EDITED BY
Dan Shideler
Copyright © 2010 F+W Media, Inc.
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CAUTION: Technical data presented here, particularly technical data on handloading and on firearms adjustment and alteration, inevitably reflects individual experience with particular equipment and components under specific circumstances the reader cannot duplicate exactly. Such data presentations therefore should be used for guidance only and with caution. Gun Digest Books accepts no responsibility for results obtained using these data.
ISSN 0072-9043
ISBN 13: 978-1-4402-1337-3
ISBN 10: 1-4402-1337-2
eISBN 13: 978-1-4402-1561-2
Designed by Dave Hauser and Patsy Howell
Cover design by Tom Nelsen
Edited by Dan Shideler
Printed in the United States of America
TWENTY-NINTH ANNUAL
John T. AmberLITERARY AWARD
We’re proud to note that this year’s winner of the John T. Amber Literary Award is one of our longest-running contributors, the inestimable Jim Foral, for his 2009 Gun Digest feature, the “Age of Mobilubricant.”
Jim has a knack for uncovering forgotten chapters in our shooting heritage and reacquainting us with them with his witty, readable prose. How many of us knew that, in the age before jacketed bullets were perfected, serious marksmen typically dipped their bullets in a can of automotive grease? I didn’t, and perhaps you didn’t either. But I enjoyed discovering this bit of esoterica, as I suspect you did.
As its name implies, the John T. Amber Literary Award recognizes not only a writer’s knowledge but his ability to express it. We again note, with all regrets that may be necessary, that as a craft, gunwriting is a vanishing art. In this day of the blog, the flamer, the spammer and the un-moderated bulletin board, it’s easy to forget that the best gunwriters, the ones who have endured, not only know their subject but know how to entertain the reader. Jim Foral is one of these.
Jim is a humble man. When asked to provide us with a biography, he responded with the following:
A weakly credential man doesn’t embellish. Here ‘tis.
A once wider field of youthful passions has narrowed as I’ve gotten older. Some have slipped loose and are gone entirely, but the zeal for the history of the shooting sports hasn’t shifted. My stuff has now been printed in twenty different periodical and annual titles, but my greatest publishing satisfaction has come from being allowed an annual presence in Gun Digest, whose subtitle “The World’s Greatest Gun Book” is not just an uninspired cliche or a groundless boast.
I’ve always regarded its readers as my peers, and I’m grateful for the opportunity to contribute. My bride Kathy and I live in Lincoln, Nebraska, where I work in the commercial floor covering field, and bowfish - another passion - more than any man should be allowed.”
Thanks, Jim. And we hope you will honor us with your contributions for years to come.
Dan Shideler
Editor
Gun Digest
Jim Foral
INTRODUCTION WELCOME to the 2011 Edition of Gun Digest!
When Gun Digest was founded in 1944, it had been a scant 33 years since the U. S. Army’s adoption of what many have called the greatest pistol of all time, the Model 1911. And now here we are, on the threshold of the centennial of that truly remarkable pistol. Today, of course, there are dozens of companies who make 1911 and 1911A1 pistols, offshore and domestic, and in shooting most of them, I haven’t yet found one that wasn’t, at the least, a sturdy, serviceable pistol. Some of course have been a great deal more than that.
This edition of Gun Digest contains an excellent overview of the history of the 1911 and its commercial variants by — who else? — Gun Digest’s venerable Contributing Editor for semi-auto pistols, John Malloy, whose familiarity with the 1911 is second to no one’s. From the pre-1911 Model 1905 to today’s Colt Rail Gun, John literally knows the 1911 inside and out.
Of course, other things are happening in the world of shooting besides the 100th anniversary of the 1911. Our chronic ammunition shortage, especially in regard to self-defense ammo, seems to be abating as hoarding and hysteria wane, so it’s now possible to feed that .380 and .40 and bang away just as you used to, at only slightly higher prices. Of course, our able Contributing Editor for ammunition, Holt Bodinson, gives you the inside scoop on the last ammo-related developments a bit later in these pages, and our good friend and Contributing Editor Larry Sterett helps us get the most out of the consequent boom in reloading in his remarkable profile of the latest reloading components and tools.
The hottest area in the gun market today seems to be in small, CCW pistols. Contributing Editors John Malloy and Jeff Quinn cover these in their respective sections — and hoo-boy, is there a lot to cover! But sporting rifles and shotguns are enjoying their fair share of innovation, too, and well-known gunscribe and. Contributing Editor Tom Tabor shares his inimitable perspectives on today’s rifles — and there’s more out there than ARs, folks — while our good friend and Contributing Editor John Haviland lines up his bead on today’s shotgun market.
Of course, not all guns go “Bang!” or “Boom!” — some go “Pffft!,” either intentionally or not, so we are indebted to Contributing Editors Tom Caceci and Wm. Hovey Smith for their insights on airguns and blackpowder rifles, respectively. Women’s
