American Handgunner Jul/Aug 1981 - Jeffersonian

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(Continued from page 26) shoot through automotive sheet metal was extraneous to the purpose at hand. Let's digress for a moment. There are two kinds of state-level uniformed law enforcement agencies: highway patrols, which do nothing but traffic work, and true state police organizations th.at provide complete law enforcement services to rural areas that are too small, thinly populated, or poor to afford their own police. NHSP is Popular two-gun concept illustrated with belted 9mm and holstered .38 Spl. 28 We're proud that the unique PPS automatic priming system on our 0-7 and 00-7 presses has been awarded this honor. But this "hands-off" feature (you never touch the primer) is just one of the exclusive advantages you get with the Pacific press design. Perhaps the most noticeable feature of the 0-7 and 00-7 is the angled frame that "turns" the press 30° to one side. This, combined with the exclusive offset handle, gives the Pacific press more uncluttered working area than any other press on the market. Add to this the Power-Pac@) linkage and the rock-solid mount and you can easily see why the "0" series from Pacific is a winner. Read more about it in our 1981 Catalog. Get one today at your Pacific dealer or 011 send $1.00 to: _.. PACIFIC TOOL CO. ~..,.ifi..,. Dept. AH-7 , Box 2048 ~... ... Grand Island, NE 68801 A Division ofHornady Manufacturing Co. (0 jUiy,;;.,;mum itiff". one of the latter, as are most. A pure highway patrol, for obvious reasons, does skew the gunfight statistics toward firefights involving vehicles, simply because they're always on the road, and don't face the same hazard calls as "all-purpose" lawmen. For the pure road trooper-in Colorado, for instance, or Florida-the .357 does make more sense, though I believe both those departments are issued .38 ammo. But even in a shootout that unfolds on an Interstate, the capacity to penetrate an automobile mayor may not be essential.. The situation is often one where the suspect opens up on the officer after the latter has walked up to the suspect's vehicle: it's a point blank death duel, and the trooper or patrolman is likely to be shooting through an open window. On the other hand, the cop's best tactic in such a confrontation is to drop to the ground; the angle is such that the suspect now can't shoot at him without opening his door, but an officer with the right gun and load can drill cleanly through the door and take the driver out. Let's expand on that for a second, using an actual case that involved a mid-west state trooper. As he approached the rightside door ofwhat turned out to be a stolen Pontiac, the trooper saw the driver's hand AMERICAN HANDGUNNER • JULY / AUGUST 1981
ise, and found himselflooking down the barrel of a 9 mm Luger P-08. He drew his issue Smith 19 4", and fired one shot through the passenger window. The bullet, a 158-grain Remington semijacketed soft point .357, pulverized the glass. The core of the bullet struck the subject in the upper right chest, and coursed through right lung, heart, and left lung, stopping in the ribcage on the left side. From the autopsy photos I saw, it appears that the separated jacket of the bullet struck the gunman an inch above where the rest of the slug went in, creating a large flesh wound near the right nipple. ALIVE & DANGEROUS The gunman's own door was open, and either the impact of the bullet or his convulsive muscular reaction to taking the hit threw him out the door and onto the ground. He rolled or scuttled toward the left rear ofthe car, belly down. The trooper moved cautiously around the front. The whole time, the gunman was trying to pull the trigger of his Luger; either it was defective, or he had not remembered to release the thumb safety. Desperately, the would-be cop killer reached up with his left hand and jacked the toggle action, ejecting the live round from the chamber and seating a fresh one. He aimed again at the trooper, then lowered his head and died. He had run out of blood, fully ten seconds after a .357 slug had pierced his heart and lungs at point blank range. You can make a case in any direction from this documented incident, depending on what you want to prove. Those who feel as I do that the JSP .357 round has excessive penetration and minimal shock power can certainly point to it; had it not been slowed by the sheet ofsafety glass, the slug would almost certainly have penetrated the felon's body with enough retained force to inflict a fatal wound on any innocent standing behind him. Advocates of monstrously destructive police loads like the Glaser Safety Slug would announce flatly that a man hit in the same place with one would have been instantly neutralized. They're probably right, but the Safety Slug's plastic capsule of # 12 shot floating in liquid Teflon wouldn't have entered this particular gunman's body at all. On hitting the window, it would have disintegrated along with the glass, and the punk with the Luger would have been harmlessly showered with neutered birdshot. 