revolvers/Ruger

Ruger Introduces the GP100 Match Champion Double-Action Revolver

Posted on by Caleb

Sturm, Ruger & Company, Inc. (NYSE: RGR) is proud to announce the new Ruger® GP100® Match Champion™—a six-shot revolver designed with the competitor in mind. With its ergonomic enhancements and tuned action, the Match Champion™ delivers fast, accurate shots and takes the popular GP100® to the next level. Chambered in .357 Magnum, but capable of firing .38 Special, the Match Champion™ has a half-lug slab-sided barrel with an 11 degree target crown for competition accuracy, a chamfered cylinder and ejector, and custom Hogue® hardwood grips with stippled sides and dual speed loader cuts for quick reloads.

Ruger GP100 match champion

“Ruger has always been a popular choice for revolver shooters, and now we have a great platform for the competitive shooter who wants more out of a revolver,” said Chris Killoy, Ruger President and Chief Operating Officer. “The GP100® Match Champion™ has a number of features the competitive shooter wants, including polished springs and a polished hammer strut, combined with trigger and hammer shims for a trigger pull that will help deliver shots on target with ease,” he added.

A Novak® Lo-Mount Carry rear sight and fiber optic front sight create a great sight picture for both plates and targets, and the burnished trigger guard allows for smooth shooting all match long.

For more information on the new GP100® Match Champion™ revolver, or to learn about the extensive line of award-winning Ruger® firearms, visit Ruger.com or Facebook.com/Ruger. To find accessories for Ruger® firearms, visit ShopRuger.com.

About Sturm, Ruger & Co., Inc.
Sturm, Ruger & Co., Inc. is one of the nation’s leading manufacturers of rugged, reliable firearms for the commercial sporting market. The only full-line manufacturer of American-made firearms, Ruger offers consumers over 400 variations of more than 30 product lines. For more than 60 years, Ruger has been a model of corporate and community responsibility. Our motto, “Arms Makers for Responsible Citizens,” echoes the importance of these principles as we work hard to deliver quality and innovative firearms.

Sturm, Ruger & Co., Inc.
Arms Makers for Responsible Citizens®

Material: Stainless Steel
Finish: Satin Stainless
Front Sight: Fiber Optic
Rear Sight: Fixed
Barrel Length: 4.2″
Overall Length: 9.50″
Weight: 38.00 oz.
Grips: Hogue® Stippled Hardwood
Twist: 1:18.75″ RH
Grooves: 5
MA Approved & Certified: No
CA Approved: No
Capacity: 6 Suggested Retail: $899.00

Features:

  • The Match Champion™ Model is designed with the competitor in mind. With its ergonomic enhancements and tuned action, the Match
    Champion™ delivers fast, accurate shots and takes the popular GP100® to the next level. It features a contoured cylinder, Novak®
    Lo-Mount Carry rear sight and fiber optic front sight, Hogue® hardwood grip with stippled sides and a slab-sided, half-lug target
    crowned barrel.
  • Patented grip frame design easily accommodates the use of a wide variety of custom grips.
  • Patented Ruger transfer bar mechanism provides an unparalleled measure of security against accidental discharge.
  • Triple-locking cylinder is locked into the frame at the front, rear and bottom for more positive alignment and dependable operation
    shot after shot.
  • Easy takedown of integrated subassemblies requires no special tools and allows for no hassle maintenance and assembly.
  • Also features a slab-sided, half-lug barrel and hard plastic case.

Editor’s Note: We have two of these on the way already for review.

editorial/gun stuff

How I fell in love with wheelguns

Posted on by Caleb

It all started 20 years ago. As a child in the 90s, I was surrounded by images of double-stack wondernines, most prominently the Beretta 92 as featured in Lethal Weapon, Die Hard, and most importantly my dad’s holster. But despite all that, and my continuing love of the Beretta, the revolver had a hold over me. I can pin this largely on two things. The first is a book called Small Arms of the World, a massive coffee table book filled full of, well, the small arms of the world. The edition we had in the house growing up was from the late 70s, which meant that it contained lots of snide little comments from the English authors about the “unreliability” of semi-automatic pistols for police work. I probably read that book cover to cover a dozen times. My parents still have it, the cover’s nearly fallen off and the binding is coming apart, but when I visit, I’ll still occasionally turn those creaky old pages.

