Home Authors Posts by Patrick Sweeney

Patrick Sweeney

Night Divides The Day: Choosing The Best Pistol Light

These days, nearly every handgun comes with a rail, so here are some top pistol light choices to help destroy the night.

There was a time when it simply wasn’t possible to mount a light onto your firearm. Oh, duct tape, hose clamps and an indifference to tactical fashion could get a flashlight attached to your riot gun or AR-15, but people wouldn’t have called you clever for that—not even back in the 1980s.

Now, it’s rare a pistol doesn’t have a rail for light-mounting, and the choice of lights to mount are near legion.

Streamlight TLR-1

TLR-SIG-450.jpg

To some, basic is boring. To others, it’s dependable. The TLR-1 isn’t new, it’s not flashy, but it works. And has worked for years. Using a pair of CR123 batteries, it generates 300 lumens of light and continues to do so for two and a half hours. If you’re simply playing the numbers game, 300 might not seem like much, but when it came out that was plenty. And it still is in a lot of circumstances and locations. Indoors, in particular, too many lumens can be a problem. If the predominant paint color on your walls at home is Navajo White, you’re not going to need, nor like, 1,000 lumens.

If, however, you do want to have enough lumen horsepower to signal the mothership, then let’s go up in power.

Streamlight TLR-9

tlr9

Back in the old days, if we wanted lots of lumens, the choice was the TLR-1HL, a high-output light with 1,000 lumens. You can still have it, but a more modern and better choice is the TLR-9. A thousand lumens, but now in a sleeker package. Instead of side-by-side configuration, the “9” loads the CR123 batteries in line, so you don’t have a fat box under your pistol. This does make it a bit long, but if you want 1,000 lumens for an hour and a half, you’ll need a pair of batteries. It has a toggle/rocker switch at the rear you can reach from either side and a light lock-out feature. This lets you make sure the light doesn’t get switched on when you put it away, only to find the batteries dead some time later. (You do have to remember to unlock it when you next go to load up and carry, but Streamlight can’t do everything for you.)

Let’s take a step back and consider not all lighting options need to be focused on power, even if it means bulk.

Streamlight TLR-8

Streamlight-TLR-8-1
The Streamlight TLR-8 fits on the EAA P35 just fine and works like a charm.

This is a light for compact pistols, but it works on full-sized ones as well. The “8” indicates it’s the light/laser combo, and its companion non-laser model is the TLR-7. It generates 500 lumens and offers a strobe function as well. There are dual buttons on either side of your trigger guard (as mounted), and as with all lights, you’ll have to learn the touch-press-hold pattern that generates the desired function. You have the choice of red or green lasers but not in the same unit. Pick one—that’s the color you get. The TLR-7/8 uses a single battery, the common for lights CR123A battery that’s now an everyday item even in big-box hardware stores.

Streamlight-TLR-8
The Streamlight TLR-8, with its adapter plates and tools I used to install it onto and off various pistols.

One detail of the TLR-8 (and the 7) that I like is that the light comes with a set of adapter plates. You need to install one of the plates in the body of the light and then fit the light to your pistol. This permits Streamlight to make a single shell with light, battery compartment and controls; by installing a plate, you fit it to your pistol. That means they don’t have to stock a dozen inventory items to fit everything, and you can make it fit whatever pistol you have … or the next one … or the next.

The attachment isn’t fast or overly engineered. It’s a simple screw that pulls the clamp plate on the far side tight to the rail. The slot on the screw has been produced to fit a coin, so whatever pocket change you have will suffice to tighten, or check the tightness of, your TLR-8.

Lights last a long time.

Insight X2

Insight-X2
Don’t overlook old lights. This Insight X2 may not be blinding, but it’s compact, puts out plenty of light and fits on everything (at least everything I’ve tried it on—and that’s a lot of pistols).

One of my favorite compact lights is the Insight X2, a light/laser combo. The listed light output is only 80 lumens. However, every time I fire it up, I have to ask myself, Who measured that? It punches above its specs. I hang onto it because it hasn’t quit; it’s easy-on, easy-off, fits on everything and produces plenty of light for plenty of applications. Did I mention it fits on everything? If you see an orphan tactical light, don’t pass it up just because it isn’t he newest. New is good, but old can be useful.

Insight-X2-pistol-light
To show versatility, a compact light fits onto a full-sized pistol—and works. Don’t worry too much about lumens; get what fits, works and you’re comfortable with.

Money matters, so let’s not break the bank while lighting up the night, shall we?

Crimson Trace Lightguard

Crimson-Trace-Lightguard

The Crimson Trace Lightguard series doesn’t cover a lot of pistols, only nine models, and they’re not going to get you “what SEALs use” points on your man-card, but not everyone wants to light the dark for any reason other than they have a practical need. The Lightguard series fit onto the trigger guard or accessory rail. They offer ambidextrous controls for momentary and constant-on, and the output, at 110 lumens isn’t going to be laser-like; it’ll show you what’s trying to hide in the dark. Each one comes with the batteries it uses, a pair of 1/3N cells (aka CR1/3N) and will run for an hour on those. With a list price of $90, you can have light on your pistol, even if it’s an older model (one of the nine Crimson Trace makes this for) that doesn’t have an accessory rail.

Crimson-Trace-Lightguard-pistol-light

If you have to have the best, the biggest, baddest, most durable light to be had, then we know which aisle to be shopping in.

SureFire X300

SureFire-X300-2
The SureFire X300 Turbo fits on a lot of pistols, but boy is it big. Then again, it’s tough, so pick wisely for the pistol you use.

The big daddy of lights—in performance and price—the X300 offers you 1,000 lumens. Now, before we get to gushing over the SureFire light, we again have to consider light. And backgrounds. A thousand lumens is great if you’re checking the exterior of your house, out in the country. (Perhaps a rifle or shotguns might be a better tool …) Indoors, maybe not so much. A thousand lumens, especially if your décor tends toward the lighter colors (or white), can cause a lot of “backsplash.” That’s the excess light you’ve projected out, reflecting off light or bright surfaces and bouncing back into your eyes. Disorienting the bad guy with light is great, but not if you’re doing the same thing to yourself.

SureFire-X300-1
The SureFire X300 Turbo fits nicely on this XD-M Elite, but then it’s a big pistol, so a big light isn’t a big deal.

If you have a need for it, and the practice to manage it, the SureFire is king of the hill in pistol lights. It does this with two CR123A batteries, so it’s not as compact as other lights. It offers a quick-attach mount system and can be configured to fit various-sized rails. It’s waterproof to 1 meter for 30 minutes—probably longer than you can hold your breath—and it’s the epitome of solid construction.

SureFire-X300-3
The SureFire light uses a quick-detach system that locks in place and is fast, but you might not fit it onto every pistol out there.

The X300 has toggle levers that are easy to use and work the same on each side of the trigger guard. Those of us with longer fingers find that with some mounting setups we can use the support-hand thumb as the light control.

However, in addition to the extra bulk dictated by the dual batter power (which generates its 1,000 lumens for an hour and a quarter), you also pay for this performance in other ways. At 4 ounces in weight, the X300 is heavier than other lights. It has an extended light housing, making the SureFire itself 3 1/2 inches long. And the price is as much as double that of other lights. But if you want a light no one can speak down on, and want buckets of lumens, Surefire is your go-to.

Spot, flood, “hot,” splash, backup and practice.

Beyond The Lumens

There’s more to light than lumens. Ever wonder why some big bulbs are denoted as spotlights and others as floodlights? Think about it. A spotlight is just that, all (or almost all) of the light generated is focused into a tight circle. Add a pile of lumens to that and you have some interesting reach. With a rifle, in the outside and open, that could be good. If I’m in the country and trying to shoot a problem on the farm at night, a spotlight lets me get a good ID when aiming my rifle. If, however, I want to evenly illuminate the yard or enclosure, I use a floodlight. Weaponlights work the same way.

A “hot” center is a combo, a flood of light, but with a brighter center. You can illuminate the edges, but the bright center is the part lighting up your point of impact.

Splash is light that spills out from where you’re pointing your weaponlight. You must check your local laws, because in a lot, if not all of them, pointing a loaded firearm at someone without legal justification is a crime on your part. One or another variation of assault with a deadly weapon is the charge that’ll be listed, if it gets that far. Even if there are no charges filed, it’ll almost certainly be cause for lifting of your CPL, probably on the subject of “brandishing.” So searching while using a weaponlight as the sole tool of illumination is a fraught proposition. However, with training and practice, you can use the splash from your light to illuminate without actually sweeping someone with your muzzle. It’s not always easy, but it can be done.

Streamlight-TLR-8-pistol-light

Oh, and batteries? Stock up. There’s not much more discouraging than hearing something go bump in the night and when you go to see what it is, discover the battery is dead. Buying batteries one at a time is just crazy—buy in bulk. A quick check of batter costs showed me that I could get CR123s one at a time for four or five bucks each, but if I bought them by the dozen or more, they cost just $1.50 each. The bigger the bulk, the lower the unit cost, but even I take a long time to grind through 100 batteries.

We use lights at night, but not a lot of ranges let you shoot with the lights out—nor do gun clubs like night-time practice. So, you’ll be doing a lot of your practice in the daytime. Do it and learn to press the light on for what you need as you’re doing the drill you’re doing while shooting. Practice is practice, even if it’s in the daytime for getting ready for the night.

Editor's Note: This article originally appeared in the November 2023 issue of Gun Digest the Magazine.


More Rifle And Pistol Lights:

Revolver Gear: The HKS Speedloader

If you carry a defensive revolver, you’re going to want an HKS speedloader.

I still remember the first time I saw an HKS speedloader in action.

I was working at The Gun Room, and the boss, Mike Karbon, found and stocked them. When we made a sale for a duty-type or defensive revolver (which were most sales back then, being next to Detroit in the 1980s), he’d say, “You’ll want a speedloader with that.” Most were dubious, as it was a new thing, and most were suspicious.

hks-speedloader-feature
Despite all four of these looking the same, they’re for four different .38/.357 revolvers. You have to make sure you get the right one. Once you do, you’re golden.

Mike had a demo loader he’d pick up, hurling it across the shop floor to ricochet off the floor, into a corner and off a strategically placed wooden ammo crate. The customer would pick it up, and then Mike would hold it up, turn the knob and the rounds would drop free. Sale made.

Made of durable plastic (before “polymer” became a household word) and aluminum, the demo rounds in it wouldn’t chamber and should never have gotten fired, but the HKS worked.

The durability of the HKS came with some minor downsides, however. First, it was caliber and revolver specific. Caliber is understandable, as you wouldn’t expect a .38 speedloader to hold .44s or vice versa. But the cylinder diameters on various revolvers differed, and the spacing had to be just right for the rounds to drop out of the HKS and into the cylinder. As a result, we had to stock the full range just to be covered. This was despite most of our customers being Detroit PD, with most carrying .41s, .44s and .45s. Still, someone who packed a five-shot J-frame often wanted extra ammo, too, so we stocked the full line.

A quick current check turns up HKS, and the full line is even fuller. From .22 LR up to .45, I count 21 models fitting a host of revolvers, mostly S&W, Colt, Ruger and Taurus. That’s most of the wheelguns now, isn’t it?

Nothing Is Perfect

The HKS does have some minor drawbacks.

First of all, the lock and release is a rotating knob. The cylinder of your revolver must be pinned in place (a thumb or fingertips will do that with proper technique), or turning the knob just spins the cylinder. There’s no spring propulsion, so the muzzle must be pointed down to load. You need gravity, and gravity only works in one direction. Their durability means a certain amount of bulk. Loading strips, flat plastic/rubber strips that hold five or six rounds in a line, can be pocketed or carried in a flatter pouch. They aren’t as fast or secure as an HKS, but they are flatter.

hks-speedloader
Since you have to turn the knob, you have to make sure your cylinder is pinned in place. That’s not a problem, as proper technique ensures that.

Lastly, while the HKS webpage gives you info, you can’t order them. You have to go to a retailer or an online store. The simplicity of their design means that had revolvers remained as mainline defensive carry handguns, we’d be buried under Chinese clones. But HKS speedloaders (assuming you don’t get taken by copies) are made in the United States, from materials made in the United States.

