EXPLORE Trending Articles on Recoil Presents: Concealment

We first got word of the HS Produkt Kuna on a factory visit to Croatia, just before the world lost its collective marbles due to a Chinese lab leak. Since then, the design has been refined, and Springfield has added it to their considerable list of SKUs, importing it for the general public as a large format handgun. Why then should you consider this particular wannabe subgun versus anything else out there? Glad you asked. DESIGN When looking at the 9mm carbine scene, there are essentially three main operating systems available to the end user. The most basic — straight blowback — has the advantage of being inexpensive to manufacture, but comes with the downside of a heavy bolt and more recoil than the 9mm Luger cartridge has any right…

For almost the entirety of the 19th century, “repeating handgun” effectively meant “revolver.” Toward the close of that era, however, various mechanisms were employed to harness the energy of a fired cartridge to eject the spent case and feed a new one into the chamber in its place. Considering that the single most prolific originator of those mechanisms was one John Moses Browning, a citizen of the United States, it’s a matter of high irony that the U.S. domestic handgun market largely remained revolver country until well into the 1980s, nearly a hundred years after Browning ironed out his basic self-loader mechanisms. A large part of the reluctance of domestic shooters to wholeheartedly embrace the semiauto was because of Browning’s most iconic design, the M1911 (known in its civilian guise…

1 PAYNE LEATHER & TOOL DOUBLE-SIDED STROP PADDLE payneleatherandtool.com MATERIAL: Solid Red Oak MSRP: $85 NOTES: You’ve got some nice knives — everyday folders, a beast for the woods, and likely a decent set of blades for the kitchen. Guys who know how to take care of a knife use a strop. It’s normally the last step in deburring and setting the edge of a blade. But a strop used with some embedded abrasive compound will hone an unabused edge back to razor sharp without taking off as much metal as a stone or file. Payne’s handmade strop is wide enough to make easy work of full-size kitchen knives and is pre-impregnated with green compound on one side for aggressive honing and has natural leather for final stropping on the…

The American gun market, in the face of increasingly accurate and reliable drastic plastics, has seen a great surge of interest in legacy designs. Reviving the classics isn’t always a great idea; just under a decade ago Remington brought back the R51, and while hand-tuned preproduction samples generally ran well, when they hit full production any veneer of quality control and reliability went out for cigarettes and never came back. While not every gun is war-ready, nor should we expect it to be, expectations were set high by glowing reviews. But to be honest, most of the retreads have been pretty darn good — at lower price points to boot. The snake-series of quasi-custom Colts, the Python and Anaconda, live up to their legacies. 2011s, once considered finicky firearms, largely…

Walther’s PPS was introduced to the American market in 2007, and despite being a creditable design, never got the kind of attention it deserved. Once the Smith & Wesson Shield hit the shelves, followed by the fast-becoming-ubiquitous G43, it became about as noticeable as a middle child with braces. Which is a pity, as it’s actually pretty damn good. Responding to the market’s lack of empathy for the design, Walther relaunched the PPS as the M2 version in January, making a number of changes calculated to endear it to U.S. shooters. Gone is the Euro paddle mag release, replaced by an apple pie button at the rear of the trigger guard. The frame got smoothed out and rounded, losing some of the original’s Teutonic blockiness, and its trigger mechanism was…

We carry guns because we expect that at some point we may need to use them. We don’t want to be caught unprepared when a bad guy is doing bad things to … whom, exactly? Using lethal force against another human being is a serious undertaking. Using guns defensively requires us to buy and learn how to use one, to carry it with us even though it may be inconvenient or uncomfortable, and to understand the legal consequences that may result. The costs — monetary and otherwise — can be quite high. Even a justified shooting can still result in getting arrested, needing to hire a lawyer, and having your name and face in the local news as “that person who shot someone.” This isn’t a positive for you or…

Concealing a firearm can take a lot of effort. You might have to try or buy new equipment, change the way you dress, or spend lots of time making tiny adjustments to find the magic setup that makes your gun disappear completely. Is all of that work really necessary? You’ll often hear that “no one will notice.” People might even tell you about an openly carried gun that “nobody said anything about.” Printing, when some part of your gun shows through your clothing, might be dismissed as too obscure for somebody to identify — certainly to spot as a gun as opposed to some other object that might be causing an oddly shaped lump in your shirt or pants. WHEN THEY’RE RIGHT Sometimes, they’re right. There are a lot of…

For years we’ve been told we can’t make things here anymore. That American buyers are monogamously married to only the cheapest Chinese crap. The world of firearms has some exceptions, but many of these are due to import regulations rather than market forces. One such exception is optics, but that world has always been a bit bipolar. It’s one of the few places where you [used to] get what you pay for, but in the last decade the gap between the top-end German and Japanese glass and the great gray middle has been decidedly dwindling and the lower end of the market has long been a race to the bottom to see which American “manufacturer” can best wrap their product in pretend patriotism to undercut everyone else the most (until…

You know what people say about assumptions. We’re all familiar with that refrain: “Don’t assume, or you’ll make an ass out of u and me.” When we first saw some new weapon lights from a company called Nightstick that we didn’t recognize, we thought they looked like exact copies of Stream-light products. We assumed it was probably like the optics industry these days — companies touting a “brand new” product that they actually sourced and slightly tweaked from the same Chinese factory that manufactures for someone else. We didn’t give it much more thought until one muggy day in Dallas this summer. It happened at GRITR’s range and retail complex in the northeast corner of DFW. It’s a huge facility; in fact, it used to be a big-box home improvement…