TBA15

However, even more influential in my revolver fascination was a comic book. Again, as a child of the 90s I had the good fortune to experience a cartoon called Batman: The Animated Series when it was first airing. Nerdier fans of a certain age will fondly remember Batman:TAS as one of the best incarnations of Batman to ever air, and proper nerds will also remember the excellent spin off comic book that it spawned, The Batman Adventures. Issue 15 of The Batman Adventures is pictured at right, and featured Commissioner James Gordon as the primary character. One line from that comic sticks out, when Commissioner Gordon is confronting a group of mob thugs. He says “Now, considering that this is a revolver and my advanced age, I can probably only get the first three of you that move. Who’s it going to be?” 11 year old Caleb thought that line was a pretty badass thing for a cop to say to a room full of gunthugs, and honestly 31 year old Caleb agrees with him.

For whatever reason, that comic cemented in my head that revolvers were the guns that cool old guys carried. This was only further enforced by a steady diet of westerns, and when I was a a couple of years older, Indiana Jones. That’s what I absorbed from pop culture as a kid: cool guys carry revolvers. Even Lethal Weapon reinforced this. Look at the characters: Martin Riggs, a wild-eyed loose cannon carries a modern semi-automatic pistol, spraying bullets everywhere. Meanwhile, old-school cop Roger Murtaugh? All he needs when it gets real are six shots from a k-frame. He’ll revoke your diplomatic immunity with a single head shot from 50 yards away, LIKE A SIR.

It’s interesting looking back and seeing how much pop culture influenced some of my tastes in firearms. What parts of pop culture have influenced your gun buying habits as an adult?

self defense

Cold weather defensive training

Posted on by Caleb

You may have seen on your Facebook news feed that the majority of the midwest is currently colder than the surface of Mars. According to Siri, it’s -6 in Sioux Falls right now. Those are real degrees, not those fakey Celsius degrees mind you. What temps like that mean is that even if you’re just walking to your car from a parking lot, you’re wearing a heavy coat, a hat, and probably gloves.

The gloves are the area that causes the most problems for shooters, because even if you’re a smart cookie that carries an extra gun in your coat’s external pocket, there are plenty of guns that don’t have trigger guards large enough to accommodate even the smallest of leather gloves. So what’s a gun nut to do? You don’t want cold hands, but you still need to be able to run your gun if things go bad. The first option is to get a set of tactical gloves from a company like Oakley, or you could think outside the box for a second.

IMG_00000405

Those are a pair of Wilson batting gloves that I’ve had for a few years. They’re not as warm as winter gloves, and obviously not very stylish, but they do provide adequate protection for my hands for minimal amounts of exposure. I wouldn’t want to try and survive in the wild for a long time, but for walking to my car or to and from the bank they’re perfect. The gloves provide enough grip that I won’t lose the gun, but they’re dexterous enough that I can actually perform all the gun’s manipulations without issue as well.

The big problem with these gloves is that they’re hideously ugly. If you want a cold weather option that doesn’t look like you’re right off the short bus, the Franklin Cold Weather Pro Batting Gloves look like relatively normal gloves. They’re black with just a simple white Franklin logo on the back, and have the advantage that you can use them to train and for EDC cold weather gloves.

When choosing the best gear for concealed carry, remember that you don’t always have to look inside the bucket that contains tactical gear only. There are plenty of sports out there that produce excellent gear for inclement weather, and have invested a lot more time and money in researching that gear than the shooting sports ever will.

editorial/gun shopping

The Latest Pocket Pistol is not for Beginers

Posted on by Gabby

20140107-215201.jpgI remember a few years ago when the general public couldn’t get their hands on the Smith and Wesson Shield but every woman I spoke to was convinced it was the gun for her. Since then a few new pocket pistols have come out each year and I have seen the same dance repeat. Many times, the women who are clamoring to buy one of these tiny gun, have never pulled a trigger in their lives. Now I see Glock getting in the game, and I cringe thinking, it’s all down hill from here. Don’t get me wrong, I’m thrilled to see the growth of women’s concealed carry options, and I realize these guns are not purely being marketed to the “hot new” female market of the firearms world, but I wish these offerings could be hidden from new shooters, until they weren’t “new” any more.

Continue reading →

editorial

Fun fact

Posted on by Caleb

Did you know that Ruger in 2011 manufactured over 170,000 LCPs? That’s more than 20,000 pistols more than the entire pistol output of Colt, ParaUSA, and Kel-Tec in the same calendar year.

Why bring this up? Because of the Glock 42, the new .380 Glock. This gun will be manufactured in the US, and has been the topic of much debate on whether or not it will sell. I am of the opinion that it will sell decently, but not in numbers that even approach Ruger’s astonishing LCP production. It’s big for a .380, but that means it will also be quite pleasant to shoot, which isn’t something you can say about the LCP. In fact, it will be much closer to the LC380 in terms of its market, and to be honest I quite like the LC380.

I think there’s a market for a reasonably sized .380 pistol for new shooters and CCW holders. It won’t have sharp recoil like some of the itty-bitty .380s and single stack 9mm pistols, which means that someone who’s new/recoil sensitive will probably be willing to shoot it enough to get good with it.