It didn’t take long before Mike had to retire that HKS speedloader. Not because he broke it—word quickly spread, and he no longer had to do the demo … despite speedloaders, as a uniform item, not being on the approved-wear list. That said, Detroit PD officers didn’t care, and their shift supervisors knew that if they did an inspection and made officers take them off, the HKS pouches and loaders would be back on their officer’s belts before anyone’s first cup of coffee had gotten cold.

When something is so good that people will break the rules to use it, you know it’s good.

Editor's Note: This article originally appeared in the August 2023 issue of Gun Digest the Magazine.


More On Speedloaders:

Just Checking: Why You Need A Case Gauge

Some mistakes you make only once.

If you want to practice more, you reload your ammo. If you want the best-possible ammo for a given competition, you reload your ammo. And, sooner or later, when vacuuming up the range, you’ll pick up a piece of brass that won’t chamber after you’ve gone to the trouble of cleaning, sizing, priming and loading it. Usually that happens in a match. Murphy’s Law and such.

That night you’ll be searching out case gauges online. Save yourself the match hassle and do it now. Case checkers are simple—a steel or aluminum block with the chamber reamed to absolute minimum chamber dimensions. These are used in rifle reloading to check the “shoulder bump,” the setting back of the shoulder you check so you have a proper headspacing setup in your reloading. You use them a bit differently for handguns.

Case-Gauge-feature-EGW-Dillon
Many people make case checkers: Just get the caliber you need … and use it. These are from EGW and Dillon.

After you’ve sorted and cleaned your brass (and checked for cracked ones as well), load your ammo. Once you have a batch or several loaded, simply spend some boring alone time dropping each loaded round into the case gauge. Then, turn the gauge over to let it fall out. If this is your match ammo, you’d be wise to also look at and touch the primer on each one to make sure it’s properly seated (not sideways, upside down or crushed) … and below flush.

If a round won’t drop completely of its own weight, it fails. If it won’t drop out of its own weight when you turn the case gauge over, it fails. Set the fails aside.

What passes is your good ammo, and you can practice or compete with it with complete confidence. What do you do with the fails? Learn. First, inspect them. Do they appear normal? Good. Keep them. The ones where the bullet caught the case mouth and crumpled the case, slipped sideways and did the same, or other case-mangling errors are discards. You might not be belling the empties enough, or you might be ham-handed in setting bullets or pulling the press handle.

Dillon-Case-Gauge
Case checkers are caliber-specific. There’s no “one size fits all,” so buy the calibers you’ll be loading.

Learn what you’re doing wrong and correct it.

When you practice, take along the box of fails. If you’ve been paying attention, they won’t be many, and they’ll probably be cases that are slightly swelled at the base and won’t pass case-check. Shoot your normal practice session.

Now, pick up all your brass (and whatever else you’re in the habit of hoovering up at the gun club). Load a magazine with the fails and shoot them. If they all work, then you know your case gauge is more discriminating than your chamber. So, unless a checked round sticks halfway out of the case-checker, it’s probably still good to go. (Keep them as practice rounds anyway, not as match rounds.)

EGW-Case-Gauge-Ammo-Checker-1
You have to learn if your chamber and the checker are in agreement. This round is just barely not-passing, but it’ll probably work fine in most pistols. Learn about yours; test-shoot the rejects.

If more than just one or two fail in your handgun, then you know the checker and your chamber are in close agreement, and anything that fails the case gauge is “end of practice” ammo only. In that case, you now pick up those empties and deposit them in the trash. You’re performing a public service to fellow club members by getting oversized brass out of circulation.

Where does this brass come from? Some is just bad brass. A quick search will uncover the names and headstamps of brass to avoid. But some of it comes from one of your own club members, who either has a grossly oversized chamber or is running his pressures too high and over-expanding brass.

Don’t let his situation become your problem. Check your ammo and make your practice good, not just malfunction-clearing afternoons.

Editor's Note: This article originally appeared in the May 2022 issue of Gun Digest the Magazine.


More On Reloading:

Should You Be Carrying A Trauma Kit?

If you carry a gun every day, carrying a trauma kit alongside it isn’t paranoia, it’s just being prepared.

Sometimes, life ends up with someone bleeding. It doesn’t have to be from a gunshot, but if you’re carrying every day, that might be some date in your future. Then, there are all the times you’re using power equipment, or just big, sharp cutting tools. It’d suck to have to explain to the Big Guy at the pearly gates, “I was only 50 yards from my house, but I couldn’t make it in time. Guess I should’ve had some trauma gear.”

Adventure Medical Kits offers compact trauma kits that you can keep in a pocket, a bag or close at hand. The one I have close by is one of theirs with QuikClot as part of the package. In addition to the four different gauze dressing sizes, gloves tape and trauma pad, it has a packet of QuikClot—a hemostatic dressing that accelerates clotting. When you’re bleeding, the idea is to stop the bleeding as soon as possible.

trauma-kit-feature
This Adventure Medical Kits trauma pack is small enough to fit easily in a winter coat and not be noticed. For the warmer months, a smaller kit would be a good choice.

Yes, QuikClot risks making the wound an ugly mess, but the moment you need it you don’t have an ER doc on hand. Whatever bulky mess the QuikClot may (or may not) make, combined with the dressings you have packed into place is a problem the ER doc you’ll be seeing is equipped to deal with.

The kit I keep at hand is just a bit too big to keep in a pocket in warm weather, so I have the big (relatively, it’s not much bigger than a paperback book) kit close at hand and an even more compact one on my person.

Prepared, Not Paranoid

Yes, all this gear can add up. You’ve got your pistol and a reload, cell phone, tactical folder, flashlight, whatever backups you might be packing and all the other accouterments of daily life in the 21st century. Adding a trauma kit might seem like too much. But if you’re going to be serious about being prepared, just having the location of the nearest Level 1 Trauma Center on your cell phone isn’t enough.

You also have to keep in mind that the trauma kit isn’t like your pistol. You’ll be using your pistol only for defense of yourself, your family or those under your protection. (It seems the world at large doesn’t like ad-hoc heroes.)

trauma-kit
It is amazing how much stuff they can pack into a vacuum-sealed package, but this is enough for many types of emergencies.

But your trauma kit works for anyone who you wish to share it with—somebody at work, somebody at a public event who is at risk and the EMT truck is minutes out. A family gathering, even if most (or all) of the family doesn’t know you carry would be a time and place, should an accident occur, where a trauma kit could be handy.

Insurance comes in many forms. You have selected one of them—a daily carry pistol, as being appropriate and desirable. As the old saying goes, “In for a penny, in for a pound.” Find a pocket. Find a kit that fits it. Pack it. Learn how to use it. Be prepared.

Editor's Note: This article originally appeared in the 2022 CCW special issue of Gun Digest the Magazine.


Be Prepared:

Signaling The Mothership: Streamlight ProTac 2.0 Review

The Streamlight ProTac HL was good, but the upgraded Streamlight ProTac 2.0 is even better.

You might be a gun writer if … you have a collection of tactical lights by the back door to choose from when taking the dogs for a walk.

One I pick up routinely is a Streamlight ProTac HL. It was a high lumen (for the time) LED light that runs on a pair of 123 cells, and it now shows its hard use. The ProTac HL is an aluminum body with a rear button and the Streamlight Ten-Tap programmable operating parameters. I just stuck with the basic, so it’s instant-on “high,” a quick second tap gets me “strobe,” and the third gets me “low.” You have two other patterns to choose from if you wish.

I’ve used this one for years. I’ve dropped it on concrete, in snow, mud and water, and more than once held it in my fist as extra support in case I might have to administer a short course of attitude adjustment. It has worked flawlessly through a carton of batteries, but it’s no more an apex illumination tool. This one still works, but Streamlight has a new and improved one for you, the ProTac 2.0.

Streamlight-ProTac-2

The new Streamlight ProTac 2.0 is made the same way as my old one—machined from aluminum, so it’ll stand up to use and abuse. It also has the Ten-Tap programmable operation, so you can customize it for your needs or uses. What’s different is the output—now 2,000 lumens—and the battery is rechargeable. My old one is a “mere” 750 lumens, powerful enough to light up the street, but 2,000 lumens is powerful enough to signal the mothership on final approach.

And the 2.0 battery can be recharged. Plus, you can choose to recharge it without removing it from the ProTac or remove it and charge it that way using the provided USB cable. Having run out of juice on night excursions more than once and needing to replace the dead batteries on my return, the idea of once a week plugging the 2.0 in to top it off is very appealing.

Streamlight-ProTac-2-battery
The new ProTac 2.0 is 2,000 “light up the night” lumens and uses a rechargeable battery that you don’t even have to remove from the tube to recharge. Life is suddenly much better.

The 2.0 is, like the HL before it, moisture resistant (no one can really say “waterproof” these days, regulations won’t let them) and will survive a dunking better than you can. It’s IP67 rated, meaning it can take being submerged in 1 meter of water for longer than you can probably hold your breath.

ProTac-2-charging

Giving up my trusty old HL is going to be painful, but life and technology moves on. And, in the case of technology, it gets better. After all, it’s dark half the time and dark indoors in some places. The 2.0 is better—a lot better—so look for one when considering your night-time illumination needs. Soon, my trusty HL is going to get relegated to backup duty.

Editor's Note: This article originally appeared in the January 2023 issue of Gun Digest the Magazine.


More On Tactical Lights:

Big-Block Glock: The Guncrafter Industries .50 GI Conversion

If you want your Glock to have momentum en masse, look no further than the Guncrafter Industries .50 GI conversion.

Quick question: which do you favor—kinetic energy or momentum? If you favor KE, then a 9mm +P+ with 115-grain JHPs is your measure, your option. But if you favor momentum, then something chambered in .45 is what you want. Like a .45 ACP with a 230-grain bullet at 850 fps, or a .45 Colt with a 255 grainer at 750 fps. We’re talking the equivalent of high-compression small engines versus big-block V-8s. (We won’t speak of alcohol-burning race engines at 12,000 rpm.)

But what if you want even more momentum?

How about we halve the 9mm+P+ velocity and more than double the 9mm weight? Or even exceed the .45 weight? A 300-grain JHP at 700 fps should be just the ticket. How do you get that? Here comes Guncrafter Industries to the rescue with the .50 GI.

Guncrafter-Industries-50-GI-Glock-feature
The Guncrafter .50 GI conversion upper on a Glock G21 lower.

Massive Momentum

The .50 GI is all of that in a self-loading pistol. In this case, a Glock that left the factory in .45 ACP but somewhere along the way to me lost its .45 identity and now sports a .50 GI conversion upper.

As conversions go, this is dead-simple. Unload your .45 Glock, this being a G21. Remove the complete upper assembly and set it aside. Pick up the .50 GI upper and run it onto the frame just as you would if you were reassembling your .45. You’re done. In my case, as I mentioned, there’s no .45 upper so it’s a simple assembly job.

Oh, and in case you were wondering: Yes, it’ll work on your G20 in 10mm. Plus, the G40 and G41.

Guncrafter simply made a barrel and slide that’d accommodate the .50 GI, then added the standard Glock internals and provided a recoil spring to handle the extra slide mass and momentum generated by the .50 GI. Everything works just as you’d expect. And if you feel the need for some other kind of sights, they’re standard Glock dimensions, so swap to your heart’s content.

Glock-front-sight
Now you see the benefits of proper engineering and planning. The Guncrafter slide is set up to take regular Glock sights, so you can swap in whatever ones you want or favor.

The .50 GI case uses the same rim diameter as that of the .45 ACP, so you could simply drop in or fit a .50 GI barrel to your G21 should you wish. Guncrafter makes conversion barrels for those who want to go that route. Your choices are a 4.6-inch barrel, a 5.3-inch barrel threaded 5/8-24 … and a 6-inch barrel if what you want is a bit more velocity. The case is larger in diameter to hold the .500-inch diameter bullet, while the full-up length of the .50 GI cartridge is the same as that of the .45 ACP, so converting Glocks is easy.

50-GI-comparison
The .50 GI loaded round has the same length limitations as the .45 ACP, since it goes into the same magazine. This is a flat-nose 300-grain FMJ and, at 700 fps, knocks down steel and brooms pins with brio.