STRIKE INDUSTRIES MASS DRIVER COMPENSATOR FOR GLOCK (GEN 3, 4, OR 5) STRIKEINDUSTRIES.COM MSRP: $100 Compensators on pistols have become increasingly popular, beyond just competition race guns. They redirect gases expelled from the muzzle to counteract muzzle flip and felt recoil. Nothing in life is free — they emit obnoxious muzzle blast and flash and can be finicky. Glock has long offered “C” versions of their pistols, ported on top for some reduction in muzzle rise. Attaching a full-blown aftermarket compensator to your Glock has typically involved swapping in a threaded barrel, then screwing on and timing the compensator. However, this requires you to purchase another barrel in addition to the compensator. Furthermore, in some states it’s illegal to install a threaded barrel in a semi-automatic handgun. Strike Industries designed…

1 XS SIGHTS MINIMALIST NIGHT SIGHTS xssights.com COMPATIBLE WITH: Several popular models from Glock, SIG Sauer, Springfield Armory, and more MSRP: Starting at $60 NOTES: A clear sight picture is just as important as what type of firearm you have. After all, you could have a Desert Eagle .50-caliber hand cannon, but if you can’t properly align your sights on your target in dim lighting, you won’t hit what you’re intending to destroy. That’s why having quality sights is so important. Enter the XS Minimalist Night Sights. Now available for the FN 509 and several popular models from SIG Sauer and Springfield Armory, this kit has a tritium dot in either orange or green on the front sight and a serrated, anti-glare rear sight. This minimalist design focuses your attention on the…

Who would you say was the gun culture figure whose name was most closely associated with the 1911-pattern pistol? Sure, yeah, John Moses Browning. OK, who would you say was the second most closely associated? We don’t think there would be a lot of debate were we to say Jeff Cooper. However, in addition to all the things he had to say about 1911s and the shooting thereof, there’s a quote of his related to the handgun biz in general. In answer to the question, “What’s it for?” regarding some unusual firearm, he’d quip, “To sell, of course.” And that brings us to the pistol at hand, Springfield Armory’s Emissary model. Initial reactions to the pistol from our more utilitarian-minded friends — even those who were avid closet fans of…

In case you’re not from the Emerald Isle, Cosaint means “protect” or “defend” in Irish Gaelic. Founded in North Carolina by Greg and Kim Mooney, Cosaint Arms is a relatively new pistol manufacturer, but that doesn’t mean they don’t take their work seriously. And having shot a number of their models, we can say with authority they definitely do. The founders’ personal work in the firearms and outdoor industry spans decades and encompasses time at Benchmade, Benelli, and Staccato. Although Cosaint’s catalog continues to expand, this article is about the COS21, a double-stack 9mm based on the 1911. While that may seem strange for what most shooters might consider to be a competition pistol, it might be time to get a better understanding of the connection between competitive shooting and…

When we travel with guns, we mostly worry about the problem of getting from point A to point B. Tips, tricks, and advice abound for traveling across state lines and boarding planes with firearms (in this issue, even), but there’s more to bringing your gun along on a trip. Too often, people forget to be concerned about whether they should pack a gun at all. You need to plan for your destination to decide whether you should worry about getting your gun there in the first place. If you haven’t thought about these things, you might be unpleasantly surprised: Arming up can be a challenge if you need to pack away your gun during your journey, perhaps because you’re driving through a state where concealed carry isn’t legal or you’re…

When it comes to weaponmounted duty lights for law enforcement and military professionals, the SureFire X300U is considered by many to be the gold standard. However, SureFire’s forays into the compact weaponlight segment haven’t always been as successful. Back in 2015, the company launched the XC1, a AAA-powered light with 200 lumens and a 1.5-hour runtime. Over the next few years, they revised this series with an optional laser and improved 300-lumen output. More recently, there was the XR1, which offered 800 lumens with dual LEDs powered by a rechargeable battery. But each of these designs required proprietary holster fitment and relied on atypical batteries, so they didn’t achieve the same level of widespread adoption as the full-size X300 series. FEATURES & DETAILS These days, if you’re looking for a…

The Slovak Republic, commonly called Slovakia, is a land of many names. This piece of earth has been continuously home and habitat to some form of peoples for over a quarter million years. Stretching from the early Paleolithic to modern day, uncountable kings, overlords, and empires planted their flags, changed names and governmental systems, and left indelible marks upon the land. The current nation iteration began in 1993 after the Velvet Divorce dissolution of Czechoslovakia. The official language is Slovak, a rich mix with at least three main dialects and dozens of regional variations. It also wouldn’t be strange to hear some Hungarian. Or English, Russian, or Roma. Slovakia also has great geographic diversity, especially for its size, and is home to forests, mountains, lakes, and lowlands. It’s in this…

Wilson Combat got their start back when the 1911 was king, 9mm was for weenies, and plastic guns belonged to Barbie. They quickly carved out a nice niche for themselves, producing high-quality pistols. Not a company known to bend to trends, new releases could be considered on the conservative end. But new releases they still have. We found their new Wilson Combat SFT9 advanced enough to grace the cover of CON-CEALMENT Issue 35. For the uninitiated, SFT9 stands for Solid Frame, TRAK grip, chambered in 9mm. So, the SFT9 looks like a frame with interchangeable grips but, in reality, it’s milled from a solid piece of aluminum. This allows for a thinner grip than you’d expect. With a 4.25-inch barrel and all sharp edges blended, the SFT9 is definitely designed…

