Jake Holman Jr.'s Articles Tagged 'pistol' (16)

The compact and easy to use semi-automatic pistol has sat on the hip of officers and enlisted men for over a century. But the pistol was always a weapon of last resort, something for when the enemy was close and death imminent. And so, from time to time, there was a notion to turn handguns into minute machine pistols.…

Late last year I wrote about the what's old is new again craze of mounting illumination to weapons. Nearly a year later I am diving back into the idea of weapon's accesories, but this time the idea…

A far as aesthetics go, the Campo-Giro is one sleek little pistol. And it was born at the dawn of the 20th century.

In Weapons of War I've profiled a number of different methods of operation for pistols, from locking toggles to Browning actions. The Campo-Giro Model 1913 was simple in how it operated. The slim…

The pocket pistol to some evokes images of cheap, dangerous handguns that often are more deadly to their handlers than opponents. However, well made pocket pistols was one of the strong suits of the firearms giant Mauser during the first decades of the 20th century.

Mauser produced a series of pocket…

In the world of pistols the .45 ACP still hold sway over all other semi-automatic handgun calibers. Sure there is .357 Desert Eagle. And 10mm from Glock burned a few hundred pages of gun magazines in the 1990s. But outlasting them all is the .45 ACP. Designed in the first decade of the 20th century, the .45 ACP round…

If you looked at their mustard yellow and vibrant blue pants and chest covered by polished steel breast plate, you would not think the Pontifical Swiss Guard were real soldiers tasked with protecting the Pope. In fact the Swiss Guard are members of the Swiss military, trained not only in ceremonial duties, but…

This will be my 100th weapons related post here at Dieselpunks, enjoying every minute of it since starting way back in 2010. And judging by the ideas rattling around my head and the stack of reference in my home, there will be many, many more posts to come.

So, to mark my 100th post I wanted…

Revolvers, reliable and rugged. Essentially reaching their peak of development within the first 20 years of the first viable model, revolvers of the early 19th century through ones created of light-weight composites are pretty much identical. Except for one notable exception.

In the waning years of the 19th…

Today, look at any firearms website or magazine and there are dozens of visible and invisible aiming devices for weapons. From visible flashlights to IR lasers, rifles and pistols have received lavish technological attention in the name accuracy. However, this idea of attaching a light to a weapon is far from…

Arming guerrillas and insurgents, especially during World War II, was accomplished in two fashions. One was to bundle up any recent front-line weapons and get them to the fighters of an occupied nation. The other was design simple, easily mass produced weapon that were more disposable than maintainable. It also had…

Last week we profiled the strange recoil-cammed "Automatic Revolver" from Webley-Fosbery. Another pistol from the Webley design house was the .455 Self Loading Webley-Scott MK 1. One of the most ergonomically awkward appearing guns, the W&S MK 1 was the arms company's attempt at creating a domestic…

The Webley break-top revolver is a classic and iconic pistol of Great Britain. A reliable, long lasting and handsome pistol, the Webley served British forces for decades in the first half of the 20th century. However, the company that manufactured the .455 caliber revolver also took a few stabs…

On March 29, 1911 the John Browning-designed pistol went from contender to arguably the greatest service pistol ever fielded. One hundred years ago the Department of the Army officially adopted the .45 Automatic Colt Pistol as the M1911. The .45 ACP caliber gun would serve as the handgun of the United States armed forces…

When Soviet Spetsnaz stormed the Afghan presidential palace in 1979, the weapon brought to bear on the overwhelmed defenders, the Stechkin automatic pistol.

The Stechkin curried favor in the modern age of special operations and counter-terrorism was designed in the late 1940s as a vehicle crew weapon;…

In the pantheon of early 20th century semi-automatic military pistols, the greats are universally agreed upon. The Colt 1911 and Browning Hi Power are considered tops by many. Add in the Walther P-38 and of course the famous Makarov from the former USSR.

Yet, what pistol is missing from those ranks? How…