Just as an aside, converting 1911s isn’t so easy. The single-stack magazine simply can’t hold the .50 GI; there isn’t room side-to-side. So, to get a .50 GI 1911, you’ll have to get a custom 1911 from Guncrafter. I’ve tested those in the past, and you’re in for a treat if you spring for one. But this is about the Glock.

Since the G21 uses a double-stack magazine, fitting the .50 GI into a mag is easy. They just hold fewer rounds, but hey, that’s the not-very-great price you pay for a bigger bullet, right? Oh, and a minor detail, but one you should pay attention to: Mark your mags. If you have a Glock in .45 ACP that you’re putting your .50 GI onto, then you have Glock 45 magazines. Be sure and mark your 50 mags so you can tell them apart, because it isn’t easy otherwise.

The dedicated .50 GI Glock magazines are modified by Guncrafter, because a wider-diameter case needs a different feed lip spacing and geometry than a smaller one does (were that not the case, every magazine would be the same). Now, theoretically, you could take .45 Glock mags yourself and cut them to match the feed lips of a .50 GI mag. You have to be either extremely bored or really, really incorrectly cheap to do that. I mean, you’re going to use a thousand-dollar milling machine (the cheapest to be had) to machine $25 Glock mags, rather than buying ready-to-go modified-to-.50 GI magazines for $60? Even if you don’t screw up any mags learning how to do the cut (and you will, I have no doubt), you wouldn’t break even until you had machined your 29th magazine. And in talking with the owner of Guncrafter, Alex Zimmerman, I found out it’s more than just passing an end mill cutter over the feed lips. Nope, don’t be fooled, buying is a much better bargain.

Glock-mag-50
While the Glock .50 GI conversion uses a Glock frame, the magazines are modified to properly feed .50 GI cartridges. The modified magazines hold nine rounds of .50 GI, compared to the 13 of the .45 ACP mags.

Feeding Momentum

Loading ammo, on the other hand, is easy. The .50 GI runs at much the same pressure as the .45 ACP, which means your brass will last … well, a very long time. The resizing force needed is minimal. The cases and bullets are large and easy to handle, and you’ll only lose cases by not finding them at the range or being ham-handed in loading and crushing one.

The process is the same as any other handgun cartridge, but those of you with progressive presses will find one small roadblock: the rebated rim. The rim is smaller in diameter than the case. This makes it possible to fit it to a .45 slide. If you’re in the habit of using an automatic case feeder to get empties into your press, you aren’t going to be able to do that here.

This is a problem with any rebated-rim cartridge, not just the .50 GI, and it’s a simple problem and situation: The rebated rim falls into the case mouth of the case underneath it in the feed tube and, as a result, can’t be shuttled out by the mechanism. So, you’ll have to feed the empties in by hand. It’s not a big deal, and you probably won’t be loading 5-gallon buckets of .50 GI.

50-GI-Bullets
The options for bullets aren’t as great as some cartridges, but you do have choices. And once you find what you (and your pistol) like, how many choices do you need?

Bullet weights that can be used range from 255 grains on the light end to 350 grains on the heavy end. Velocities are in the moderate range but, again, we’re after momentum here. A 300-grain bullet at a “mere” 700 fps generates a 210 power factor, and that’s more than a lot of .45 ACP+P loads generate.

The low operating pressure gives you more “head” room, should you want to pump up the ballistics some. It’s possible, with the proper powders and a willingness to endure recoil, to push bullets faster than you might think. The 275-grainers can be run up just over 900 fps, the 300s to the mid-800s, 325-grain bullets up to 800 fps and 350-grain bullets to 750 fps. Those range from a power factor of 255 up to 262. If you mean to thump, then those are real thumpers. As far as momentum goes, the brisk .50 GI loads are equal to a mild .44 Magnum, and that’s out of an auto-loading pistol that doesn’t have a sharp bark.

TANSTAAFL

The late sci-fi author Robert Heinlein made famous the acronym TANSTAAFL: “There ain’t no such thing as a free lunch.” So, what’s the cost of the .50 GI? Aside from the conversion barrel or conversion upper?

First, there’s the brass. It’s available only from Guncrafter. As a proprietary case, Guncrafter controls who makes it for them—and makes sure only them. It can’t be made from some other case, and even if it could be, the cost of doing so would be greater than buying GI brass. At the moment, .50 GI brass from Guncrafter is $60 per hundred new empties. That’s twice what other high-performance brass would run you. Unless you’re in the habit of using your .50 GI pistol in “lost brass” matches (one where you aren’t allowed to pick up your fired cases), the initial cost really isn’t much since they’ll last through dozens of loadings.

50-GI-Cases
This loading die set came from Hornady, but there are others. With low-pressure cases and tungsten-carbide sizing dies, loading is easy work.

Your bullet options will be limited, but not as much as the brass purchase. Guncrafter offers bullets as well as cases. A quick search shows a handful of other bullet providers. What you need are cast, coated, plated or jacketed bullets of .500-inch diameter, and ones short enough to fit in the case and under the cartridge-overall-length of the .45 ACP and .50 GI. This precludes some of the offerings for the various other .50 handgun cartridges.

You’re simply not going to be able to use the heavyweights you might load into a .500 S&W magnum into a .50 GI case. The weight range of usable bullets in the .50 GI is going to be 255 grains up to 350 grains. As with the brass, once you have a supply of bullets and brass, settled on a particular bullet and the powder charge to run your .50 GI, it’s like any other firearm. You get what you need, when you need it and load up as you want to shoot.

50-GI-Glock
The caliber of this beast is quite clearly more than a mere .45 ACP.

Once you have the components and settled on a load, it isn’t like you’re going through the fuss of loading for benchrest. Nor do you have the R&D arcana of trying to craft .38-40 cowboy loads that actually work. Loading the .50 GI is simple.

Since the case has a .45 ACP rim, the shell-holder or press shell plate for a .45 will work. And dies? Mine are from Hornady when they made a run back a while ago. There are others who make dies, like Lee (available from Guncrafter), and since the case is straight-walled, you can opt for a tungsten carbide sizer, keeping things simple and speedy.

One place the .50 GI excels is in pin shooting. A 300-grain or heavier bullet, at 210 PF or more, brooms pins off with efficiency and speed. Be nice to the brass rats and, when they pick up brass, you’ll get your .50 GI empties back. If you want a thumper, but not one that’s also suitable as a backup to your Jurassic Park long-gun (and with recoil to match), then you need a .50 GI.

Ned-Christiansen-Gunsmith
Pistolsmith Ned Christiansen with his .50 GI (correct, not a Glock) and the epic muzzle brake he built for it. Note that while there’s an empty in the air, the slide is closed and he’s back on target.

My friend and fabulous 1911 pistolsmith Ned Christiansen runs a set of .50 GI pistols on pins. One of them has a truly epic muzzle brake on it—not because he has to have it to deal with the recoil of the .50 GI (it isn’t much more than others). When you’re trying to win and stay the best, you don’t leave anything to chance.

Guncrafter-Industries-Specs

Editor's Note: This article originally appeared in the May 2022 issue of Gun Digest the Magazine.


More On Glocks:

Carry Guns: Does Size Matter?

The pros and cons of ultra-subcompact, subcompact, compact and full-sized handguns for concealed carry.

I grew up immersed in the car culture. Brands, models and trim packages were all background information to me, as well as the relative sizes of the models. When I got old enough to drive, that information was important, because it gave me a clue as to what I could fit into. At 6 feet 4 inches, some were simply impossible. (A friend once offered to give me a lift. I took one look at the Karmann Ghia he drove and said, “Got something in a 42 long?” He didn’t get the joke until I tried to get in.)

Well, handguns come the same way, if in a different direction. There might be something too big to carry concealed. Let’s take a stroll through the racks and see what sizes we can cover, and give you a quick idea of their pros and cons.

Carry-Size-revolvers-subcompact-feature
Big revolvers used to be common. Now, they are really big, and don’t hold as many rounds as big pistols. But they can still do the job.

Ultra-Subcompact Handguns

Here reside the ultra-small guns. In the old days, that meant .22s and .25s, but today no one would risk the man-card deductions, and we see only .32s (rarely) and .380s (more common).

The examples here are the Beretta Pico and the KelTec P32 or P380. The Pico is a .380 and holds 6+1 rounds, and the KelTec is (obviously) a .32, and holds 7+1. Both are flat, light, easy to pack and meant for deep concealment. While some might use it as a main gun (often only because anything bigger would be noticed, and they work and live someplace where they absolutely cannot be found out), both of these are usually backup guns.

KelTec-P32
A KelTec P-32. Photo: Wikipedia.

I view the ultra-subcompact pistols as tertiary blasters, not the second one. Well, I did when I was packing daily at the gun shops. Now I’d be like most of you: It’s the backup when something bigger just won’t fit the daily routine.

The pros are obvious: ease of carry and ease of keeping concealed. The cons? They don’t hold much ammo, aren’t hard-hitters … and they’re tough to shoot, with small grips, tiny sights and short sight radii.

Subcompact Handguns

The difference between the ultra-subcompact and the subcompact is caliber. Subcompacts are all 9mm or .38 Special, not .380 or .32. A subcompact would be something like a Taurus GX4, and not only do you get something more in caliber, but you also get more in capacity. Subcompacts often now have 10- to 11-round magazines, where only a few years ago they would have single-stack 7-round magazines. An example there would be the Walther CCP, with eight shots but a single-stack magazine.

Walther-CCP-Subcompact
The Walther CCP in .380 is a single-stack carry gun that can be an ultra-subcompact or a subcompact, depending on your needs and clothing ensemble. It’s a single stack, however, so you’ll be giving up a few rounds to the wide-body subcompacts.

The modern one here, and one I have kept around, is the Springfield Armory Hellcat. They call it a micro-compact, but it’s the size I have always thought of as a subcompact pistol at 6 inches in overall length. The magazine holds 11 rounds, and you can, if your clothing choices permit, use a 13-round magazine in place of the 11-shot version.

The pros here are the bigger caliber, but subcompacts can be tough to shoot. The fatter grips of the double-stack mags make it easier, but if you’re using defensive 9mm ammo out of a pistol that tips the scales at 17 ounces, it’ll be work.

Compact Handguns

The compact category is perhaps the most commonly seen (or not seen, this is for concealed carry, after all) pistol because it offers the goldilocks option: enough size to be shootable, but not so big that it’s a hassle. It has enough rounds to be useful, but again, not so big that it makes life difficult. And it’s big enough—but not too big.

OK, let’s just get this right out front: The example of compact carry pistols is, and has been for a long time, the Glock G19. There, I said it. That they were the first does not mean they are the best, as you have to put up with the Glock trigger, but a lot of people seem to not have a problem with that. If you want a better trigger, then the Sig P365 is the same size with a better trigger. If you’re looking to get more value for money and put the savings into ammo, then the Taurus G3 is your choice here. For accuracy, nice trigger, price and availability, the Springfield Armory XDm in its compact size should be one of your top choices.

The sleeper here is the S&W M&P Compact. It’s the same more-or-less 7 inches overall, with a 15-round capacity like the others, a nice trigger and interchangeable backstraps that you can build to suit your hands.

M&P-M2.0-Compact-Series-second
A S&W M&P M2.0 Compact.

Since this is a popular size, the offerings make for a crowded field. And this is a historically popular category, so there have been choices since, well, pretty much forever.

One is the Colt Lightweight Commander, an alloy-framed 1911 with the slide and barrel shortened by three-quarters of an inch. The trick here, if trick there be, is that the 1911, as is the next pistol, a single-action design, and thus must be carried “cocked and locked.” That is, with the hammer back and the safety on. Holding 7+1 in .45 ACP, and 9+1 in 9mm, it was the mainstay of carry for pistoleros in the pre-Glock days. The other is the Browning Hi-Power, a 9mm holding 13+1 rounds, which has been brought into the 21st century by Springfield Armory, among others.

The pros of the compact pistols are many. They are a lot easier to shoot than the smaller guns, and many now can be had with optical sights … or be ready for one. They hold a more than useful amount of ammunition, and their slightly longer barrels (generally 3.5 inches to the sub-compacts 3-inch bore) gains you a bit more velocity. The cons are that they start to become a bit more difficult to conceal and keep concealed.