For many years, it seemed like hammer-fired handguns had fallen out of favor, with striker-fired guns getting the lion’s share of the love. The former describes pistols, such as the 1911, that utilize a hammer (often external but sometimes hidden) that’s retracted by cycling the slide and then dropped when you press the trigger to ignite a round. The latter design includes pistols, like the Glock, that instead use an internal spring-loaded striker that’s released in order to send a round downrange. However, hammer-fired guns — and 2011-style pistols in particular — have proliferated in recent years as they’ve enjoyed a resurgence in popularity. These days, it’s not just gun boomers and competitive shooters who appreciate hammer-fired guns. There are some key advantages to hammer-fired guns. Single-action pistols require the…

It’s no secret that the coolest cucumber can think clearer and perform better in a violent physical altercation. Countless documentation of historical events has been written about the critical importance of staying cool under pressure, from Wyatt Earp to Kyle Carpenter. There are three things that can be done to keep your cool, should it hit the proverbial fan; listed in order of priority, they are: prepare your mind and body, map your environment, and have an operational plan. Humans need current information to make an accurate assessment and formulate a viable solution to a tactical problem. Anything other than relevant physical and mental input, rapid assessment, and a realistic solution can cause significant decision-making delays. In a life-and-death situation, even a few seconds of processing time can put you…

It won’t win you any games of Rock, Paper, Scissors, but rubber is an attractive option if you want a target that lasts almost forever. It’s an older concept but benefits from newer materials. Essentially, Infinity Targets are sheets of kind of special rubber shaped into targets. The primary method of mounting them is with large clips. To “reset” the targets you spray paint them any color you want. Mount the target, shoot the target, paint the target. That simple. ON THE RANGE Infinity Targets are best mounted using simple clips. Each target comes with clips for mounting, but buying some extras off Amazon is a good idea since sooner or later you’ll put a round through it. Bases can be bought directly from Infinite Defense, but just about any…

Covert Physical Surveillance (CPS) is a powerful tool often employed by government agents and law enforcement to gather intelligence, monitor suspects, and pursue criminals undetected. But these techniques aren’t exclusive to the good guys — increasingly, CPS is leveraged by criminals to stalk, intimidate, and even victimize unsuspecting targets. Understanding how CPS operates — and more critically, how to counter it — is vital not only for those in government service but for civilians, too. This threat isn’t just hypothetical. According to the U.S. Department of Justice’s Stalking Victimization Report (2019), about 1.3 percent of individuals aged 16 or older — equating to 3.4 million people — were victims of stalking that year. Disturbingly, only 29 percent of stalking victims reported the crime, with women affected at twice the rate…

1 NITECORE EDC37 FLASHLIGHT URL: nitecore.com MSRP: $140 NOTES: Nitecore has always made great lights, but their latest releases keep pushing the envelope on usability, ergonomics, and output. The new EDC37 is part of their line of everyday carry lights with a flat form factor, making them more comfortable and convenient to pocket carry than a comparable cylindrical flashlight. This one, while flat-ish, is seriously chonky with output to match — 8,000 lumens and 44,000 candelas out to 420 meters in so-called Lumen-Shield mode. You can ratchet it down to just 15 lumens in ultralow mode. The EDC37 features a super-convenient physical lock-out switch, two dual-stage tactical tail buttons, various configuration options, and a small OLED display. The battery is rated at 8,000 mAh, with a USB-C port for charging.…

Street Howitzer. Room Broom. Scattergun. Gauge. Twelve Iron. Brixton Typewriter. These are just some of the slang terms for one of the most misunderstood defensive weapons of the 21st century — the self-defense shotgun. For many younger or newer shooters, this class of firearm has been almost entirely written off in favor of short-barreled rifles, rifle-caliber “pistols,” and pistol-caliber carbines. This phenomenon isn’t without good reason. Low recoil, high capacity, faster reloads, and a myriad of aftermarket accessories make these alternatives highly attractive to both the novice and aficionado alike. When measured against pump-action guns, the rate of fire also becomes a factor. But the shotgun isn’t without its own advantages. Firepower per trigger press is going to be hard to beat. There’s also the ability to run buckshot, birdshot,…

Currently, concealed carry is all the rage in the USA. Most folks choose a handgun for CCW that is small, comfortable to carry, and most often chambered in a caliber that is easy to shoot. I’m amazed at the number of people who choose .32, .380, .38 Special, and 9mm pistols that are, in essence, pocket guns. All of these types of guns are selected by people who really don’t expect that they will ever really need one. Let’s be honest — most folks pick guns that they really don’t expect to use in a life-and-death encounter. A .32 ACP or .380 is certainly better than a sharp stick in a fight, but sadly, most of these small calibers are not always great in providing rapid incapacitation of a threat.…

It all started with the SIG SAUER P250. First introduced in 2007, and then largely abandoned merely a few years later, the P250 was one of the first, if not the first modular chassis system released by a major manufacturer. A chassis system refers to a design in which the receiver (the serialized “gun” part of a gun) is separate from both the slide and the grip. Ostensibly this means you could hot swap a chassis from grip to grip, from slide to slide, from caliber to caliber. But this wasn’t to be with the P250. SIG revised the grip in 2009, and previous magazines that worked no longer functioned with the new grip style. While some caliber and grip conversions exist, the platform never took hold like SIG originally…