9mm PENETRATION Take the 9 mm used by Illinois State Poliq::, and by such metropolitan agencies as Salt Lake City PD. Penetration of body armor or auto bodies actually exceeds that of most equivalent .357 loads. Yet, the Illinois troopers, who for many years carried them with full-jacketed hardball, bemoaned the fact that the bullets would penetrate a felon completely, with little shock effect. In once case, the bullet exited even after coursing through the thorax and AMERICAN HANDGUNNER· JULYIAUGUST 1981 The obsolete cross-draw flap holster is still in use by some departments. through the thick, hard center of the gunman's spinal column. After ISP went to the softnosed Winchester IOO-grain power point in 1976, there was an incident at 52 yards in which a suspect was shot through the chest; the bullet exited without deforming, and the gunman ran over a hundred yards before dropping dead. Had he been otherwise inclined, he might have killed the trooper who shot him. Thepoliceman's sidearm is not there for shooting cars; it's there for shooting "the most dangerous game," which happens to be a soft-skinned mammal that is often supercharged with narcotics and virtually immune to pain or fear, immune to psychological and, to some extent, even physiological shock. The two targets demand opposite performance. The high penetration ofa "car gun" makes it ineffective as a manstopper, and dangerous to bystanders. Light expanding-bullets at high velocity are very effective in flesh, but penetrate sheet metal rather poorly. The A5 ACP hardball is a definite contender for the title of all-around police cartridge. It's hampered by the fact that most police departments consider the Army automatic too "tricky" to issue. It does offer excellent penetration with a straight-on shot on a car, and its stopping power against armed assailants is legendary. The bullet tends to course through muscle and bone, expend its energy, and stop in the elastic skin on the opposite side. However, the nature of the round-nose jacketed bullet is that it cuts a narrow wound channel, and there are several cases on record where it decidedly failed to drop an assailant who hadn't been hit on a large bone or vital organ. Also, this slug will ricochet dangerously off pavement, or off tough sheet metal at acute angles. The seldom seen Al Magnum (in the low velocity lead Police load) does combine good metal penetration with very good stopping power and minimal overpenetration of flesh. However, the gun is violent to control, and is not considered (Continued on page 32) A TEXTBOOK B\' E. R. FENJOHN ABOUT THE PROPER USE OF A HAND GUN TO DEFEND A HOME AND ITS OCCUPANTS HARDCOVER ILLUSTRATED SEND $4.95 PLUS 59¢ POSTAGE TO: GOLD STAR PUB. CO. DEPT. AU-7., 90 CRICKET AVE. ARDMORE, PA 19003 0000000000000000000 ON' a f ~
Page 2 and 3: Like every Model 700, the BDL has o
Page 4 and 5: AMERICAII JULY/ AUGUST 1981, Vol. 6
Page 6 and 7: MO~~~Rlp· • S & W: SQUARE BUTT K
Page 8 and 9: I The Magnificent Beretta MINX .22
Page 10 and 11: INDUSTRY INSIDER JERRY RAKUSAN the
Page 12 and 13: SILUETAS PHILIP C. BRIGGS NRA SILHO
Page 14 and 15: COMBAT SHOOTERS now have a low cost
Page 17 and 18: , . Wh~n you go to pick a firearm,
Page 19 and 20: 397••ON. The Colt Trooper MKII!
Page 21 and 22: Making a high performance optical s
Page 23 and 24: Complet .45 Combat Modifications Sp
Page 25 and 26: BULLSEYE BANDGUN ACCESSORIES .The C
Page 27: Not Eve!)' La"" OHicer Qualifies In
Page 31 and 32: for comfort-the seeds ofhis gun wer
Page 33 and 34: EVERY POSTER A COLLECTOR'S ITEM HUR
Page 35 and 36: Model 25 wouldn't be quite as simpl
Page 37 and 38: B. WITT GUN WORKS (Carl Witt), 4020
Page 39 and 40: Ikey's trigger jobs are among the b
Page 41 and 42: tions had to be exactly right, it w
Page 43 and 44: Your Initiation To The Big Boomers
Page 47 and 48: .. 47
Page 49 and 50: OM H-S PRECISION The first time tha
Page 51 and 52: A new dimension to the study oftoda
Page 53 and 54: .22 SILHOUEnES THE .22 PISTOL A wor
Page 55 and 56: good clean IV2 pounds and still pro
Page 57 and 58: SIGHT SETTINGS (Continued from page
Page 59 and 60: HANDLOADING (Continued from page 22
Page 61 and 62: Can you imagine what happens when t
Page 63 and 64: J960 Colt SheriH's Model .45 calibe
Page 65 and 66: ASP (Armament Systems & The Carpent
Page 67 and 68: HANDLOADING (Continued from page 59
Page 69 and 70: Buy One IfJBl1 Book, Get One Free!
Page 71 and 72: loosened, the bottom end of the wel
Page 73 and 74: this assignment, of course. The ind
Page 75 and 76: lose velocity potential because of
Page 77 and 78: ngton 2112 primer, as will17.5/Blue
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into Open standing class (legal und
Page 81 and 82:
All the big shots read GUNS. it off
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sure that the barrel lugs mate perf
Page 85 and 86:
HANDGUN HUNTING (Continued from pag
Page 87 and 88:
only 5000 rounds through either P9S
Page 89 and 90:
NEW S&W GUNS (Continued from page 4
Page 91 and 92:
REDHAWK VS M29 (Continued from page
Page 93 and 94:
Customize your own gun with the lam
Page 96:
·ous. That's the best word to escr
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