Full-Size Handguns

Now we’re up to the G17, the XDm in its full size, the Taurus G3, the Beretta (pick one, from the original 92 to the present day) and the Sig P320. All of these offer big magazines, with 16, 17 and 18 rounds or more. If you thought you were spoiled for choice in the compact category, you have an overwhelming set of options here. Because everyone who made a 9mm pistol (or 40, back in the days when that was cool) made one that was full-sized.

Glock-G21SF
If you want big, then Glock can do that. This is a G21SF, and despite the “small frame” designation, it’s a big gun.

Also called “duty” sized, these have barrels more than 4.5 inches long, full-sized grips, are easy to shoot well and soft in recoil. They’re also a real bear to carry concealed. Well, the concealing part isn’t so hard; you just have to use the correct holster. What makes them hard is their weight and size, which can wear on you in the course of a day. If your comfort starts to flag, you’ll move differently, start adjusting the fit and location without realizing it … and a sharp observer will notice.

You can go even bigger, and pack a Glock, a G20 or G21, or an XDm in 10mm or .45 ACP, if you want both big bores and lots of bullets.

In the classic, this is where the 1911 enters the picture. Even if you find a model with an aluminum frame, the government-sized 1911 is going to be big and bulky. We carried them in the old days, but it was because there weren’t many other choices.

I was at the range recently, testing some firearms and doing video work, when one of the members of that club came by. In the course of talking, and within the first few minutes, he adjusted what he was wearing several times. The second time he did so I realized he was test-wearing a hard armor rig under his winter coat. That’s the sort of thing that attracts the attention of those who know, and those whom you don’t wish to know.

Carry-Hi-Power
The classic carry gun in the compact size is a Browning Hi-Power. This—in a good holster, with a spare mag and a tactical folder—is easy to carry all day long.

So, if you’re going to pack a full-sized pistol, the first thing is to have a proper holster, and the second thing is to have a proper holster that’s comfortable to wear.

The pros are obvious: They hold lotsa bullets, they’re easy to shoot … and easy to shoot well. The cons are just as obvious, as they’re the biggest options to be had in an EDC pistol.

Revolvers for CCW

Wheelguns don’t have ultra-subcompacts, because the smallest to be had, the S&W J frame and the Taurus 605 or 856, are subcompact handguns. The J and the 605 hold five rounds, while the 856 holds six. The example here is the S&W 442, a hammerless .38 holding five shots.

Small-Carry-Revolvers-subcompact
Small- and medium-sized revolvers are a lot easier to carry than big revolvers. But for the size you don’t get as many rounds as a similar-package 9mm pistol holds.

If you move up to the compact, you’re in the region populated by S&W K-frames, the .357 M-19 and the Taurus 65 and 66. These hold six rounds and are the smallest you’d want to shoot in .357 Magnum. Oh, you can get smaller ones in .357, but you won’t enjoy shooting them. If you want more, you can opt for the Taurus 608, holding eight rounds of .38/.357.

And finally, the full-sized, or duty sized: that’s the S&W N-frame, in .357, .44 and .45. While I know of people who in the old days carried those, and even carried those in the 6-inch barrel versions, can we get real? You have to be dedicated to packing an EDC revolver, to manage an N-frame. Yes, it can be done. Will it be easy? Hardly.

Oh, and if you want to go light, be careful. The most obnoxious firearm I ever shot was an airweight .44 Magnum—easy to carry, but murder to shoot.

Airweight-44-Magnum
The worst range experience was shooting an airweight .44 Magnum. Yes, it carries easily and shoot small groups, but boy was it work to shoot.

You Gotta Know You

You must always keep in mind that, when it comes to EDC, it’s not simply a matter of “what size can I carry?” That depends on where you live, how hot or cold it is, what socioeconomic level you are dressing to and how “permissive” the environment might be. An ER doctor, working in scrubs, in an inner-city hospital where getting caught means finding a new job, might decide that, despite all the shortcomings, an ultra-subcompact is the only choice.

Someone working a mostly rural area, who might have to deal with not just people but wildlife, livestock and sturdy intermediate barriers could pack a 4-inch .44, and since most people wouldn’t care, not worry as much about keeping it absolutely concealed.

Hi-Power-w-mags
The Browning Hi-Power is all steel, and that seems a bit quaint in today’s world of polymer, but with magazine options from 10 to 20 rounds, you won’t lack for ammo capacity.

The rest of us are somewhere in-between and have to make choices. What worked on a cool October day might not pass on a steamy, humid August evening.

You might not—and you probably won’t—find a “one choice fits all” handgun, holster and wardrobe. Welcome to the real world.

Editor's Note: This article originally appeared in the 2023 CCW special issue of Gun Digest the Magazine.


More On CCW Handguns:

Armscor STK100 Review: Rock Island Rocks

There are a lot of Glock-like 9mm pistols out there, but among them, the all-metal Armscor STK100 stands out as something different.

The marketplace is full of 9mm pistols with capacious magazines. So, why Armscor? Why the STK100? Simple: no polymer. The STK100 not only looks like a Glock (let’s just get the “G word” right out there, shall we?), it uses Glock magazines and even has parts interchangeability with Glock pistols.

And why not?

On the subject of magazines alone, there are probably more Glock magazines extant, and made by a whole host of companies, than there are 1911 magazines. And that’s despite the 70-plus years and two World Wars head start the 1911 had.

Armscor-STK-with-holster-1
The STK100 looks at first glance like a G17, but there are major differences. And good ones, at that.

Similar, But Different

So, the STK100 doesn’t use polymer. What does it use, then? Aluminum. And steel. The frame is a pair of aluminum shells. The shells are crafted by milling out 7075 alloy aluminum blocks, and then the two halves are bolted together with six strong fasteners. You can see the screws/bolts holding them. There are two in the grip frame, back where the backstrap would be. There are two across the accessory rail, on the dust cover. And the other two are on the front and rear of the trigger guard.

The interior is steel, a one-piece steel chassis, and you can see that by the serial number poking through the aluminum shell on the right side. This means that the STK100 runs on actual rails, not the four stamped tabs that a Glock uses as bearing surfaces.

Armscor-STK100-left
The STK100 has all the same controls as on a Glock, so if you know how to run one of those, you’re all set here.

But Armscor didn’t simply clone the G17 in aluminum, because what’s the point? First, the grip is machined to be at the 1911 grip angle, not the Glock angle. Those who have spent time with 1911s will find that the Glock doesn’t point the same. Not that we should be indulging in point-shooting, but when you’re trying to groove in your index on the draw, different angles create problems in transitioning from one pistol to another.

Then, they aggressively machine in nonslip textures. The rear of the grip has diagonal and deep grooves to engage the fleshy part of your hand. The sides have checkerboard panels to give your fingertips purchase and the rest of your hand a grabby surface. The frontstrap has horizontal grooves, and the combination makes for an effective setup.

Armscor-STK100-right
The backstrap has diagonal grooves to grip into the fleshy part of your hand and resist recoil movement. They work.

Additionally, when machining the frame halves, Armscor also went and added an extended tang. The stubby little nub of polymer on Glocks doesn’t always do a lot to prevent muzzle lift. There’s just no leverage there for your hand to resist the roll. Well, with the lengthened tang, the STK100 does a much better job. And the greater density of aluminum, compared to polymer, also helps here.

The G17 (which the STK100 is the clone of) is listed as weighing 22 ounces. The STK100 tips the scales (OK, it flexes the torsion bar in my electronic scale) at 28 ounces. Now, 6 ounces may not seem like much, but it’s not in the reciprocating mass of the system, and therefore acts as dead weight to resist inertia. It helps.

Also helping is the slide. The block Glock slide has been improved by Armscor. First, they rounded the edges and corners, so it isn’t so blocky, and that shaves off some weight. Then, they machined clearance slots in the slide, forward of the chamber area, to take more weight out. The top and sides get some cosmetic sculpting, and the front gets some cocking serrations on the widest part. The reduced weight means there’s less reciprocating mass and less to slam to a halt at the rear end of the cycle. With less bottoming-out weight, there’s less impulse to drive the muzzle rise component of recoil. This was noticeable in test-firing.

The sights also get upgrades. The front is the now-standard (for Glocks, anyway) blade set in an oval socket and fastened by a hex-headed screw from underneath. Anyone who has spent any time with Glocks knows that you check this first before shooting your new pistol. The tiny threads (I swear there are something like 60-70 tpi in there) can’t muster a lot of torque to tighten, so Loctite is definitely your friend here. No slam on Armscor, that’s just the design we all have to use.

Armscor-STK-sights
The rear sight is also an optics mounting plate cover. Remove the screws, pry the plate off and you can put a Shield on the slide.

The rear sight is part of a removable plate that permits the installation of a red-dot optic. The plate, when removed, takes the rear sight with it, which to me is a small oversight, as there’s room to have the rear sight stay and still mount a red-dot. The footprint is set up for the Shield sights, and all the other red-dots that use the same screw pattern and base size and shape, which is a lot of them. I would’ve tested the STK100 with a red dot, but every single one of my red-dots of that pattern were already on something else being tested. But I did remove the plate and found the fit to be quite tight, which bodes well for having a red-dot fit and stay in place.

The sample STK100 came with a pair of KCI magazines, which are Glock clones made in Korea. I checked the fit with a fistful of Glock mags (they all fit) and Magpul and ETS mags as well. All fit, and all that were designed to drop free did so when required. I have some crusty old original Glock mags, back before American shooters made it clear they didn’t want “won’t drop” magazines. Those fit and functioned, but they wouldn’t drop free. They never were intended to, so I’m neither surprised nor disappointed.

How’s it Shoot?

Test-firing was … interesting. First up, the weight and its distribution, combined with the grip tang, does a great job of keeping muzzle rise under control. Even with the +P ammo, it wasn’t any big deal to just hammer the various steel plates, falling or otherwise.

STK100-with-magazine
Armscor sculpted the slide to remove weight, make it less bulky and look good. Points on all of those to Armscor. The sample gun came with two KCI made in Korea magazines, holding 17 rounds each. Standard Glock mags work because that was the plan from the start.

The STK100 right out of the box hit to the sights, and the white dot front with plain black rear worked just fine. The grip angle fit me well, but then I’ve done a lot of shooting of 1911s, so we’d expect that. In recoil, the front sight dropped right back down into the notch of the rear, so the nonslip grip texture is doing a good job of combating recoil squirm.

The one drawback, and this is something that may or may not be a problem for you, was the cold. My range days with the STK100 coincided with a cold snap (like 7 degrees overnight) and grabbing an all-aluminum grip when the temps moved up to 20 was … interesting. After a bit of handling and shooting, it warned up, but the first magazine out of the STK100 was informative.

My usual process is to do the chronograph work first, to get velocities and check basic function. Had I done the accuracy work first, the first few groups would’ve been pretty shabby. But by the time I was ready to shoot groups, the STK100 had warmed some, the sun was out and I knew what to expect. Accuracy? Really good.

Armscor-STK-Chrono-table
Accuracy results from four, five-shot groups fired at 25 yards with sandbags as a rest. Velocity derived with a Labradar chronograph, programmed to read velocity 15 feet from the muzzle. Velocity is an average of 10 shots, fired at 20 degrees F.

So, what’s the STK100 for? If you’re looking for a lightweight carry gun, it’s not the one. The extra weight puts it in second place to other pistols. If you want a heavier-than-polymer pistol for competition, again, not the one. You can easily get an all-steel competition pistol for USPSA or IDPA that runs 40 ounces or more.

Armscor-STK-with-holster-2
The frame is machined into a nonslip pattern, and how the pattern runs depends on where on the frame it is.

However, if you use competition as a means of staying in practice with your everyday carry gun, and you’re not necessarily a slave to “it has to be the lightest,” then the STK100 will fill the bill. A great trigger (a function of the stiffer frame assembly) and soft in recoil (weight and the tang) makes it fun to shoot in a match. And the extra ounces, while combating recoil, aren’t going to be noticed in a proper holster. And might I add, once again, if you’re not using a proper holster, you’re doing it wrong.

Disassembly? If you know how to do it to a Glock, you know how to do it to an STK100. If not, the process is easy to find.