1 REVENANT CORPS GROSBEAK OAL: 6 inches URL: revenantcorps.com MSRP: Starting at $110 NOTES: The Grosbeak from Revenant Corps is made entirely out of G-10. Why would you want an everyday-carry (EDC) tool made out of this type of fiberglass laminate? For starters, it’s non-metallic, so it won’t trigger metal detectors. Secondly, it’s resistant to water, oil, and chemicals. And last but not least, it has an amazing strength-to-weight ratio. The Grosbeak excels at thrusting, thanks to its modified drop-point blade profile and a tear-drop-shaped handle that’s great for a pistol grip. The drawback? Because it’s made of G-10 and not steel, its dual edge is too dull for precise cutting. Still, it makes for a strong defensive tool in non-permissive environments. Available with either a static-line or belt-clip sheath. Trainer…

The mongoose is a carnivorous mammal, a quick little bold badass impervious to most venoms that hails from Africa and south Asia. They’re known for adventurous attacks on dangerous creatures like king cobras and scorpions. This celebrated snake-eater once even graced the sides of quart cans of Mongoose Malt Liquor, complete with a cobra in the mouth. But this article isn’t about mammals or 8-percent ABV adult beverages, but instead the new 9mm Nemo Arms pistol caliber carbine. And while it remains to be seen if this one can eat a competitor named the Scorpion, we know that’s what the folks at Nemo are gunning for. Long before it was graced with a name, the initial concept of the Mongoose began back in the Lockdown days of 2020. The operation…

The subject of this Crapshoot came from a batch of police trade-ins from the evidence locker. Most were useless junk guns, but this Ruger New Model Single-Six was a mere $159. The reason for the low price was the barrel; a 3-inch section was thoroughly covered in rust and badly pitted. Its sole cylinder was .22 Magnum. One hell of a deal with a little elbow grease and a true crapshoot! BACKGROUND This revolver may have been one of the more popular revolvers of all time in the U.S. civilian market. It’s a single-action solid frame rimfire revolver based on the famous Colt Single Action Army of 1873. Unlike the original Colt model or Ruger’s first iteration, the New Model has a transfer bar, allowing the shooter to carry a…

In the 20th century if you wanted to put together a custom gun, the 1911 was the answer. In the 21st? It’s a Glock. There are more Glock clones out there than any other pistol by a hefty margin. It’s not hard to see why either, as all the critical dimensions have long been uncovered, and even midsize companies have access to milling machines so advanced only the likes of Ford Motor Co would have had just a few short years ago. Back in CONCEALMENT Issue 36 we updated the single-stack Glock 43, and today we’re going to take on the higher-capacity stagger-stack Glock 48. BASELINE Right from the beginning of any project you need to decide if you’re going to start from scratch or are going to modify something…

There’s a reason SIG Sauer has sold a gazillion P365 pistols over the years. They basically created the stagger-stack, micro-nine category that’s so enormously popular in the ever-growing concealed carry market. These kinds of handguns are thin, easy to conceal, comfortable to carry, and pack at least 10 rounds of 9mm. Due to their size and weight, they can be snappy but are still very shootable. These days, you’ll find many options from numerous manufacturers, typically following the striker-fired, polymer-framed formula. But what if you yearn for a more traditional blueprint? A gun that’s all-metal and single-action, like Saint John Moses Browning intended, while still packing a lot of firepower in a small package? First, let’s discuss why you might want such a thing in a world of tiny, wondrous,…

Shooters continue to look to wring more performance out of their guns, even those used for concealed carry. Radian Weapons is well known for their line of carefully crafted rifles and accessories, and they’re only too happy to oblige with their new line of parts and accessories for the SIG P365. In particular, the popularity of compensators keeps rising; SIG and many other manufacturers are now offering an array of compensated pistols straight from the factory. A few years ago, Radian introduced their Afterburner compensator and Ramjet barrel system for Glocks. They’ve now brought the system to the P365, so you can put together your own compensated P365. When you fire a round, the primer ignites the powder in the cartridge, and the projectile and propellant gases exit the muzzle.…

We wouldn’t be so bold as to try to divide the history of self-loading pistols into distinctly defined “generations,” as though they were jet fighters or Chevrolet Camaros. On the other hand, it’s pretty easy to divide the manufacturing techniques of semiautos into generations. GENERATIONS The earliest self-loaders date from the dawn of the semiautomatic era, at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th. At the time, most every pistol was made by taking a block of 4140 ordnance steel and machining away everything that didn’t look like a gun part. If there was a synthetic part on your pistol, it was a grip panel made of gutta-percha, hard rubber, or a similar material. For the next few decades, the pressures of global wars that…

Do you trust the government to make good decisions? Trust and government in the same sentence is definitely oxymoronic, but the sky is blue, and water is also wet. It’s frightening to think that major decisions depend on people who can’t determine what the meaning of the word “is” is. Which brings us to the government’s XM17 Modular Handgun System contract competition, or MHS for short. The M9, based on the Beretta 92FS, is at the end of its military service life, and the winner of the MHS (designated the M17 is to be its replacement). The story should end there, but there’s controversy, and the contract decision won’t go quietly into that good night. It’s hard to see anything through the fog of bureaucracy, and there are very few…

