GunsAmerica Product Reviews – Pistols

Cabot Guns https://cabotgun.com/ Cabot Guns makes 1911s with aerospace precision.  Their pistols are tighter than tight. They guarantee that the slide to frame fit is 0.001 of an inch or less.  Cabot has made what is a one-of-a-kind Damascus 1911.  President and CEO Robert Bianchin said it might be the toughest task they have taken on [...]

There’s a time and a place for small guns. The Beretta Pico is the latest in a long of defensive handguns from the venerable firearms family. The Pico’s lines are reminiscent of the Nano, only the Pico is small enough to drop in your pocket. And Beretta’s putting a fashionable twist on the diminutive .380: it will be available in a traditional two-tone or with a variety of colorful frames.

Springfield Armory is announcing a new variant of the XD-S for 2014. It is the logical next step in the evolution of the sensationally popular XD-S sub-compact format. No, it’s not a new caliber offering – it is a new barrel length! Springfield has stretched the 3.3” barrel just ever so much to an even 4 inches. Why is this significant? For starters – recoil. I obtained my copy of the XD-S in 2012 in the initial offering of .45 ACP. If you have ever fired that gun, you know that it has some “personality” to it. Simple physics I’m afraid. Less size and weight of the handgun means more felt recoil for the shooter. The 2013 introduction of the 9mm version was welcomed by many because of the reduced pressures of that round, but it still has some snap. A 4” offering of this same gun adds weight where it is needed most – out at the muzzle. This helps reduce felt recoil. The XDS-9 4.0 also has a longer sight radius; adding ¾” to the length of the slide allows Springfield to push the front sight further forward by that same distance. This translates to a more accurate sight picture and better shots. Small errors in aiming are more noticeable, and therefore easier to correct with a longer sight radius.

One of the biggest stories at SHOT Show for 2014 is a new single-stack .380ACP 6+1 from Glock called the Model 42. We were able to get a first look at the gun, and it is a lot of gun in a very small package. Most important, it is a Glock, and that carries a lot of weight with gun buyers in the market. Known for their ubiquitous “safe action” pistols, Glock is perhaps the biggest name in pistols in the gun world. The G42, at 13.6 ounces, 6 inches long tip to tail, 4 inches high from the top of the sight to the bottom of the magazine, and 13/16ths of an inch thick, is slightly bigger and heavier than the other micro .380s in the market, but small enough to be pocketed comfortably. The barrel is about 3 3/16ths or 3.2 inches long. The G42 handles much better than the tiniest of the pocket .380s, and we were able to shoot it into less than one-inch groups at 10 yards with Winchester range ammo. The only hiccup was that the G42 didn’t like Hornady Critical Defense, but that could be just because this is an early writer sample, and it is a brand new gun of course. The best carry gun is always going to be the gun you will actually carry and that you shoot well. A nice light, small and easy-shooting Glock .380 has been long awaited. We don’t have a projected MSRP for it yet, but as an everyday concealed-carry gun, this new Glock 42 should do very well.

Sometimes the reviews here at GunsAmerica are driven by advertising, but not the way you have come to expect them to be in the print pubs. In the case of the Springfield Armory EMP Micro-Pistol, the first time an ad for it ran alongside one of our Digest emails, over 7,000 of you clicked on the ad, instead of one of the articles (ahem). This seemed to indicate that a lot of people were interested in the gun, so we asked Springfield for a test subject, in .40 S&W. The result was not only getting to shoot a genuinely nifty and useful firearm. It turns out that the gun is not just YA1911. (Yet Another 1911). Unlike all of the other 1911-style pistols in 9mm and .40S&W, the EMP was re-engineered to shoot these cartridges specifically. It is truly a “scaled down” 1911, and the components have been made to function reliably with both a smaller cartridge, and smaller barrel length, in the 1911 design. The grip angle is the same as the standard 1911 but the grip is thinner, and guts of the gun are smaller to work in a shorter space. We tested our EMP extensively, and it is both reliable and accurate. At a street price in the $1,200 range, this is not an inexpensive firearm, but with stock tritium night sights and custom shop grade parts, the Springfield EMP is a lot of gun if you want to carry a 1911 for personal defense. This gun has been available for many years in both 9mm and .40 S&W, but judging by how many of you clicked on the ad, there are still plenty of people who didn’t know about it.