Armscor has hit a home run with this one.

STK100-Specs

Editor's Note: This article originally appeared in the 2022 CCW special issue of Gun Digest the Magazine.


More Handgun Reviews:

Pass The Turkey: Canik 9mm Handgun Line Review

A review of the Turkish company Canik’s line of inexpensive and exceptional 9mm pistols.

Canik is a line of 9mm pistols being imported by Century Arms. Century, a U.S.-based company situated originally in Vermont, moved the operation down to Florida almost a couple of decades ago.

It had to be those Northern winters.

Canik pistols are manufactured in Turkey in a plant filled with modern CNC machining centers. You might think that, because a country hasn’t been seen as a long-time known manufacturing center, it can only be making low-rent products. Let me make the younger readers aware, especially those driving a Japanese car: When I was growing up, “made in Japan” was synonymous with plastic crap. Now look at how far they’ve come.

Well, when the Turks decided to get with the 21st century and make things for themselves (the Canik line is used by the Turkish military and police), they decided to do it right … so new buildings filled with new machines, making firearms that are the amalgamation of the best designs extant.

Canik-feature
The basic Caniks, from old to new. Top is the Canik 55, middle is the TP9SA and bottom is the TP9 Elite SC. And there’s still the METE to consider.

Future Collectibles

Covering the whole line of Canik pistols—the TP9 being the current model name—would take more space than we have here. As the line evolved, and as Century Arms and Canik evolved the line to meet customer demands, they inadvertently created a wide variety of what will be, at some future time, collectibles.

The Canik line of pistols blends various features, depending on which particular model you select. Let’s start with the magazines—because all self-loading pistols are dependent on magazines.

The Canik line works with all Canik magazines, assuming you have the proper length. If you’re trying to use a flush-fit magazine from a Canik TP9 Elite subcompact in the full-sized guns, you’ll fail. But the longer magazine will work in the shorter pistol, and all models with similar length of frames will use the other magazines.

Century and Canik offer magazines, so you don’t have to worry there. Plus, the Canik line originated with magazines based on the Walther PPQ series, so if you have a source of those, go for it. (I suspect that Walther magazines will cost you more than Canik, but sometimes you score a deal.)

If you want extra capacity, it isn’t difficult to find magazines for your Canik with up to 20 rounds, and you can always go to Taylor Freelance and get bolt-on magazine extensions that’ll give you more, more, more. They make Plus-4 and Plus-9 extensions in aluminum and brass. The Plus-4 is just a new baseplate; the Plus-9 includes a replacement magazine spring, because you’ll need it.

The TP9 Elite SC is a compact carry pistol, and the modern iteration (Canik has been making pistols, and Century importing them, for a few years now) has a top plate for mounting a red-dot optic. This is a sub-compact size and holds 12 rounds in the magazine, unless you opt for an extended magazine. That makes the frame a compact size and bumps capacity up to 15 rounds.

TP9-Elite-SC
The TP9 Elite SC comes with a 12- and 15-round magazine, holster, backstrap and lockable case, and is ready to accept a red-dot optic. All this in a sub-compact 9mm, for just over $400? That’s crazy talk.

The firing system is the one many shooters expect, a striker-fired system with a trigger-blade safety and internal safeties to prevent discharge when dropped or otherwise roughly handled. If nothing hits the trigger, there’s no bang. And when you do go to install a red-dot optic, Canik has got you covered. A small box resides in the carry case, with the tools and screws you’ll need to bolt on the optic of your choice. Well done, guys.

My second Canik is the TP9SA. The first one was an all-black 9mm when they were referring to the pistols as the “Canik 55” line, the start of the pistols that were taken right from the Walther 99 series. The TP9 is the name now, and this one has several details changed from the earliest.

Here, the striker system is still wedded to a striker-drop pressure plate in the slide. If you don’t want to leave the unloaded TP9SA with the striker cocked, press down on the decocking plate, mounted in the slide. This safely drops the striker without discharge. (Still, keep it pointed in a safe direction, if for no other reason than to maintain good habits.) This requires the slide to be worked to re-cock the striker, but you’d have to do that anyway to chamber a round.

Why do it this way? You get a better trigger for one thing. The striker system was now turned into an almost single-action or 1911-like trigger pull. You still got the trigger blade safety and the internal drop safeties, but you get a crisper trigger with a shorter reset than is on my Canik 55. (By the way, I still like the 55.)

Now, the TP9SA I have is the Desert Tan model. Here, Canik used a dye in the polymer mix to create the tan color in the frame and matched it with a Cerakote finish on the slide. The backstrap is left black, as are the controls. That’s the sort of thing that Canik and Century are very responsive to. The TP9 Elite SC has a gray/silver Cerakote slide over black. Other models offered different color options in the past, and they do now as well. How about a two-tone TP9? Or, the Signature Series TP9SFx Whiteout done in a white Cerakote with black accents?

So Many Extras

And, the TP9SA came with a pair of magazines, magazine loader, holster and holster mounts so you can choose from inside-the-waistband or outside-the-waistband carry. As a matter of fact, they all do. If you get a Canik, you get a pistol that’s ready to go right out of the box, including a lock and extra backstrap.

Canik-whats-in-the-box
Every Canik comes complete—holster, magazines backstrap, carrying case you can lock, and there’s even spare magazine baseplates in there, in case you want to change those.

This leads me back to Taylor Freelance. The Canik is popular in competition (cost, great triggers, accuracy and reliability are all big selling points for competition shooters), and in addition to the magazine extensions for the Canik, Taylor can provide you with magwell funnels, weighted brass backstraps, mag-release buttons and slide-rackers.

Slide-rackers? Yes, if you’re using a Canik with a red-dot, you might want an extension on the slide to rack the slide without using the red-dot itself. It also props the pistol up off a table, for those stages where you have to start with the pistol on a table and not in a holster.

All the Canik pistols have Canik-made barrels that have, in all instances, proven accurate. This is one of those details on which competition shooters are unforgiving, and everyone, even those who only have a pistol for everyday carry, have benefited from. An accurate pistol is a must in competition; an accurate pistol barrel is also a more-reliable pistol as a result. A tighter, centered chamber means the extractor is more consistently positioned to grab the rim. And a bore with more consistent dimensions means a more-consistent combustion and bullet-bore transit time, which keeps the cycling of the pistol in a smaller window of variance. They all also have a loaded chamber indicator, a lever on the top of the slide.

Speaking of competition, that leads me to the METE. This is a full-sized Canik, but it’s set up for competition as well as duty. The two magazines it comes with have an 18- and a 20-round capacity, backstraps, optics plate on the slide and a competition-improved trigger. Unlike the slightly curved trigger of earlier Canik pistols, the METE has a flat-faced trigger. There’s still a safety in the trigger blade, but the geometry is designed so that when you bring the trigger back to fire the METE, the point of release has the pivoting trigger oriented straight down. Your trigger press is thus straight back to less-disturb your aim.

Now, the METE line is set up for competition, so you might think you have less need of aftermarket upgrades. You could be right, but the serious competition shooter won’t leave anything to chance. So, even with a METE, you might want to investigate upgrades … but one that you probably won’t be looking for is a trigger upgrade.

Cloned from Walther pistols, the Canik line already has an excellent trigger system, regardless of which model it’s in. However, and as I mentioned, serious competition shooters leave nothing to chance. As a result, you can find aftermarket trigger upgrades, whether to install yourself or pistol smith upgrades to make the trigger even nicer. However, that won’t be necessary on the METE.

So Much Value

And as if all of this wasn’t enough, the cost is entirely bearable. In fact, it’s a deal most of the time. For instance, the current version of my TP9SA, the TP9SF, in Desert tan, has an MSRP of a penny less than $400. That’s a ready-to-go pistol, with two magazines, holster and accessories, in a lockable case, for less than four bills.

If you’re looking to get a sub-compact carry gun and must have a slide ready for a red-dot sight, then the TP9 Elite SC lists for a mere $40 more than the TP9SF … and it has all the gear as well. For daily carry, target shooting, plinking or competition, it’s hard to beat the Canik combo. With Canik from Century Arms, you get accuracy, reliability, accessory availability—everything in one box—and at a reasonable price. Compare that to the big names everyone at the gun club knows and tell me there aren’t advantages to not owning the same gun everyone else at the gun club owns. 

Editor's Note: This article originally appeared in the October 2022 issue of Gun Digest the Magazine.


More Handgun Reviews:

Custom Is As Custom Does: Infinity Single Stack Review

This custom single stack Infinity 1911 in .40 S&W helps prove that one-of-a-kind never goes out of style.

This gun is perhaps one of a kind. It certainly has a unique build history.

We like to think of custom as bespoke, purpose-made dream guns, if you will. However, this one just sort of happened.

A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, I was a serious and persistent competition shooter. Each year, I’d shoot at least two club matches a month, the Second Chance Pin Shoot, a couple (or more) USPSA Nationals and The Steel Challenge. I was shooting a lot, and I was winning a lot. One of the prizes (I think from a USPSA Nationals) was a certificate good for a hi-cap frame from SVI/Infinity.

Infinity single stack
The custom single stack Infinity in .40 S&W.

Well, I already had a slew of hi-cap frames. So, I put on my best smiley-face, good-guy, serious competitor look and asked the Infinity guys if they could, pretty please, do it as a single stack. In .40 caliber. Because at the time the Single Stack Nationals was getting spun up into being as a USPSA Nationals, and all the big dogs were winning it with .40s. I later found out that the big dogs were winning with .40s not because it had any inherent advantage, but because they had all been loading and shooting .38 Super and .40 ammo for so long that they either no longer had a .45, or they couldn’t find the dies and components in their loading rooms.

While talking the project over with the builder, I mentioned that I already had a basket full of SVI/Infinity parts, and I was going to build it up with those, once the frame arrived.

“What do you have?” he asked. Oh, a slide, barrel, a selection of grip safeties, some odds and ends, enough to assemble a 1911. “Forget that; box up what you have that is SVI, ship it and we’ll put in the rest.”

Well, an offer like that doesn’t come along every day, so of course I boxed up and shipped.

Infinity-Classic-barrel
The fit of the slide to frame, and the barrel to slide, are exemplars of smooth and tight. And you’ll be wasting your time trying to find any looseness or wobble in the fit. Yes, it’s gold in color. That’s the TiN coating.

Have It Your Way

A few weeks later, I get an email. It seems that the build process involves more than just assembling parts; there’s a laundry list of choices I have to check off. So, I go down the list. A stainless slide, done in two-tone, with a recessed panel ahead of the rear cocking serrations. No front serrations, thank you very much, and the top done in a tri-top configuration, not a standard radius. A red fiber-optic front sight and Infinity adjustable rear.

The bushing is standard Browning, but the guide rod is as big a stainless rod as Infinity can fit in there.

The barrel would be the Infinity Classic .40 S&W AET I had sent, which was then (and probably still is) the primo barrel to have. The frame was to be a carbon steel single stack, blued, with extended dust cover and snub-nose ball-end cut on the slide to match. Underneath the barrel, there’s a full-diameter stainless steel guide rod, full-length, and it adds a nice bit of extra weight to dampen felt recoil. The barrel isn’t a bull barrel, but a bushing barrel, in part because I was expecting to run this both in IDPA as well as USPSA, and bull barrels weren’t entirely kosher at the time. (At least, that’s what I recall. Rules change and things could be different today.)

The Wilson magazines and the integrally ramped barrel ensure ultra-reliable feeding. And the Infinity AET barrel works fine with lead bullets, so practice can be inexpensive.

The barrel is integrally ramped to provide maximum case support for the .40 caliber. What we had found out back then was that the .40 could be pretty grumpy at the edges of the performance envelope. Loading the heaviest bullets, with the fastest-burning powders, to make Major (but not any more than the barest of margins) could mean blown cases.

Also, the chamber is reamed to a long-lead dimension. This is where the 180-grain (we all gave up on 200-grain bullets after blowing enough cases, it wasn’t worth the minuscule advantage) bullet is seated long, halfway between the length of the stock .40 cartridge and the 10mm length. This promotes reliable and smooth feeding and still allows the use of then dirt-cheap .40 brass. Back then, a lot of police departments had switched to .40, and you could buy once-fired brass almost by its weight as scrap metal. The rifling is further forward that it would be on a stock .40, but the longer bullet seating places the bullet up to the rifling, and so there’s no loss of accuracy.

