 8-rd. ProMag GKK-45 magazines.

The Browning Hi-Power 9mm pistol is the last design of famous arms inventor John M. Browning and was completed after his death by others, first manufactured in 1935 by Browning Arms of Belgium. Most shooters say the grip angle of the Browning Hi-Power is the most comfortable and natural pointing of all pistols, exceeding Browning's most famous design, the 1911 pistol.

Following World War II, the Browning Hi-Power became the leading military pistol in France, England and thoughout Western Europe and was copied behind the Iron Curtain in Eastern Europe.

FEG of Hungary, the Hungarian national military arms manufacturer, copied the Browning Hi-Power 9mm design during the Cold War and supplied the Hungarian army with small arms. FEG also improved the BHP 9mm design by replacing the Browning Single-Action trigger (with its awful heavy pull) with a Double-Action/Single-Action trigger design copied from Smith & Wesson.

KBI Inc. of Harrisburg, Pa., imported FEG Browning Hi-Power pistols into the U.S. starting in the 1980s, first the 9mm and later the FEG .45 ACP. The FEG .45 ACP GKK-45 has a DA/SA trigger and is a slightly larger version of the classic Browning Hi-Power in 9mm, scaled up for .45 ACP.

KBI Inc. is owner of Charles Daly and though it is no longer importing FEG pistols from Hungary, the company still provides parts and service for all FEG pistols KBI previously imported.

I pray there's a .45 ACP and Browning Hi-Power enthusiast out there somewhere that will give my GKK-45 a good home and shoot it with pleasure for many years to come.

The New York Reload/Southern Redneck Style

I've reinvented an old carry strategy. I call it the New York Reload/Southern Redneck Style.

I've been trying out different carry combos since I started working in a gun shop and since I'm ambiguous, amphibious or ambidextrous I've been alternating between left and right-hand carry. I'm strong-hand right, dominant-eye left, so I shoot equally well (or badly) from either hand, trying to keep both eyes open.

My main carry choices are three in .357 Sig (S&W M&P full-size and Compact and Steyr M357-A1), Glock G29 10mm and Steyr M9A1 9mm. For backup I have been using a Kel Tec PF-9 9mm in a pocket holster and extra magazines for it and the main carry also stuffed in pockets.

But the only nonfamily gun salesman at the store, other than me, is a young guy who gave me an idea. He carries a subcompact Glock .40 on his right hip and another one behind it above his hip pocket covered by his t-shirt tail hanging out. The rest of the crew, two guys and one woman, all carry hip holsters but so far as I know, don't carry any backups, but I ain't searchin' em.

So I was reading a gun mag and this guy mentions the "New York Reload" which NYC detectives used on stake-outs back in the '50s when snubby revolvers were all they were allowed to carry. So they carried at least two, sometimes three or four. Shoot one empty, grab another and so on. A heck of a lot faster than trying to reload. It would also be faster than reloading a pistol, so if carrying two snubbies make sense, two pistols is even better.

So I decided it was time to get the PF-9 out of my pocket and onto the belt. Since I'm about equally comfortable shooting right or left, I put the main carry on the left, where I shoot a bit better, and the backup on the right. That's the M&P .357 Sig Compact on the left and PF-9 on the right.

I usually work in a t-shirt as the shop is kept quite warm but when I walk across the street for lunch, I can put on a shirt with the tail out and it covers both well enough not to alarm the waitresses or other customers.

I've started wearing this set-up at work at the gun shop and it's very comfortable. Certainly better than a backup pistol and spare mags stuffed in my pockets. I figure with 11 rds. of .357 Sig and 8 rds. of 9mm, one of the other guys or the armed gal oughta be able to provide all the back-up I'll need after that.

Since I ain't from Noo Yawk and am not going there even to visit if I can help it, I call it the Southern Redneck Reload. As the eternal optimist was heard to say as he passed the 40th floor while falling off the Empire State Building, "So far so good."

.44 Colt Walker revolver sells for record $920K!

(Photo by David Leaming, Morning Sentinel via AP.)
I'm a certified gun nut, particularly on pistols, but if I had this pistol, I'd sell it so fast it would be smoking when it left my hands. Would you believe $920,000, just pocket change shy of a cool million, for this .44 Colt Walker revolver?

An anonymous bidder paid $920,000 for this .44-caliber Colt Walker pistol yesterday in Fairfield, Maine.

James D. Julia Inc. says this is thought to be the highest price anyone has ever paid for a firearm at auction.

"Yee-ha," the gun's owner, John McBride, said as the winning bid was announced, according to the Morning Sentinel. "We did better than we had hoped."

The auction house says this "rare and historic" Colt Whitneyville-Walker pistol was issued during the Mexican-American war. "It is truly one of the greatest prizes of Colts in existence," auctioneer James Julia tells the paper.

It was made for U.S. marshals in the 1840s and its previous owner says he never fired it.

The price includes a buyer's fee of $120,000 charged by the auctioneer.

Julia was also the auctioneer for the previous Colt record of $480,000.

The gun was an heirloom passed down from John McBride's great-great-uncle. The 80-year-old from Montana says some of the money will be used to buy land in that state.

Wish I had a great-great uncle who collected Colt pistols.

XD-9 subcompact pistol pretty sweet!

Got the chance to fire my son-in-law's Springfield XD-9 subcompact and I gotta say, it's pretty sweet. Never fired an XD of any size before and have heard a lot of trash talk about them so I wasn't expecting much. But it was a quite pleasant surprise. Yes, the trigger's mushy, not as crisp a break as my Steyr MA1s, but no more mushy than a stock Glock and I'd say a tad smoother. Handles well and fits well in my hand. I shot it with the full-size 15-shot mag which is shown in the grip. Carry mag at left is 10-shot.

Makes me wish I'd never let my subcompact S&W 669 go. I sold it while I was on my Baddest Tactical Pistol kick going full-size and have regretted it. I've been thinking I need another subcompact 9 or 357 Sig to partner with my G29. For light carry, 10mm might just be a little bit of overkill.

Here's my target with 15 XD-9 holes in the center mass at 15 yards.

The other holes at lower left and right of the head are my attempts to zero a scope with a mount that kept shifting around on my CZ SP01.

I really liked the XD9 subcompact, but I'm leaning toward a S&W M&P .357 Sig, which is one of the few subcompacts you can get in that caliber. I like 9mm, but I love .357 Sig. If only Steyr would unveil a new S357-A1!


I almost forgot. I decided my pocket pistol, Kel-Tec PF-9, had been carried too much and shot too little so I got it out at the end of the range session to check for accuracy, feed and just to get a chance to shoot it. Only shot one mag, 8 rds. of Federal Tactical HPs, at 7 yards, but got a nice, tight little pattern I was quite pleased with. The other holes in the head are the same as the target above, trying to zero a scope without success. The cluster of eight around the number 5 in the center of the head are from the PF-9. Gives me confidence to carry.