1 SUPERESSE EDC POCKET TIN www.superessestraps.com DIMENSIONS: 2 by 1.06 by 0.44 inches MSRP: Starting at $28 NOTES: What do you get when you mate together a box of mints, a prepackaged survival kit, and Rick Moranis’ shrinking machine? Whatever it is, it’s probably not going to be as cool as the EDC Pocket Tin. This simple-yet-ingenious concept consists of a small tin can filled with a kit (or kits) of tiny self-preservation supplies that you select. There are more than a dozen kits, each one themed — e.g. first aid, tactical ops, escape and evasion — and containing items ranging from CLP lube and cotton squares to a saw shim tool and non-metallic handcuff key. You can also pair it with a custom-made Kydex sheath, with or without a…

Nothing quite grabs our imaginations faster than a miniature, murdery pistol. It brings forth visions of Mossad agents doing wet work with secreted-away pistols in unusual places. While traditionally the Mossad was known for using another pizza pistol, the Beretta 70 threaded in 0.50x20mm, it doesn’t take too much imagination to see the 21A as a viable kissing cousin. When an Iranian nuclear scientist is found dead with a pair of small holes in their head, the Beretta Bobcat could easily be involved. First introduced in the mid ’80s, the Beretta 21A Bobcat is a coveted possession for many. While technically the 21A is offered in both 25ACP and 22LR, we don’t know anyone this side of 60 who uses one in anything other than 22LR. Over the last three…

Back in 2017, SIG Sauer made headlines by winning the U.S. Army Modular Handgun System (MHS) contract with their P320 pistol. This program would not only replace the aging Beretta M9s in inventory, but also represented a fundamental shift in how pistols were employed by the military. This big win was followed up in 2018 with SIG’s release of the P365 changing the concealed carry game with the inclusion of a modular chassis and, importantly, its high-capacity stagger-stack magazine. Most CCW pistols that have been released in the intervening years have been copying and aping those features as best they can. While there have been shorter and more-compact P320s and also longer-barreled P365s, there was still that gap between the two worlds. SIG made the P365 X-Macro to spackle it…

Set the controls on the Wayback Machine to Y2K, Sherman. We’re going to the old GlockTalk.com forum to see what the most hoped-for new pistol from Glock was among its most rabid fans back there in the day. While either bitrot or a blown software upgrade erased the forum’s actual archives that far back, some of us were there, Gandalf. We can tell you that two decades ago the most anticipated pistol from Glock was a single-stack variant of the Glock 19. After all, the newest hotness from Smyrna in those days was the Model 36, which took the basic architecture of the 10-shot double-stack Glock 30 .45 ACP compact and slimmed it down by two-tenths of an inch, by using a six-round staggered magazine. This was the middle of…

1 NEXTORCH WL14 nextorch.com WEIGHT: 1.7 ounces MSRP: $45 NOTES: Having a weapon-mounted light on your carry pistol is more common than it used to be, but not everyone has the means to shell over three Benjamins or more for a premium model. Enter Nextorch and its WL14. This compact weapon-mounted light is for shooters looking for a budget buy that punches above its weight. The WL14 puts out 500 lumens on high for more than an hour and 52 lumens on low for up to 2.5 hours — all on a built-in 250 mAh battery that can be recharged via a USB-C cord. It’s easy to install and, thanks to a simple two-button interface, even easier to use under duress. Plus, it’s water resistant, thanks to its IPX7 rating.…

Pistol-caliber carbines, SBRs, and large-format pistols have become very popular, serving many useful purposes. Pistol ammo is more affordable than rifle calibers, making it more palatable to train, compete, and plink with them; you can also share ammo with your handguns. While terminal ballistics and reach can’t compare to rifle loads, modern defensive pistol ammo is quite effective. And even if you rely on a typical rifle for self defense, like a 5.56mm AR-15, you can train and practice with a 9mm AR-15 that has a similar manual of arms to save money and expand your options. For instance, depending on where you live, it may be easier to find places to shoot pistol calibers, and clubs that only have pistol bays may host action shooting matches designed for PCCs,…

The Taurus Judge Executive Grade is one of the latest offerings from Taurus Firearms. It’s a large-frame revolver designed to fire both .410-shotgun shells and .45 Colt (also known as “45 Long Colt”) ammunition; only in this case it has received a lot more attention from a select group of gunsmiths at the Taurus plant. Some people may be thrilled at this idea, and some are probably scratching their heads and asking, “Why?” Little shot capsules have been popular in revolvers for decades. They’re great for making short work of rodents, snakes, and other vermin at close range — provided you’re OK with a bit of a mess. They’re relatively rare, but still available in most calibers from .22LR and up. Back in the early 1990s, the time of Operation…

These days, it seems that if you’re a gun maker and you don’t offer a 2011, you ain’t sh*t. Rather than follow the crowd, Kimber decided to put its own spin on the double-stack, 9mm, single-action-only formula, and we’re actually glad they did. Instead of being wedded to the 2011 magazine, the KDS9C manages to shave off a few millimeters from its grip dimensions by being built around a metal mag designed from the outset for the 9mm Luger cartridge, rather than swaging down a .45ACP tube. It’s the same tactic employed by Wilson Combat and their EDC X9 and SFT9 (see CONCEALMENT Issue 36), only at a lower price point. NUTS AND BOLTS Up top, the KDS9C uses a some-what traditional 1911-style slide. Purists will turn their noses up…