If you like small guns, you’ll find the Bond Arms derringer both capable and versatile. Its capabilities stem from the fact that it’s not as punishing to shoot as you might expect. In fact, controllability and shootability are very good with every caliber shot for this review. Its versatility stems from the wide selection of barrels, calibers and grips available. Whichever of the eight models you select initially (nine including their new Backup model), you can add barrels and grips to turn it into any of the other models. Mix and match grips and barrels to customize it to your needs. Bond Arms’ price list shows a total of 21 barrels capable of firing 17 different calibers. Their 3” barrel, their most versatile, is available in .22LR, .22Mag, .327 fed mag, 9mm, .357/.38spl., .40 S&W, 10mm, .44spl., .44/40, .45GAP, .45ACP, .45Colt, and .45/.410 (2 ½” chamber). However, as in most guns that serve multiple needs, it does some things better than others. I toured the factory in Granbury, Texas, USA, with owner and president Gordon Bond to see just how these guns are made. With the exception of the 400 series stainless steel forgings from which the guns are machined, all the work is done in-house. It may be a small company, but that doesn’t mean they don’t use state-of-the-art equipment to ensure their high quality standards. From numerically controlled milling machines operating down to less than ten thousandths of an inch accuracy, to robotic arms which provide precision and repeatability in surface preparation, to the artistry of individual experts who assemble, polish, and time the  function of the finished product — quality is their principal driver.

The finer things in life are sometimes just those things that technology can’t capture. If a gun is a classic, like the 1911, modern updates are great to carry an effective design forward. But there is a magic to the old guns that Cerakote and Picatinny rails can’t match for some. Doug Turnbull has been restoring classic 1911s, cowboy guns and classic shotguns for decades, with the correct bluing, case coloring and even the original roll engravings. If you missed our first article on Turnbull restorations, you really should read it. The problem with the old guns, though, is that there are only so many of them that are good candidates for restoration. And for 1911s, the further we get from the year 1911, the more any 100% original gun will be worth, regardless of condition. That is why Doug decided to bring the 1911 into his family of newly manufactured firearms, a list that includes the Winchester 1886, Colt Peacemaker style revolvers, and we recently reviewed the Turnbull steel version of the AR-15. If you have always wanted a 1911 that looked, felt and worked like a gun new in the box circa pre-1920, the Turnbull 1911 is the most accurate gun you could possibly own. We got to shoot Doug’s version of this modern classic, and sure enough, the safety is even stiff. These guns are available directly from Turnbull Restorations for $1,950.

Before there was a Sig P226 or a Beretta M92 there was a the Browning High Power. It was made by Fabrique Nationale in Belgium, and was designed by John Moses Browning like like the Colt 1911. But unlike the 1911, the High Power has always stayed under the Browning name and it is still manufactured today by Miroku in Japan. The major departure from the 1911 on the High Power is the feature that brings the 226 and M92 into the same family of guns. It is a double action/single action, method of firing. On the first shot, the trigger both pulls back the hammer and releases it, like a revolver. Once the first round is fired, the hammer stays back from being cocked by the recoil of the first shot, then the second shot fires single action. The tangent sight marks this as a military contract High Power. It is among the more desirable models from a collector standpoint.
The tangent sight marks this as a military contract High Power. It is among the more desirable models from a collector standpoint.
This double action/single action design evolved into an entire class of pistols, that eventually came with hammer decockers and safety decockers, but the original High Power had neither of those. It can be carried with the simple manual safety engaged, hammer back in single action (holstered of course), or without the safety engaged in double action mode. There have been several copies of the Browning FN high power over the years, but the original High Power is still made today for Browning by Miroku in Japan. Examples of the Belgian made High Powers are thought to be the original classic guns, and are sought by both collectors and shooters today.

It was a huge surprise when this past Labor day weekend we started to hear that Springfield Armory had announced a recall on their XD-S series of concealed carry pistols If you are not familiar with the XD-S, it is a small, but not tiny, 45acp six shot, and this year Springfield brought out a 9mm eight shot, with the same external dimensions. The magic of the XD-S is ergonomics. The .45 shoots like a 9mm of any other brand, and the 9mm shoots like a .380 of any other brand. Springfield has never had a recall on any of their guns, so nobody knew what to expect. This article is something of an update, with the latest news, and we got to shoot a couple of the modified XD-S’s this weekend. An overview and review follow.

This past Friday, October 18th, Springfield started shipping back the upgraded guns from the folks who had sent them in starting that first week in September, when we first sent out our notification. The guns will be upgraded in the order that they were received. Denny Reese, the Co-CEO of Springfield explained what’s going on with the upgrade process in an interview on Friday.