Here you can see the long straight trigger, the big-head mag button and the VZ Grips G10 double diamond, with custom grip screws.

The front strap checkering is 30 lpi, with the top of the front strap lifted to provide a higher grip. On the back end, the Ed Brown grip safety and thumb safety are fitted perfectly. The gap (a fine line, really) of the grip safety is even all the way around its fit to the frame. The bottom curve of the thumb safety matches the curve of the frame at that point. The thumb safety positively clicks up and down, and stays down during recoil, even if my thumb isn’t riding on it.

SVI-Infinity-safety
The SVI/Infinity hammer is one option, and the recessed panel in front of the cocking serrations is another. The fit of both the thumb safety and the grip safety is superb.

To give you another idea of the attention to detail that the Infinity builders watch for, the shaft of the thumb safety, where it comes through on the right side of the frame, is fitted to be flush with the frame. The mainspring housing is flat and checkered, at 20 lpi. I didn’t opt for a magazine well funnel, as I had my own ideas as to what constituted an appropriate mag funnel and planned to take care of that myself when the time came.

Infinity single stack magwell
I didn’t have Infinity install a mag funnel, because I had my own ideas on that subject. I never got around to it, because writing crowded out competition, and so it remains as a plain magwell opening. Someday …

Topnotch Trigger

The hammer and trigger system is exemplary. First of all, the fire control parts are, for the most part, wire EDM manufactured. This is where they take a plate of pre-hardened steel and use a wire to cut the shape of the hammer (and other parts) out of the plate, to the utmost tolerances.

How good is this? If you’re old-school and you go to “tune up” the hooks of the hammer, or the nose of the sear, with a stone, you are making it worse. You’re not improving it. The Infinity trigger comes as a two-piece assembly. There’s the bow and its seat; they deliver your trigger-press pressure back to the sear. And then there’s the bow, or face, of the trigger. The two-part assembly allows Infinity to make triggers any size and shape you desire, and in colors as well. I opted for a flat-cased trigger at the long length, long enough that someone with smaller hands probably can’t reach the trigger face.

Infinity single stack trigger
The lifted front strap isn’t just a tighter curve, but it extends out into the trigger guard. This single stack Infinity is a competition gun built by competition shooters.

The grips are double-diamond VZ Grips in black G10 and secured in place by Torx-head grip screws that have been serrated around their borders.

Oh, and as one last bit of custom work: I requested a special serial number. You can do all, or most of all this, by simply jumping into the Infinity gunbuilder section on their webpage. Pick what you want; they even have photos of what is what, and when you submit it as a build, they’ll send you a price and delivery time quote. What I ended up with was essentially a tailored jacket, one that wouldn’t fit anyone else but me.

Infinity-Custom-Markings
Custom? You bet. And it’s easy to tell who this one belongs to.

You might notice that the magazine that came with it (and the matching set I assembled from my 1911 magazine bin) is a Wilson Combat .45 magazine. Yes, a .45 magazine to feed .40s. Why? Because it works.

The fit of the slide to frame and barrel to slide is superb—which you’d expect from the guys at Infinity. We’re accustomed to checking the fit of a slide to frame in the 1911 by trying to wobble the slide on the frame. That’s a complete and utter waste of time here.

But the real 1911 mavens expect that and check fit a different way: We feel for the friction when the slide moves as we rack it. When slowly moving the slide back and forth on the frame, you can feel how many toolmarks might be present, how big they are and what kind of differential they have to the base dimensions.

Again, a waste of time here. The slide might as well be running on well-greased ball bearings, for all the feel of toolmarks you might try to garner. And the amateur test of trying to press down the barrel when the slide is locked in place? Pu-leeze.

Infinity Single Stack On The Range

I’d love to regale you with tales of matches entered and won with this superb bit of firearms art. Alas, soon after its arrival here, I began my career as a full-time writer, and as far as I can recall, never shot it in a Single Stack Nationals. I shot it enough to discover that it shoots one-hole groups out to 25 yards, with ammo it likes—which is pretty much everything I could feed it. It hasn’t failed to work properly at all, and on top of that, it’s a cool-looking 1911 in an understated sort of way.

Alas, it’s also semi-obsolete. The .40 has a ticking clock on it.

Infinity single stack mag
The single stack Infinity feeds .40 S&W from Wilson Combat .45 ACP mags.

Yes, the ammo companies are making ammo for it (trying to keep up, anyway) but there are no new .40 pistols being designed or made. When I had this pistol built, there was no hint, nor even a suggestion, that the .40 would go the way of Caesar, albeit more slowly. Thanks for nothing, FBI. Had I gotten it made with the replaceable breechface Infinity offers on some guns, I could simply have a 9mm breechface and barrel fitted, and motor on. (Oh, the serial number would be a small problem, but hey, what can you do?)

So here I am, with the problem of a custom gun in a cartridge that has a use-by date on it. And making it work with something else would be a lot of work. Such is life. My plan is to enjoy using it, loading for it and marveling at it, and letting my heirs worry about what to do with it when that day (long time from now, hopefully) comes.

You can simply do yours up in .45 ACP or 9mm and solve that minor problem.

SVI-single-stack-classic-specs

Editor's Note: This article originally appeared in the March 2022 issue of Gun Digest the Magazine.


More Handgun Reviews:

Geissele Super Duty Review: Pulling Major G-Force

A closer look at Geissele’s complete (almost) Super Duty system.

People often toss around some terms without really knowing what they mean, like “complete weapons system.” Complete means just that—everything that’s needed to run, feed, maintain and inspect a weapon. It comes from one source. That’s not easy, but Bill Geissele comes really close on that.

Bill is a nice guy and a great engineer. His start in the firearms field was making triggers. Instead of simply making the same triggers as everyone else, he made better triggers. Soon, the top shooters and the guys who go places to deal with nasty people were beating a path to his door, wanting triggers.

Then, he made scope mounts—beautifully machined, structurally rigid, essentially unbreakable scope mounts. From there, it was a straight path to complete rifles because, well, if you’re going to make the world’s best triggers and scope mounts, you might as well make everything else in between, right?

Oh, and then he went into scopes.

Geissele Super Duty feature

The Complete Rifle

The intended audience of the Super Duty is the bearded gents who go to dusty laces. As a result, the upper and lower receivers are machined from forgings. Could Bill make a better upper and lower? Almost certainly. But the powers-that-be have some firm rules, and forged receivers are one of them. So, he builds on that and installs an improved bolt-carrier group.

Geissele-Super-Duty

The carrier is made from the current best steel for that, 8620, while the bolt is made from an improved Carpenter 158, called 158+. Yes, Virginia, it is possible to make a better steel but still call it Carpenter 158 … if you go directly to Carpenter and ask them. And that’s what Bill did. He opted for a better steel for the cam pin; he decided that cold hammer-forging barrels was the only way to go, so he acquired the equipment and makes his own.

The barrel isn’t lightweight, but instead a medium-weight profile designed to handle hard use and heat, and has a 1/7 twist. The gas block is Bill’s own Super Compact Block, and the installation is, in the words of Geissele, “bomb-proof.” As in, the gas block is pressed onto the barrel with both the barrel exterior and gas block interior closely matching in size. It’s then locked in place by means of two setscrews, each nestling into recesses dimpled into the barrel. Then, it gets a cross-pin through the block and the bottom edge of the barrel itself.

Geissele-handguard
Here, you see the SureFire mount and flash hider. It’s a first-class flash hider and a great mount for SureFire suppressors.

I pity anyone who thinks they’ll simply snatch the gas block off of a shot-out Geissele barrel (who knows how long that would take) to install it on another barrel. Good luck with that. It then gets a gas tube and is ready for its handguard.

Before they’re all assembled, all the internals and the barrel, as well as the SureFire flash hider/muzzle/brake/suppressor mount, are all given the Geissele Nanoweapon coating. This is a solid lubricant coating that’s available only from Geissele. It’s a matte finish black coating that you cannot rub off short of going to power equipment—and aggressive equipment at that. It has a surface hardness in the same league as synthetic diamonds. You aren’t going to wear it off cleaning, shooting or tossing it into your ultrasonic cleaner. It makes parts rust-resistant, easy to clean and slick in use.

The barrel gets a Super Modular Mk16 handguard, with M-lok slots. M-lok has won the accessory wars so far, and this is what the future portends. Until something better comes along, buy M-lok unless you have a legacy KeyMod to feed.

The Mk16, like all SuperMod handguards, use a proprietary barrel nut. This doesn’t have the flanges of a regular barrel nut, and thus there’s no problem with the gas tube touching the barrel nut. To hold the handguard on, and to keep the barrel nut in place, Geissele uses a pair of heft bolts crossway through the bottom rear of the Mk16. These pass-through grooves on the barrel nut and keep the whole package tight and properly aligned.

Geissele-Super-Duty-logo
The handguard locks into place by means of a pair of hefty Torx-head bolts that are threaded into a steel anchor plate. You’re not depending on the strength of threads cut into aluminum here.

And the attention to detail that is Geissele is right here to be seen. Notice that the Mk16 clamping bolts pass through the aluminum handguard, but they’re threaded to a steel plate inset on the far side. The tensile strength of aluminum is half that (at best) of steel. It’s entirely possible to strip the threads of an aluminum handguard, by over-tightening the steel bolt. Geissele won’t let that happen.

Another Geissele detail is the bolt stop. Instead of the small mil-spec lever, we get a two-headed extended lever that’s plenty big without being in the way.

Building Up The Lower

Geissele-SDR-grip
The ambi selector/safety, the extended bolt stop lever, the A2 pistol grip, all on view, and all first-rate quality.

The lower gets a Geissele SSA-E X with Lightning Bow, which is a first-class two-stage trigger that has a straight bow for consistency in trigger pull. There’s a Geissele pistol grip behind that, and again, Geissele gets it right. Perhaps the one detail that I find not to my liking on modern ARs is that I’m not a fan of pistol grips that fill the upper back end of the lower receiver, but Geissele installs an A2 here (kudos, Bill). In-between is an ambidextrous selector/safety.

Geissele-SDR-Stock
The end users Bill has in mind want the SopMod stock, so that’s what comes on your Super Duty. Don’t like it? It’s easy to change and there are plenty of people who’ll be happy to take it off of your hands.

On the back of the lower receiver, there’s a VLTOR B5 Systems buffer tube and SopMod stock. The B5 System assembly has a longer buffer stroke than a carbine system; this makes for a softer and less-bouncy felt recoil.

To charge the rifle, you grab a hold of the Airborne Charging handle, an ambidextrous version of the super Charging handle, but with a bit lower profile, so it’s less likely to get hung up on your gear.

Geissele-Charging-Handle
The Geissele Airborne charging handle, which is an ambi handle.

Remember I mentioned optics? Well, there’s now a Geissele scope, the Super Precision, a 1-6x riflescope with a DMRR-1 reticle, allowing for quick range estimation and hold-over. The Super Precision isn’t made by Geissele. However, they told an experienced Japanese (not China, that’d be egregious, and Geissele doesn’t do egregious) optics company what they wanted, and the standards they’d test the optics to—and, knowing Bill, the penalties for failure on the part of the optics maker would be epic.

Geissele-Super-Duty-optic
The Geissele 1-6x optic comes in a Geissele (what else?) scope mount that’s tougher than a $2 steak.

Now, to be a complete systems provider, Bill would have to offer ammunition and magazines with his rifles. When I suggested that, with a big grin, he just laughed. We agreed that maybe two decades ago it might have made sense. But now, with so many good magazines and plentiful ammo choices to be had, there’s no point.

Well, Does She Shoot?

First-class manufacturing is one thing, but the real test is in the shooting. So, I volunteered for the boring task of seeing if I could make a Geissele rifle choke.

I failed.

I had an opportunity to test the rifle not just at my gun club and its 100-yard range, but on another range with elbow room out past 500 yards … and I was able to ring steel with boring regularity as long as the wind cooperated. I can shoot, but calling the wind every time is a voodoo level of skill I haven’t yet perfectly mastered. I did manage to shoot a 500-yard group that spanned just a smidge over 2 inches, which is something I’ll be bragging about for a long time.