It’s late on a Friday night (early on a Saturday morning, if we’re being honest). You’ve been hanging out with a few friends from the office at a local watering hole in the nightlife district to celebrate finishing up a grueling end-of-quarter report. Leaving the bar and heading for your car that you left in a pay-to-park lot with a live human attendant, you decide to take a shortcut down an alley. It’s late, it’s cold, it’s only a half a block off the main drag, and it’s a pretty good part of town. As you walk down the alleyway, a very sinister-looking dude with a drawn handgun held at his waistline rolls out away from the wall so that he’s facing you squarely from 21 feet away. Rather than…

So-called “large format pistols” have always been a nicheyet-favored design by a lot of shooters. This is especially true if your childhood was populated by heroes and villains who used them in ’80s and ’90s movies, comics, and video games. If anything, it’s proof positive that some designs may look cool in works of fiction, but don’t quite cut it in the real world of shooting, even if it’s a range toy. The Blade6 by GForce (sounds like “gee force”) Arms struck me and CON-CEALMENT Editor David Merrill as sort of a TEC-9 for the 21st century. Both are large format, blowback-operated pistols, chambered in 9mm, and have or had a relatively low retail price point (when adjusted for purchasing power, the TEC-9 in 1990 and the Blade6 in 2025…

When selecting a handgun for concealed carry, the common choices are a subcompact polymer .380 ACP, a striker-fired stagger-stack 9mm, or a snub-nosed revolver. Wait a minute — a snub-nosed revolver? Do we mean a wheel gun? A six-shooter, like they used during the Gold Rush of 1849 or in Tombstone at the O.K. Corral? Not exactly, but if you’re a shooter who was raised on Glocks and SIGs, you may need to acquaint yourself with this other concealed-carry option that never seems to go away despite advancements in firearms technology. The appeal of revolvers lies in their lightweight construction, ease of use, reliability, and ease of concealment. Each of these factors plays a crucial role in any plan for carrying a handgun covertly, and perhaps explains why the “six-shooter”…

For the longest time, whenever the name “Bersa” came up in American gun-owning circles it was essentially always in the same context: Someone will have been asking about a good, affordable gun for concealed carry, and Bersa would be mentioned. This is entirely because Bersa made the Thunder 380, which many people describe as essentially a product-improved version of the Walther PPK. Slightly bigger, noticeably lighter, and (depending on the pedigree of your PPK) much more accurate, the Thunder 380 is absolutely unusual in that it was a South American clone of a European pistol that was arguably better than the original. There were plenty around back when KelTec shook up markets with truly pocketable pistols, but long in the tooth by the time SIG did the same with the…

There’s an entire contingent of people who will tell you to simply walk away when faced with an angry [insert offender here]. The thing is, sometimes if you do that you’re just as likely to catch a beer bottle to the head as you are to walk away unharmed. Turning your back on someone who’s more than slightly displeased with you is rarely a good idea. So, what do you do in scenarios where it’d be flat stupid to turn your back, but it’s also not reasonable to draw your gun? Here’s a hot tip: de-escalate. WHY DE-ESCALATE? We’re all familiar with the concept of escalation, and you probably understand introducing a firearm into the mix is generally not considered a way to calm things down. Every so often it…

About 60 years ago, Steve McQueen played a bounty hunter armed with a cutdown Winchester 1892 lever action. It had no stock and was called the Mare’s Leg on the TV show Wanted: Dead or Alive. No such weapon had ever existed in the historical West, but it became an iconic Hollywood so-called “Western” firearm — so much so that Henry Repeating Arms produced a version of it using the same name. Their latest incarnation, known as the Henry Axe, follows this tradition but as a .410 smoothbore. The Henry Axe falls into that nebulous class of firearms known simply as “firearms.” These types of guns must be a minimum of 26 inches in overall length, are allowed a smoothbore instead of a rifled one, and have never had a…

As a society, we’re obsessed with the newest and shiniest trinkets — if it’s not this year’s model, then it can’t be any good. This thinking sometimes extends to our CCW pieces, and we’re often led to believe that a carry gun has to have a freshly minted polymer frame and fashy advertising campaign to be worthy of place in our armory. This is kind of like saying that because an Aston Martin Vanquish rolled off the production line in 2001, it’s no longer an ass-kicking vehicle. For those of us with families to support and bills to pay, the latest and greatest pistol might not be such a great purchase, if by so doing we’re left with nothing in the budget for quality defensive loads, training ammo, or a…

The cottage industry for aftermarket accessories, enhancements, and modifications for carry and duty pistols has grown to levels previously unseen in the American firearms market. Customization, personalization, and modularity are the names of the game in today’s pistol scene. While it’s unlikely that any big box manufacturer of firearms will ever be able to outpace or out-spec the aftermarket for pistol upgrades, (some) of these companies are growing more savvy by the quarter and realize that it’s possible to at least keep up. Walther’s PPQ M2 line of carry and defensive pistols have a lot going for them. They fit the industry-standard size sweet spot that makes them usable for duty issue or concealed carry. The ergonomics are commendable. The trigger is perfectly acceptable. But, as with most things, there’s…

Sometime in the middle half of the ’90s, my friend Norm was getting excited about a new pistol coming to the market. He was a casual hunter, fisherman, and worked on engines — and his idea of an expensive handgun was anything over $200. The gun he was excited about? A 9mm Jennings. Norm wasn’t exactly a gun guy, but he had enough information to know better. I hadn’t seen, heard, or thought much of Norm in close to 30 years, but coming across a chrome-plated Bryco Jennings for $121 involuntarily invoked this mullet-sporting mechanic once again. HISTORY When most of us think of Jennings or Bryco, we think of cheap, essentially disposable blowback semiauto pistols that retailed for under $100 back in the 1970s through the 1990s. They were…

