Click here to download the catalog as a PDF file. To view this site you need Adobe Flash Player and your browser must allow javaScripts. Go here to get the latest Flash Player. COPTALK Massad Ayoob S&W’s Model 58 .41 Magnum is a blast-fromthe-past “retro” gun. OPINION AND FACTS FROM THE MEAN STREETS shOT shOw: T ALSO OF NOTE uger’s new LCR (Lightweight Compact Revolver) has a futuristic space-gun look. A polymer fire control housing, aluminum frame, and steel cylinder bring weight to 13.5 ounces, halfway between Titanium and aluminum, but the special Hogue grips co-designed by LCP project engineer Joe Zaik soak up kick so well it feels almost as if you’re shooting a much heavier all-steel snub the same size. It’s geared to take five rounds of .38 Special +P, with a “hammerless” profile for snag-free draw. You prefer your baby backup to be in cocked n’ locked 1911 format? SIG introduces the P238, a “SIG-ized” tribute to the little Colt Mustang, in the same .380 chambering. You want your .380 to be under ten ounces with a polymer frame and DAO? The Kahr P380 is here, and is the easiest of its breed that I’ve shot so far in terms of fast hit potential. You wish you could buy a small hideout revolver that could take the same 9mm or .40 S&W ammo you’re issued for your duty pistol? Charter Arms almost introduced a series of snubbies to chamber just that, but display samples were pulled at the last minute because, reportedly, the patent lawyers didn’t want anyone to see them until the patents for extraction were finalized. Stay tuned, though: Charter spokesman Charles Brown tells us they’ll be able to feed spare ammo thumbed into the chambers from your service pistol magazines. Training simulators get higher and higher tech. Laser Shot (www.lasershot.com) displayed a remarkably realistic computer simulation that faced the officer in fast-breaking, computerized training scenarios, and my reading is that it’s surprisingly affordable. In the end, equipment doesn’t get The Job done. Strong men and women do. But the best equipment damn sure helps. R Flashbacks he old heads among us (Clint Smith and our editor, to name two) will remember when the S&W Model 58 .41 Magnum was touted as the service revolver that would make the .38 and the .357 obsolete. That was in 1964 and the prophecy was not fulfilled. The Model 58, introduced in 1964, was discontinued for lack of interest in 1978, and almost immediately became a cult favorite among gun people. Well, S&W introduced it “back” this year in their classic line. Buy one — ignore its ugly integral lock — and relive the past. Speaking of the past, can you recall when the debate between whether Safariland or Bianchi made the best holsters and duty gear, was worth more than one beer in the cop bar after work? It was one of the great “brand wars” of the old days, right up there with Colt versus Smith & Wesson, and the Plymouth Fury Pursuit versus the Ford Interceptor patrol car package. Well, if that wasn’t settled when both Safariland and Bianchi were absorbed into Armor Holdings and in turn into BAE, it was settled at the SHOT Show when the holding company announced that from now on, they were all going to be under the aegis of Safariland. For the foreseeable future, your Bianchi Accumold gear will come in a package that says “Bianchi by Safariland.” And, no, I haven’t had a chance to ask John Bianchi or Safariland pioneer Neale Perkins how they feel about it — New SIG both are long since retired from the police P238 in equipment wars. .380 is a 15-ounce single action auto. Back To The Future O n a more modern note, S&W has taken the frame-mounted manual safety for the they put on their .45 ACP M&P awhile back for the military contract that evaporated, and this year added it as an option for all sizes and all calibers. This option is, if I may quote Martha Stewart in a gun magazine, “a good thing.” We are still seeing cops killed with their own guns, after being disarmed by perpetrators, and the manual safety is one oft-proven safeguard against that. Glock, the 800-pound gorilla in the police handgun sales market, has updated their single most popular service pistol, the .40 caliber G22. The stippling on the grip frame is more aggressive, the better to lock solidly into a hand that is slick with rain or mud or blood. I suspect it will also afford a better grasp when wearing heavy gloves in bad weather, or nitrile gloves during the search that suddenly goes lethal of a potentially toxic suspect. V-shaped slide grooves on the new motif may also give the hand a more solid purchase when executing a clearance or an emergency reload. Glock has also extended its SF concept (Short Frame, allowing better trigger reach on the larger models) to the 10mm Glock 20 service pistol and Glock 29 compact. * 18 WWW.AMERICANHANDGUNNER.COM • JULY/AUGUST 2009