Sunday morning, I put some Ahrends on the Model 18 and took her shooting. Even with the bargain-basement stuff, she does me proud:
According to Wikipedia, a penny is 0.75" in diameter. 3/4 of an inch. Double action.
Man, did it feel good shooting that!
The Smith & Wesson K-Frame in .38 Special was a resounding success from its inception. In 1931, they introduced the K-22 Outdoorsman, a 6" K-Frame in .22. The platform was an immediate hit, and its utility and popularity have never waned.
The K-22 was designed for the "high velocity" .22 rounds that were in vogue at the time. There had been concerns over the possibility of case head failures, so D.B. Wesson bored the cylinder with recessed chambers. This approach would also be used on the company's Magnum caliber revolvers until the late 20th century, when stronger metallurgy (and better ammo design) rendered it unnecessary.
For many collectors, the recessed cylinder is a symbol of a bygone era of better craftsmanship. I'm not sure I agree, but given the choice, I'll certainly take a revolver with pinned barrel and recessed cylinder over one that doesn't have those features. I don't know why; perhaps it's just the allure.
The year after its introduction, the K-22 would see service on the American Olympic pistol team. After a few slight changes, the K-22 Outdoorsman became the K-22 Masterpiece in 1940. In 1957, Smith & Wesson assigned model numbers to their pistols, and the K-22 became the Model 17. Despite its demotion in nomenclature, affectionate shooters continued to refer to it as the Masterpiece, and with good reason.
185gr Golden Sabers loaded on ~6.5 grains of HP38. Nice and warm, and just scratching at supersonic. The best part is, I didn't have to do the work. A customer of mine took up reloading, and I'm just the (quite) willing guinea pig.
Given the current economic downturn and the trend of hoarding ammunition to the point of scarcity, many folks are turning to reloading. More power to them!
Reloading isn't just about saving money. It allows you to tailor loads to your specific gun and situation, and once you've got the process down, you can achieve accuracy easily surpassing many factory loadings.
Case in point: I've got a marvelous .38 Special defensive load that runs a 125gr XTP over 8 grains of HS6. It reaches 1220ft/s out of a 4" barreled revolver, and falls just subsonic in a snubnose, all while running at less that 20,000 CUP. That's a bit warmish for factory loads, but still well within the tolerances of a good gun.
Boortz caught onto this today, and it bears repeating. Illinois Rep. Annazette Collins made the mistake of suggesting that elementary-school aged children ought to be taught about gun safety, and now the harpies are circling.
Mayor Daley, who's always had a rather sloppy understanding of civil liberties, called the idea, "the silliest position I’ve ever heard taken."
According to "activist priest" Michael Pfleger:
That’s like saying we might as well sell drugs legally (…) We don’t want access to guns. We have children dying in this city. We’re talking about teaching kids in grammar school how to shoot guns? That’s crazy!
I guess I must have grown up in about the craziest environment imaginable, then. It's a wonder I turned out sane.
In 1899, Smith & Wesson introduced the .38 Military & Police 1st Model Revolver. It first saw service in the Philippine Insurrection in .38 Long Colt, and in the stateside market, it was chambered in .38 Smith & Wesson Special. The .38 Special, as it came to be known, is possibly the most widespread and important handgun cartridge of the 20th Century.
At least that's what I hear at least once a day from yokels who see me carrying one. Their arguments are puerile for the most part, and they all seem to echo the same misguided sentiments.
The first is accuracy. People will claim that the revolver is somehow inaccurate. What they really mean is that they can't shoot it well. In fact, the revolver, having a fixed barrel, is capable of greater accuracy than many automatics. Case in point:
S&W 696, .44 Special, 8 yards, 2" bullseye.