For most of the 20th century in the U.S. of A., good guy handguns came in three flavors. For uniformed military personnel, there was the Colt M1911A1 Government Model. For law enforcement officers, security guards, and others who carried their handguns openly in a holster on a basket weave leather belt, there was the Smith & Wesson Model 10 Military & Police revolver, based on S&W’s medium-size six-shot .38 Special “K-frame.” Finally, there was the diminutive five-shot .38 Special S&W Model 36 Chiefs Special (note that there’s properly no apostrophe in “Chiefs”) on the smaller “J-frame” for detectives, plainclothes cops, and the rare private citizen who had a toter’s permit in those generally more-restrictive times. Smith still makes plenty of Jframes, but they tend to be one of a host…

Thin pistols are easier to conceal and more comfortable to carry than thick ones. It should be no surprise, then, that the slimline series of GloGlocks — namely the 43, 43X, and 48 — have been extremely popular choices for everyday carry. However, SIG upstaged them with the P365 and its healthy magazine capacity, soon followed by many other manufacturers — all using more space efficient metal magazines. The Achilles’ heel of the slimline Glocks has always been its thick-walled, lower capacity polymer magazines. Still, people love and/or trust Glocks so much that many either accept this or use higher-capacity aftermarket metal mags like those from Shield Arms. What if there were a Glock-pattern slimline pistol that was designed from the factory to feed from metal magazines? Well, indeed there…

We all make mistakes and assumptions, and here the first mess up was thinking of Sarsilmaz like just another Turkish gun company. You might know the type: the ones churning out strange shotguns with questionable-at-best quality. Plastic pistols that feel like their frames were formed from melted yard flamingos and Faygo bottles. Yes, there are many that don’t care if a gun gets bungled or a bundled optic fails on the fifth shot or even works at all — just so long as it costs next to nothing. Pity the person who doesn’t know the difference, because shady gun shops pay their bills by bilking them. It is true several Turkish companies have come a long way (looking at you, Canik), but prior to this piece I didn’t have…

When it comes to carrying a concealed handgun for personal protection, there are many things that need to be considered. The ammunition you’ll carry in that handgun is critical because the bullet it fires is what you ultimately hope will stop the fight … or end whatever attack you’re experiencing. There’s a lot of information available from manufacturers about the bullets they offer, and there’s a lot of information on the internet where users have tested them. However, for you to fully understand this information, you need a working knowledge of bullets. Understanding how they’re different and what makes them work is part of that, but so, too, is an understanding a bullet’s anatomy. BULLET BASICS Simplified, there are two types of defensive handgun bullets — jacketed and monometal —…

The coach gun isn’t a new addition to the defensive equipment lineup. It’s a tool that’s been around for as long as we’ve used wheeled transportation with items or people to protect. As times (and coaches) have changed, the coach gun has also evolved. The coaches most of us think about are the Old West coaches and their armament. When Wells Fargo shipments were transported on horse-drawn wagons, the employees assigned to security were issued break open, double-barreled shotguns. Why a shotgun, versus carbine or rifle of some sort, would be speculation on my part. Since a business ran those coaches, and the guns were issued, perhaps it was a decision based on budgets rather than effectiveness. We could run down the rabbit hole of why, but that isn’t the…

1 Oakley, Daniel Defense, and Cerakote. It’s a complicated love triangle. Oakley offered Cerakote eyewear in early 2013, and DD started its own family of Cerakote-colored rifles in late 2013. Even TMZ isn’t sure how all three hooked up, but we can report the ménage à trois has produced some lovely offspring. The collaboration includes three of Oakley’s Standard Issue frames, the SI Gascan, SI Fuel Cell, and SI Det Cord (shown). They’ll be Cerakoted with Daniel Defense’s signature colors, Tornado and Mil Spec+, along with a special model decked out in Oakley’s own Ultrablend camo pattern. Look closely, and you’ll see the “O” logos on the temples sport a DD handguard motif. Coming from the SI side of the house, these frames and lenses boast military standards for protection…

There are corners of the internet who are super excited about this revolver, talking like it’s the first optics-ready revolver from the factory since Sam Colt decided to put multiple chambers in a cylinder. Dude, settle down. First of all, optics on revolvers date back at least to the point where someone figured out that if you pull the adjustable rear sight off a Smith & Wesson revolver you’ll uncover a couple of threaded screw holes. For decades, however, this didn’t matter. Anyone who was bolting an optical sight on a revolver, whether a low-powered Leupold pistol scope for wrecking Bambi’s day or a red dot Tasco for wrecking house at Bianchi Cup, had a narrow use case for replacing the classic iron sights of the All-American Wheelgun with…

Everything about modern vehicle design is intended to make us feel safe and isolated from the outside world. And if we look back at history, we quickly realize it’s more than just a feeling — it’s backed by mountains of data. There’s been a 95-percent improvement regarding fatalities in the last hundred years because of new and better safety systems combined with significant advancements in medical technology; the vast majority of automobile accidents are now survivable. Yet, per the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the number of fatal accidents increased by 28-percent nationwide over the last several years. While percentages of survivability are useful when crafting public policy, they’re cold comfort for someone bleeding out on a boulevard — and anyone who has been driving for more than five years…

