Not Your Dad’s J Frame — Lipsey’s Ultimate Carry
Smith & Wesson's J frame revolver – if there's a ubiquitous back-up gun for uniformed officers, the J Frame is it. History The first J Frame revolvers - Chief's Specials - were produced in 1950 and have included a number of models since then. When the 442 debuted in 1993, I bought mine from a local gun store. It is an alloy frame five-shot with a front sight blade that matches the rest of the [...]
50 ROUNDS | A Minimalist Approach To Practice
It’s a constant mantra for American police, “Do more with less.” Today, with officers taking pay and benefit cuts it can be trying for LEOs to stay motivated and focused on training. Addressing personal fitness some-times does not garner the attention it deserves for individual officer safety. Firearms and tactics [...]
Back-Up Guns
I did the cop-thing for about a decade and since then have continued to teach firearms tactics and work with law enforcement officers for an additional 30 years. Over the last 40 years some things have changed, yet many things haven’t. It’s often referred to as “100 years of tradition, [...]
Adding Capability & Capacity – Magazine Extensions
In addition to death and taxes, I can add two more things to the “near certainty” list. One is that small and mid-size frame pistols can be easier to conceal, and the other is that, even with my smaller hands, having some form of extension on the magazine makes them [...]
Wheel Guns are Real Guns
In this era of double-stack polymer nines, it is easy to overlook revolvers as archaic and out of date. However, I believe anyone carrying a firearm for a living should, at the very least, be a student of weapons craft when it comes to revolvers. Even if you have already [...]
Springfield’s Prodigy – Part 1
Suppose the emergence and growth of double stack, single action, 9mm 2011 pistols did not get everyone's attention during the last few years. In that case, I'd imagine Springfield's release of the Prodigy – a double stack, single action, 9mm 1911 (their words) should have gotten to the last few [...]
Knowing And Evolving From Our Foundations
With the amount of available information on the internet in various forms, including short-form social media posts, it’s easy to forget that printed books exist. And as the editor of an online magazine, I am aware of the irony. We all can read more. There are several good books out [...]
D&L Sports S&W revolver sights
Dave Lauck is the proprietor of D&L Sports, Incorporated- a shop offering complete gunsmithing services. Dave’s a retired lawman and a patriot; he thrives on providing the highest quality firearms and gunsmithing work for those serving at the tip of the Military/L.E. spear. Dave now hangs his shingle in Chino [...]
Failure to extract – when tap, roll, rack does not work
Tap, roll, rack, and assess should – I emphasize should – clear many of the stoppages you are likely to have with a quality semi-auto pistol. What happens when that technique does not work? What part of the eight-step function cycle for a semi-auto pistol (or rifle, or shotgun) have [...]
Pistol Malfunctions and Stoppages – Part 1
Pistols, like any other manufactured and mechanical object, can fail. And they can stop working when you least want them to. Those failures will happen because the function cycle is interrupted. What’s the function cycle? Feed, Chamber, Lock, Fire, Unlock, Extract, Eject, and Cock. This cycle happens with every semi-auto [...]
Armed Women of America – Not An Ordinary Saturday Morning
Training is, obviously, a good thing. And for several reasons. More competent and safer end users are out there; that is the biggest. Training also increases the number of favorable and knowledgeable individuals in the general jury pool. Whether those who are trained do or do not make it into [...]