Chronograph-data

You can have the Super Duty as a rifle with a 16-inch barrel, or as a pistol with a 10.3-inch barrel. Again, Bill is making them for the bearded gents as well as us. Sixteen is easy for us, and 10.3 inches is what the guys who want really short blasters are accustomed to using.

And, so you know, you don’t just “buy” a Super Duty—you order it built to your specs. You pick rifle or pistol, barrel length, scope or no scope, and color. Color? Yes. Mine came in DDC (Desert Dirt Color), which I find to be a far better descriptor than FDE. You can also opt for Luna Black, Gray, 40mm Green, OD Green and Iridium. Place your order and wait. Your rifle is built to your specs, not just snatched off an inventory rack, wrapped and shipped.

I love this country.

Geissele-Super-Duty-Specs

Editor's Note: This article originally appeared in the August 2022 issue of Gun Digest the Magazine.


More AR-15s:

Nighthawk Custom Drop-In Trigger System Review

A review of the near-fool-proof 1911 Drop-In Trigger System from Nighthawk Custom.

It used to be hard to get a good 1911 trigger. Then, in the 1980s, it got a lot easier. And in the early 1990s, it got even easier. Now, it’s dead simple.

We used to stone parts. Then, we bought better parts. Later, we bought the best. Now, we don’t even have to time the parts.

Enter the Nighthawk Custom Drop-In Trigger System (DTS). They took the packet trigger idea and perfected it for the 1911.

Nighthawk-DTS-feature

The idea is simple: The relationship of the hammer and sear to each other depends in no small part on the locations of the hammer and sear holes in the frame. If they’re off by a few thousandths or crooked to each other, your sear and hammer engagement won’t be what you think it is. That’s where we spent our time, fitting and stoning.

So, Nighthawk Custom takes the hammer and sear, makes them to exact dimensions and fits them on pivot tubes that are in precise locations. Then, they wrap the whole thing in a sleeve and fix it together, so the precise engagement they worked so hard to create isn’t changed.

How does this fit into a 1911 frame, then?

Simple. The holes for the packet have just enough give in their size (they’re a smidgen larger than the pins they’ll ride one) that it can “float” in the frame. Their relationship to each other never changes. The packet rides in the frame, and everything is fine.

Well, almost everything. The packet design can’t use a regular three-finger sear and grip safety spring, so Nighthawk provides a special one that works the grip safety. The rest of the spring action is handled by the internals of the packet itself.

And, you’ll still have to fit a thumb safety to the packet. It’s drop-in as far as trigger pull is concerned, but the thumb safety still needs to be fitted. Compared to the work we went through in stoning sears and hammer hooks, that’s easy. And a small price to pay for a drop-in clean and crisp trigger pull.

Nighthawk-1911-DTS

A Good Trigger Job

Now, cutting-edge technology doesn’t come cheap. And good trigger jobs aren’t common nor cheap. The Nighthawk drop-in at $300 seems steep, but I just priced the full set of parts needed for a 1911 trigger job (that’ll still require some fitting and tuning), and they easily ran $100. Not a lot of people are willing to take $100 in precision parts and experiment with installing and tuning them, especially if it risks turning their 1911 into a runaway.

Nighthawk-Custom-DTS-box

Hand those parts and your pistol over to a competent pistolsmith, and it’ll come out just fine, but that eats into the cost difference … and then there’s the time waiting. I’m reminded of a radio commercial I heard a long time ago, and I can’t help but change it a bit for this: “It’s my trigger job, and I want it now.”

With the Nighthawk Drop-in Trigger System (DTS), you can have it 5 minutes after you sign for the delivery from Nighthawk.

The hardest part is waiting.

Editor's Note: This article originally appeared in the December 2021 issue of Gun Digest the Magazine.


Raise Your 1911 IQ:

3D Printed Suppressor Tools

Niche tools for items like silencers can often be out of stock right when you need them, but 3D printed suppressor tools can fill the gap.

Ever need a tool, only to find out there seems not be any for that specific task? Or the manufacturer is temporarily out? Welcome to the club. When it comes to suppressors, and disassembly of the same, you’re pretty much locked in. If you buy the Whiz-Bang suppressor, then the W-B Co. LLC is likely the only company that makes the tools to take them apart.

Well, almost.

Warren Innovative Technologies makes 3D printed suppressor tools to fit any suppressor. No, really. By my count, 33 different spanners, sockets, splined or cap-fitting tools. These are all made from injection-mold grade ABS, but 3D printed. Where there are pins needed, the pins are held in place during the printing process, so they’re firmly held by the finished product.

I know what some of you are thinking: ABS? How is that going to hold up to my leverage with a breaker bar?” My first thought is: If you need a breaker bar to get your suppressor apart, you’ve done something wrong already. My second thought is: Warren will replace busted tools, so you’ll have some thinking to do while the box wends its way to you.

After all, suppressors are supposed to be hand-tight. Yes, the mounts should be torqued on to a certain level, one that ABS might not withstand, but we already have perfectly good steel wrenches for that. If you want more than hand-tight, Warren makes a wrench handle/spanner to do that.

3D-printed-suppressor-tools-feature
Warren Tech 3D printed suppressor tools are light, non-marring, inexpensive … and you can actually get them when you need them.

The ABS Advantage

The two big advantages of the ABS printed tools are that they’re unlikely to mar your suppressor, and they’re readily fabricated. The ABS-M30 won’t leave scars on your aluminum tubes. By being readily fabricated (once all the engineering, R&D, etc. has been done, of course), Warren can make them when you need them. If they were made from forged aluminum, machined to fit, you’d have to wait until the next batch of that suppressor was made. If not a commonly owned one, that wait might be a while. This way, everything is either in-stock or made so quickly it might as well have been.

Oh, and do you have the spring-loaded workroom strips, the ones used to click your other tools into? Well, the Warren tools click into those. For those of you who aren’t one to leave tools behind when tired, there’s also a dedicated hole to put a loop of 550 cord (aka “dummy cord”) on it, so you can keep track of your tools.

3D-printed-suppressor-tools-Warren-TiRant
Here’s a TiRant wrench and the Warren Tech spanner that makes it easier to use.

Also, once the printing software has been generated for each tool, it was easy as pie for Warren to integrate the suppressor type name into the instructions. So, each one is clearly marked as to what it fits.

Now, if you only own one suppressor, or own several, but all from the same maker, this might not be needed. But what do you do when your .22 rimfire, your .223 and your .308 are each from a different maker? Or, you lose your one-and-only tool, and the suppressor maker is in-between production runs of that tool?

Why, you just track down Warren Innovative Technologies (SuppressorTools.com) and order up what you need.

As an example, the first tool I clicked on proves the point. It’s a socket tool to tighten or loosen an AAC three-prong mount. AAC is gone, and they aren’t around to make a tool for you.

But Warren is.

Editor's Note: This article originally appeared in the 2021 Buyer's Guide special issue of Gun Digest the Magazine.


More Suppressor Info:

Kel-Tec: Beyond Blued Steel And Walnut

0

The innovative designs of Kel-Tec go beyond blued steel and walnut and redefine what “made in America” can look like.

I’ve always been impressed by the ingenuity and engineering of the people at Kel-Tec and the products they offer. They’ve always been pushing boundaries, testing limits and making firearms that are more than (or where desired, like weight, less than) other designs.

And the looks? If you’re into “modern industrial,” Kel-Tec is where you go. Now, I grew up in an era when “made in America” was a given, imports were rare, expensive and oftentimes an ergonomic hot mess, and blued steel and walnut were the baseline assumption of “looking good.”

As much as I still respond favorably to blued steel and walnut, there are times when a clearly industrial-look approach is just the ticket.

KelTec-PF9-with-ammo
As an ultra-compact everyday-carry gun, or as a backup to a bigger gun, the Kel-Tec PF9 is just the ticket.

Swedish Roots, American Soil

Thus, we have Kel-Tec. Founded by George Kellgren (a Swede, but the U.S. has a lot of Swedes and those whose parents and grandparents came from Sweden) in 1991, the idea wasn’t to make firearms like everyone else. After all, if you’re a small company—a brand-new upstart—do you really want to be making rifles just like Ruger, Winchester and Remington? (OK, Remington would be a special case, but in 1991, not so much an outlier.) Do you want to go head-to-head with handgun makers like Ruger, Glock, Sig, etc.? Not if you want to stay in business.

And since you’re doing it all right here in the good-old US of A, you’ve got to be cleverer and you have to have a distinct look. It doesn’t hurt to go after specific segments of the market that have heretofore been underserved.

The first Kel-Tec firearm was the P-11, a compact 9mm pistol that held 10 rounds in a flush magazine, but it also cleverly accepted magazines from the S&W 59 series. Magazines are a specialized subset of design and manufacture, and the cleverness of a brand-new company, with a new design, using an existing magazine as the feed mechanism cannot be overstated.

Another, later in the line of 9mm pistols, is the PF-9. We’re now accustomed to super-compact EDC 9mm pistols, but back in 2006, when the PF-9 came out, this wasn’t so much the case. So, from Kel-Tec we have the lightest and flattest 9mm, it being a single-stack DAO pistol, one that’s so light that it can be actual work to shoot with hot defensive ammo.

Kel-Tec-PF9
The PF9 is an ultra-compact 9mm. You can use the standard flush magazine or gain extra rounds by using the extended version.

That very lightness makes it valuable as a sidearm in certain uses. As an ultra-compact backup for those of us who insist on packing heavy, it’s da bomb. If you have a PF-9, you have 12 ounces of made-in-the-USA insurance. I have knives that weigh more than that, and they aren’t as long as the reach of a PF-9.

Made properly … and here? Of course. The slide and barrel are both heat-treated 4140 steel. The chassis is machined from a billet of 7075 aluminum. The frame is high-strength polymer and all the making happens in the Kel-Tec plant in Cocoa, Florida. Why the emphasis on “Made in the USA?” If the COVID-19 pandemic has taught us one thing, it’s that long supply chains can be a problem.

Not long ago, a super cargo container ship was freed after being aground in the Suez Canal. It was so big that it literally wedged across the channel, blocking the canal. Over 300 ships were stuck until it got freed. With ships now commonly transporting 14,000 containers or more, each, that’s more than a half-million containers stuck in traffic. Billions of dollars worth of goods, waiting in the hot sun of the Mideast. Don’t tell me that American made doesn’t matter.

Back to Kel-Tec. One very cool pistol they make (the P11 is no longer in the lineup) is the PMR30. It’s a pistol in .22 Magnum that holds 30 rounds in the magazine. For someone looking for a home-defense pistol that doesn’t have a lot of recoil, there’s your solution. People might sneer at a .22 Magnum round, but 30 of them—and 30 more after a fast reload—is a real emergency-solving handful.

KelTec-PMR30
The PMR30 is a pistol chambered in .22 WMR, and it holds—you guessed it—30 rounds in the magazine.

So, making things here in the USA sounds a whole lot better, and it doesn’t rely on the now-constrained (there’s a shortage, apparently) supply of shipping containers. And true to the 21st century, Kel-Tec now does their design and dimensional standards work on computers. That info can be fed directly to CNC-machining centers, and a modified firearm, or an entirely new prototype, can be created right away. Then, once extensive testing shows need, an updated one can be produced that afternoon and fed right into the testing process. Computers are great; you just have to know how to use them, and Kel-Tec sure does.

They Have Long Guns, Too

The design efforts of Kel-Tec are also bent toward rifles and shotguns. And it isn’t enough that they give free rein to the industrial-look polymer and steel design imperative, they also offer practical and usable bullpups. The rifles, the RFB and the RDB, use common-capacity (20 rounds or more) magazines, but provide carbine-length barrels in firearms that are as compact as a rifle can be. The trigger on the RFB they sent me was so good that I simply told them they weren’t getting the gun back.

KelTec-RFB
The RFB is a stout .308 Winchester that’s compact (it’s a bullpup, after all) and ejects the empties forward. You want a compact sledgehammer? You got it.

