Pocket Pistol

That's pretty darn funny!

 

After rewatching the comparison video, seeing the serial numbers on the guns. Made me go "wow", there are a lot of guns out there. Which may be a deterrent to any invading nation. lol.

 

It gives me the heebie jeebies to think that the active safety is on the trigger itself on pistols such as the Glock. I am sure there are folks here who own Glocks and are very satisfied with them. If it works well for you, by all means have at it and I wish you nothing but bullseyes for the rest of your days.

Sadly, there are those who dive in head first for a self defense pistol without much sense as to the responsibility of firearms ownership.

Some fool at a gun range I used to go to near Dallas tried to put his loaded Glock in its case loaded, even though the case has a warning not to do so, and killed himself with it.
Some people just aren't going to "get it" until something bad happens and they are fortunate enough to survive the calamity.

Call me paranoid, but for me, I will not carry a pistol in my pocket, period. It will be in a quality retention holster which covers the trigger either inside or outside the waistband, along with a sturdy belt. Some might consider that inconvenient but for me, secure and accessible trumps convenient.

 

I strongly encourage you to carry with a round in the chamber, unless your CCW prohibits it. The loudest sound in the world is a firing pin striking an empty chamber.

 

Old stuff, but nobody ever understood the use of the pistol better than Colonel Jeff Cooper.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oVBV-8Rv2II

 

Bump.
Enjoyable reading, even better twice.

 

The Taurus Curve, .38:
http://www.taurususa.com/product-details.cfm?id=901&category=Pistol

 

I just bought a small frame Colt for my wife. A Colt Police Positive Special, in .38 special. This one was made in 1913 and still shoots like a champ. I don't think any of those plastic guns will still be working 100 years from now.

This model with the 6 inch barrel was the "Colt Police." With the 2 and 4 inch barrels it was the "Colt Detective." The wife's is the 4 inch barrel.

View attachment 22871

 

Jimmy Cagne's ghost will pay youse a visit.
Guns keep a marriage tight.
Like Bonny and Clyde.
http://history1900s.about.com/od/1930s/a/bonnieandclyde.htm

 

I somehow missed this thread the first time around. For such occasions, like every day, I carry the S&W .38 Airweight, 5 shot hammer-less type. Great for ankle holsters (back-up) or sliding it into the pocket for casual carry. It set me back about $385.00 about 12 years ago. I always recommend the revolver for the reason that it will next to never foul on you when you need it most as automatics seems to do from time to time if not meticulously cleaned. For casual carry situations, I put it into one of those flat beer koozies. It breaks the outline in the pocket up pretty good. Also, it comes in handy at the BBQ as well. The koozie, not the pipe. Well maybe later on in the evening when the "hey y'all, watch this" situations presents itself when some beer bottles just ask to get shot at you know.

 

I hadn't thought of using flat beer koozies. That's a great idea.

 

The PPS was, I gather, a pretty good weapon. It packed fair punch for a not very heavy gun, and was very popular with US police forces for decades.

The 2" version was officially the Detective Special, but I have never heard of the 4" bbl being called the Colt Detective. The 4" was the preferred patrolmen's model for innumerable police departments and as far as I know was known simply as the PPS. Where do you get your information?

Nice present, by the way.

 

The old guy who sold it to me, told me that. According to him, they made a 6, 4 and 2 inch model, with the 6 inch being the standard cop gun. So, just hearsay... I'm not much of revolver guy, so I appreciate your accurate info. He had a newer S&W Model 10, which was probably 50's or 60's era and this smaller Colt for the same price. For myself, I'd have taken the Model 10 - it's a medium frame that fits a mans hand better. But this little Colt fit my wife's hand like a glove and is small enough to be concealable. The only downside is that you have to shoot the old standard pressure loads, but I found a bunch of old style 158 grain wadcutters that make cookie cutter holes at about 800 fps. They'll do.

I ran the serial number to get the age, and it was indeed made in 1913. It must have sat in a drawer for most of the last 102 years, because there's very little wear on it.

 

I stop by the Smith & Wesson forum and a Colt Collectors' site, among many others, and I also have Smith' s Small Arms of the World and some other references if you want to know where I get my information. The six inch barrel was I think generally considered too long and awkward for service use in US police departments. I believe that most patrolmen's pistols (Colt Official Police and Police Positive Special models, S& W M&P and Regulation Police models) had four inch barrels. There were some exceptions; the S&W .38/44 Heavy Duty was used extensively by law enforcement, and the five inch barrel seems to have been the most common version. The British forces used .455 revolvers with five inch barrels in both world wars (Webley Mk VI, Spanish Old Pattern, S&W New Century).

I find this thread fascinating. I am writing some fiction set in the 1950s and my detective protagonist owns quite a few handguns from that era as well as some longarms. She has a PPS and a .38/44, as well as several .380 automatics.

 

Well, the PPS would be perfect for a female character. The little research I did says they went to a larger wooden grip instead of the small hard rubber grip (as in my photo) in 1927. They made the grips larger because of complaints that the original grips were too small, so you might suggest she had a pre-1927 PPS because she liked the small grips, unless she's a big woman...

The FN (or Browning) 1910 (.380) would be another great concealment gun for a lady. They were made in Belgium but hundreds of thousands were imported into the US. They're a much better pistol than the Walther PPK. I've shot both and the FN is much easier to get hits with, and has less blowback "slap" than the PPK.

 

She's a fairly big woman. I think her PPS is a 1930s or wartime-made gun with the rounded front sight. She has a Browning 1910 in .380, which I agree is a neat weapon. I saw film of one, and accuracy was pretty good for a small pocket pistol. She also has a Colt Model M .380 and a Savage M1917 in the same caliber. I'm getting into the ammuntion now too, trying to find out when hollow points first became commercially available. She can go to a gunsmith and have some dum-dums made to order I suppose, but I am after ballistic performance numbers.

 

I don't think you'll find a hollow point back then, but everybody made a cheap lead slug for any auto. These were cheaper than the FMJ's and were shot for practice, yet they were very soft lead slugs that would deform and expand if they hit somebody. A gun-savvy shooter might well use such ammo for defense.

 

I've always preferred dual purpose items.

 

Hot Shelley Winters type big, Terry D?