From the mid ’90s until the early 2010s … call it 1994 to 2011-ish … if you walked up on the support-hand side of a uniformed law enforcement officer in the United States and wanted to bet a friend what was in the holster on the side of their duty belt you couldn’t see, you were probably within a coin flip’s accuracy by wagering the duty gun was a .40-caliber Glock 22. For probably better than a decade and a half, the .40-cal full-size blaster from Austria was practically the definitive cop gun in the duty holsters of America. But even that lengthy run of dominance is only second place when it comes to good-guy gats. The uncontested heavyweight champion, , long-term survivor of the domestic law enforcement sidearm market,…

1 BURRIS FASTFIRE C burrisoptics.com WEIGHT: 0.44 ounces MSRP: $276 NOTES: Burris’s FastFire lineup features red-dot optics for a wide range of applications. But its latest addition, the FastFire C, is made specifically for the concealed carry user. Weighing less than 1 ounce with a 1.61-inch length, the FastFire C is ideal for subcompact and micro-compact pistols that will see daily use. It’s “Always On” technology ensures its ready after the initial power-up and will automatically adjust the reticle brightness level based on the ambient light condition. Powered by a single CR2032 battery, it features a 25,000-hour run time. This Burris red-dot has a low profile that allows for absolute or ⅓ co-witness with standard open sights, so you don’t need elevated sights. And its 6-MOA dot allows for easy aiming and…

The Browning Hi Power is one of the most successful handgun designs of all time. In the course of its near-century of production, it has been made not just by FN in Belgium, but also across the globe, often under license from FN, but also by simply ripping off the design. One licensed manufacturer was FM (confusing, we know) of Argentina, which produced a chopped version of the Hi Power with a 3.9-inch barrel that they named the Detective. Both the complete gun and the shortened slide assembly were available in the United States until the early 2000s, and a small clique of devotees sought to produce what they deemed to be the ultimate carry gun by teaming an FN aluminum frame with a short FM slide. But let’s not…

It’s not every day you can find any type of a SIG handgun for less than $200 (except for maybe a Mosquito, but we won’t go there). Yet that’s what happens when you find one out of production and a little outdated. SIG Sauer’s P230 was supposed to be a revolutionary concealed carry piece for police and civilians when it debuted in 1977, but does a pistol like this still hold up today? HISTORY In the early to mid 1970s, West Germany experienced a series of violent attacks carried out by terrorist organizations, political extremists, and heavily armed criminals. The police were armed with basically World War II relics and needed something to up the ante. This gave rise to development of such iconic guns like the HK P7, Walther…

“Ninety-nine percent of the time, nothing happens,” Philip Toppino says at the beginning of class. We’d just been led through the WOFT morning ritual of the Pledge of Allegiance, a spoken prayer, and the national anthem. “But if it does — you need to know what to do.” Originally founded as West Orlando Firearms Training, this Lake County company soon rebranded as WOFT (pronounced “wahft” but meaning Where Our Families Train), as their classes quickly moved beyond the gun. WOFT advertises themselves as providing real-life scenario safety and instruction, and I would spend a late October weekend with them learning exactly what that means. About an hour from Orlando International, the entrance to WOFT is down a sandy road recently disturbed by the two-punch combination of hurricanes Helene and Milton.…

It was only 2024 when we first featured the Diamondback Firearms SDR in CONCEALMENT Issue 38. That polished stainless steel piece puts six rounds of powerful .357 Magnum in a package roughly the size of a five-shot .38 Special J-frame. Then, they followed up with a 9mm model chock full of ballistic surprises we detailed in Issue 46 (that one was liked so much it quickly became a carry piece). Now Diamondback is back again, fulfilling their promise that they are dedicated to the revolver space with the new SDR-A. What you see here on the page is technically a pre-production prototype, but only technically — Diamondback doesn’t anticipate a single change between what we’re writing about and what’s going to be on the shelves by the time this issue…

If you need a better understanding of tactics — high risk vehicle stops, CQB, etc. — you need someone who has practiced and employed those skills over a period of years and carries some practical experience, ideally in the form of an ex-military operator or ex-LEO. But, by that same standard, if you want to get better at shooting, you should seek someone who has practiced and employed that skill over a period of years with some form of practical application. When it comes to the technical skills associated with concealed carry performance shooting, Gabe White meets and exceeds this standard with flying colors. His accomplishments behind a pistol are practical and substantial. Among the accolades listed in his bio, he is the only person in the world to clean…

When Diamondback Firearms released their 2-inch Self-Defense Revolver chambered in .357 Magnum back in 2024, we were impressed. Impressed enough that the .357 actually gets used and carried. Impressed enough that we asked them for more. And when we did, Diamondback assured us they would oblige, declaring their commitment to the revolver space. Here is our next taste of more, the SDR chambered in 9mm. Well, not just 9mm. They also have a 3-inch .357 Magnum model to better take advantage of the ballistics, as well as versions of each in a muted glass bead stainless and a hard black nitride, some paired with a Hogue wood grip instead of soft rubber. But here, where beauty doesn’t reign supreme but definitely counts for something, we went with a 2-inch barreled…

When it comes to responsible home defense, you have to see it before you shoot it. Which means your home-defense gun should have a light on it, or you should be able to hold a light while you use it. If you’re using the classic pump gun, however … well, this whole “put a light on it” is most often just no fun. There aren’t many good places to put them, the recoil gives little leeway to poor quality and bad design, and the ergonomics are usually awful. It’s for this reason that the best solutions here are always dedicated solutions. Hell, this is how SureFire first became well known. Back then, they were called “Laser Products,” and their premier product was a shotgun forend light LAPD procured in advance…