Ultimately, I’m on the fence about the new 42. I personally am interested in the Glock 41, because .45 ACP. However, I am somewhat interested in the .380, because I’ve always had a soft spot for overgrown sub-caliber guns. One of my favorite guns to shoot was my Taurus PT58, a doublestack .380 that looked like a stunted 92FS.

What do you think? Is Glock going to sell a ton of Glock 42s or none?

Shot Show

SHOT SHOW 2014 coverage

Posted on by Caleb

So, the 2014 SHOT Show is right around the corner. For me, that means a solid week of sales meetings, and the occasional bit of fun where I actually get to look at some new product. So far, there have been some big announcements made for the show, and other companies have teased their announcement a bit but not dropped actual product. Here’s a quick look at what we know is new:

  • Glock 42: .380 Glock for CCW
  • Glock 41: Gen4 Glock in .45 ACP with a 34/35 length slide.
  • Remington 51: Single stack 9mm for concealed carry
  • Ruger LCRx: the Ruger LCR with an exposed hammer
  • Ruger Match Champion: A GP100 for competition

In addition, the good bros at Sig have teased a new product that will be officially announced on the 13th of January, and the word on the street is that HK will be launching a striker fired version of their P30 as well. Of the products I know about, I’m most interested in the Match Champion, which is why we’re already getting a pair of those, and the new Glock 41. I shot a Gen4 Glock 21 in IDPA competition as a CDP gun, and it was an excellent choice. The 41 looks like an even better option right out of the gate for IDPA competition, and could make a fun choice for L10 in USPSA as well.

What products and booths do you want us to check out at SHOT Show? Let me know in the comments and we’ll do our damndest to get them on the shortlist!

gun control

Let’s regulate guns like we regulate cars

Posted on by Caleb

Whenever you start talking gun control with people, someone will invariably bring up “you have to have a license to drive a car” and suggest that we regulate guns in a similar manner. The problem is that no one actually thinks that analogy all the way through, because if they did no anti-gun person would ever support regulating guns the same way we regulate cars. Today we’re going to do a little thought experiment and actually think this analogy all the way through.

charger (300x164)

Let’s examine the analogy completely, starting with gun ownership. Even at the sketchiest of pawn shops in America, here are the steps that I have to take to legally buy a handgun:

  1. Be over 21
  2. Fill out a 4473
  3. Pass a federal background check (NICS)
  4. Pay the shop

And that’s just the process if you live in free America. Plenty of states have additional restrictions like waiting periods and state level background checks. For example in Washington, a state with pretty decent gun laws, unless you have a WA CPL you have to wait an additional 5 days from when you purchase a handgun to when you can actually take it home. This is so the state police can make double plus sure that you’re not a badguy, despite having already passed a NICS check.

Now, here are the necessary steps you must take to buy a car:

  1. Have enough money.

Mind you, we’re not talking about driving the car, just like we’re not talking about carrying the gun. To do nothing other than buy a handgun and take it home, I have to jump through several hoops. If I’m 16 and I want to buy a car, all I need is money.

Now you’re probably thinking “Caleb, that’s not a fair comparison, who would buy a car and not drive it? You have to look at driving the car to get a fair comparison.” Alright, let’s do that. Driving a car is reasonably analogous to carrying a concealed firearm. You’re in a public space, and there is a burden of responsibility that comes with it. That’s why the state requires you to have a driver’s license and insurance to drive on their roads. Here’s a comparison of driver’s licenses and CCW permits:

Driver’s License

  1. Requires that new applicants pass a skill test that is so simple, 16 year old children are considered somewhat deficient if they can’t pass it on their first try.
  2. Once issued, can be renewed without having to retake the skills until the operator reaches dotage.
  3. Allows the operator to drive quite legally in all 50 states, some foreign countries, on school property, etc without being questioned.

CCW Permit

  • Depending on where you live, may have no training requirement, will definitely require some kind of police background check, may require training of some type, but there is no sort of consistent state to state standard.
  • Is not good in all 50 states, and you may be arrested in some states where it is good due to ignorance of the law on the part of the officer.
  • Depending on the state, may require training each time it’s renewed, may not require training, but there is no consistent state to state standard.

So you know what? Let’s do it. Let’s regulate guns like we regulate cars. I’d love to have a CCW permit with a training standard so easy a teenager is expected to pass it on his first try, I’d love for that permit to be valid in every state in the nation, no questions asked. Next time you’re talking to an anti-gun person and this comes up, feel free to use the handy bullet points we’ve created. It may work better in states that have heavier regulations on gun ownership than others, so tailor appropriately to your area.