The shotguns, the KS7 and the KSG, are even more trick. The KS7 looks like it came right off of the set of Aliens, and the KSG, while the same size, has nearly double the capacity. Kel-Tec doesn’t consider the traditional design, look or mechanism when building any of these firearms. And that’s the usual Kel-Tec method.

Kel-Tec’s P50

A case in point, and the current Kel-Tec “gotta have it” firearm is the P50. The P50 uses the 5.7x28mm cartridge, developed by FN back in the late 1990s for a NATO requirement. Now, I love the FN line of firearms, and they’re a first-rate crew, but they also don’t seem interested in responding to price competition. If you want to shoot something made by FN, using 5.7 ammunition, you’re in for spending no less than $1,200. The quality is there, but so is the price.

Kel-Tec-P50-feature
The P50 is the new kid on the block in 5.7x28mm. It uses the same magazines as the FN carbine, for less money and less bulk.

The Kel-Tec P50 has an MSRP of $995. Some might say that $200 isn’t much of a price difference, but even with today’s inflated ammo prices, that gets you a bunch of ammo. And as far as ammunition capacity goes, the P50 uses the same magazines as the FN PS90, so you have 50 rounds on tap once you’ve loaded up.

The design of the P50 is … not traditional. As in, telling the designers after their first attempt: “We don’t make firearms that look like other people’s firearms. Go back, chug a few Red Bulls and try again.”

There’s the customary Kel-Tec dependence on strong and well-proportioned polymer moldings. There’s the usual (and properly engineered) assembly of sheet-steel stampings and machined aluminum. And there’s a charging handle on the back end that works just like the one on an AR-15, so you know how to get it ready to rock. And true to the Kel-Tec process, it looks like it was designed tomorrow—as a tool that Corporal Hicks would’ve clipped to his body armor—and it was designed and made here in the USA.

The action hinges open at the front, the PS90 magazine rides horizontally inside the action and there’s a thumb safety for your use, convenient to your firing hand. What’s really different is that the top half of the receiver set has a full-length rail, and there’s enough room there to park more accessories, by weight, than the P50 itself weighs.

Kel-Tec-P50-mag
Ammo of any kind might be hard to get, but the P50 can be fed ammo from several sources, and it works like a champ.

Underneath the location of the magazine, on the lower receiver half, there’s a rail section long enough to let you mount a light, laser or whatever is the en vogue item of the tacti-cool set. Just ahead of the trigger guard is a sculpted hand-hold, one that allows you to get a second hand on the P50, just under the balance point. On the back end is a QD sling socket, so you can use a short sling, à la SAS style, to keep the P50 steady while shooting.

Now, being nontraditional can have some drawbacks. Reloading the P50 is a two-handed affair. You’ve got to unlatch the upper, then swing it open and pluck out the old magazine. Insert the new magazine not into the space in the lower where it looks like it’ll go, but press it into the upper receiver, and then swing the lower up to the upper. Work the charging handle, and you’re good to go.

Kel-Tec-P50-open
To load the P50, open the action and stuff the magazine unto the upper. Don’t lay it in the lower; it wasn’t made to work that way.

To shoot, press the safety to Fire (forward until it is vertical), push the P50 out in front of you to either line up the iron sights (nestled in the gutter of the top rail) or get the red-dot on target and press the trigger. Repeat as necessary. It takes a bit of time, but you’ve got 50 rounds at the ready once you do.

’Merica! You get choices, so take advantage of them.

Editor's Note: This article originally appeared in the 2021 Made In USA special issue of Gun Digest the Magazine.


More Kel-Tec Guns:

Mag Pump: The Thumb Saver

Thumbs raw and sore from loading too many magazines? There’s a solution, and it’s called the Mag Pump.

Oh, for the good old days when you didn’t have to take out a second mortgage to afford a day of range time. Why I remember when a five-day class was an occasion to practically toast a barrel. Now, the ammo costs are greater than the enrollment fee or the travel costs.

But it’s still mind-numbing labor to load a magazine. It’s hard on thumbs, it takes time from building skills and this is America, where life is supposed to be better for us than it was for our forebears. Which leads us to the Mag Pump.

Mag-Pump-feature

Mag Pump It Up

The Mag Pump is the device that many of us had thought of, even dreamed of, while spending time in the sun on a range, thumbing ammo into magazines. The process is simple: Lock a magazine into the Mag Pump (there are pistol and rifle versions, and adapters for the pistol mags), then dump ammo into the hopper. Pump the lever, and there’s a round in the magazine. Repeat until the magazine is full, remove and replace, and continue.

The hopper holds more than enough for a magazine or two, and the feed system orients each cartridge as it passes through the mechanism to be pointed properly and then inserted into the magazine.

Oh, and do yourself a favor and get in the habit of counting as you pump the lever. The Mag Pump doesn’t have a way of knowing the capacity of the magazine you’re loading, so you’ll find it annoying to have the system crash to a halt as you try to get that “plus one” cartridge into your magazine.

The basic system of the Mag Pump is composed of injection-molded high-impact plastic. From the look and feel, I suspect there’s a good dollop of glass fibers in there, acting as rebar for the polymer.

Mag-Pump-rear

The pistol version comes with six adapters for various magazines, those being Glock, Sig, S&W, Springfield, CZ and Ruger. There’s an arm-long list of additional adapters, for those of you who use something other than the most common magazines.

Rifle loaders are made in either AR-15 or AK47 versions.

The Pro versions of the loaders have some of the high-stress parts replaced with parts made of aluminum or steel, in case you’re loading for a gun club, a rental range or just won the lotto and have a literal warehouse full of ammo to consume. (If you need help, remember, there are eager volunteers to be found.)

The base models of AR-15, AK47 and pistol are listed at a penny short of $150 each. The Pro model for AR and pistols lists at $250, and the Elite AK47 model is $399. If you get tired of using a C-clamp to hold the Mag Pump to your shooting bench, then you can invest 10 bucks into a mounting plate. That one you bolt to the bench to, and then the Mag Pump simply self-clamps to it.

Ammunition is hard to find, and extremely expensive right now. But if trends hold true, as they have in the past, ammo prices will come down, and availability will increase. We’ll be back to actually shooting instead of dry-firing in the basement, and when the day comes that you say to yourself “I’m tired of loading magazines” you’ll know where to turn.

Mag Pump: Because life’s too short to spend it simply stuffing magazines by hand.

Editor's Note: This article originally appeared in the April 2021 issue of Gun Digest the Magazine.


More Magazine Stuff:

Reloading Pistol Cartridges On A Budget

When ammo supplies are tight, keep on training by reloading pistol cartridges yourself.

This ammunition crunch is, quite possibly, the worst in living memory—surely worse than that of 2013. I receive numerous inquiries each week from folks who’ve become accustomed to sending a healthy amount of pistol bullets downrange, regarding how they can get into reloading pistol cartridges in an affordable yet effective manner. Let’s take a look at a minimalist setup for someone looking to make their own pistol ammo, keeping costs as low as possible.

Reloading-Pistol-Cartridges-Feature
Reloading tools don’t need to break the bank. Photo: Massaro Media Group.

One Piece At A Time

You’ll need projectiles, powder and primers, but you can reuse spent cases. While many of the bullet and powder companies publish their data online, I still love the reloading manuals. The manual will indicate the specific powder and its charge weight range, as well as the type and brand of primer used in the data published.

You’ll need a specific set of tools to get rolling, and while entry-level tools will suffice, I’ll wager you’ll upgrade once the reloading bug bites you. I’m outlining the simplest way to get going, simply to feed your handgun. And I’m concentrating on the most popular handgun cartridges, such as the 9mm Luger, .40 S&W, .45 ACP, .38 Special, .357 Magnum, etc.

The first tool is a reloading press, and while I most definitely prefer the additional strength of an “O” frame press for rifle cartridges, a “C” frame press will suffice for the straight-walled pistol cases. The Lee Breech Lock Reloader Single Stage press can be yours for under $40, and the Lyman Brass Smith C Frame—a bit more rugged and made of cast-iron—is just shy of $90. Both are sound choices, though I’d choose the beefier Lyman model.

Reloading-Dies-Reloading-Pistol-Cartridges
Lee reloading dies are a great entry-level choice, as they come with load data, appropriate volumetric powder scoop and shell holder. Photo: Massaro Media Group.

Reloading dies serve several functions, including reducing a spent case back to the original dimensions (before expansion), knocking out a spent primer, flaring the case mouth for bullet seating, pressing a new bullet into the case and crimping that bullet in place. Lee offers dies that are a great value for the beginner, and I recommend them for this application.

In addition to the proper dies, Lee includes a shell holder (which works with any press) and a polymer scoop for measuring powder volumetrically. They even include load data based on their scoop volumes. So, while there might be fancier dies available, the Lee set will get the job done, at usually less than $50. And I definitely prefer the carbide dies—they won’t require any case lubricant.

You’ll need a reloading scale, and for the beginner, the balance-beam is the only way to go. There are many models at varying price points, but don’t go with the lowest bidder here. I like the RCBS M500 at around $75, and the Redding Model No. 2 for just under $100. This is an important piece of gear, as an incorrectly weighed powder charge could be catastrophic.

For trimming your cases, look to the Lee Case Length Gauge and Trimmer (about $8) of trimming cases to the appropriate length, though it might cost you some elbow grease. Trimming cases is especially important for the rimmed revolver cartridges because the roll-crimp needed to keep the bullets in place will be directly dependent on the case length.

You’ll need a pocket cleaner to scrape the residue out of the primer pockets, and for that I like the Lee Primer Pocket Cleaner. It’s two tools in one, with a scraper on either side to handle both large and small primer pockets. At a street price of about $6, you can’t go wrong. I’d also grab a Lee chamfer/deburring tool for $5 to take any sharp edges off the inside and outside of case mouths after trimming. It’ll result in ammunition that feeds better in semi-auto handguns.

A means of measuring cases, assembled cartridges and other associated items is necessary, look to a dial caliper or digital caliper. Frankford Arsenal makes a digital caliper that runs about $20, Hornady makes a dial caliper at around $40, and there are others. I have an RCBS digital caliper (about $80), which has been reliable for years, and there are much more expensive (and precise) models, but the inexpensive models will suffice if you handle them with care.

Reloading-Pistol-Cartridges
The affordability of some reloading tools is offset by the need for good old-fashioned elbow grease. Photo: Massaro Media Group.

To seat new primers in your cases, you can use the priming arm and cup on your press—if it’s equipped with one—or you can use a hand primer. I like the RCBS Hand Priming Tool (about $40) or Lyman E-Zee Prime Universal Hand Priming Tool ($35 or so) to handle the priming of my cases, as they’re easy to use, give a great, consistent primer seating depth.

Dispensing powder can be done by hand with the Lee scoop, or even a simple spoon, directly into the pan of the balance beam scale, and I definitely recommend weighing each powder charge. If you so choose, you can spend the money on one of the mechanical powder throwers—the Lyman Brass Smith Powder Measure can be had for about $45—though for years I used a Lee scoop and an RCBS Powder Trickler (about $20) to fine-tune the charge.

To hold your cases while loading them, you can use a drill and a bit of appropriate diameter to drill holes in a block of wood, like a scrap of 2×4 or something similar, to create homemade loading blocks.

Feel The Powder

Powder choices for pistol cartridges are rather wide, as there are many ways to get the job done. Hodgdon’s Titegroup and Alliant’s Unique are but a couple of powders that’ll go a long way. There are 7,000 grains to the pound, and many pistol loads run on less than five grains of powder; this equates to around 1,400 shots to the pound of powder. Let’s say the average price of a pound of powder, before shipping and the HazMat fee, is $25, so you’ll pay less than $0.02 per shot. Primers will cost about 3 or 4 cents apiece, and bullet costs can vary widely.

Universal Powder feature
Photo: Massaro Media Group.

The huge obstacle, at least at the time of this writing, is that the components and tools are selling like hotcakes as well, with many places out of stock. However, this dissertation sheds some light on what the minimum investment is to get up and running, and at the least, you can begin to collect the necessary tools for reloading ammunition—and hopefully, none of us will be caught in this predicament again.

Editor's Note: This article originally appeared in the 2021 CCW special issue of Gun Digest the Magazine.


Get More Reloading Info:

MUST READ ARTICLES