Re-Inventing the Wheel
In Part I of this series, we discussed the birth of the breakfront holster with the Berns-Martin design, as well as the development of competing designs from popular police holster makers Hoyt and Safety Speed.
We now pick up the breakfront saga where we left off . . .
Continue reading “Fighting Leather: The Breakfront, Part II”
While some of the nation’s oldest uniformed police departments trace their roots back to the mid-1800s, it wasn’t until the early 20th Century that the majority of American police sidearms moved from tunic pockets to openly-carried duty holsters. The earliest rigs were generally substandard in materials and design, and it wasn’t long before the search for the perfect police duty holster occupied the minds of uniformed lawmen from coast to coast.
I’ve always treated my snub revolvers as pocket guns, but when the time came to review the Kimber K6s DC, there was something about it that screamed for a belt holster. It was probably the 6th round that got me thinking about it as a legitimate “belt gun,” but the excellent sights and trigger helped seal the deal. Even though it’s a small-frame gun, the K6s shoots like a medium-frame snub, and it deserved a good belt rig.
Continue reading “Kimber K6s Holster: The DeSantis L-Gat Slide”
The Kimber K6s revolver was introduced at the 2016 SHOT Show, and while I got to handle it in the Kimber booth, I didn’t get to shoot it until the following year’s Media Day at the Range. That first cylinder full convinced me that I was holding a very special gun, and would need to spend more time with it in the future. Continue reading “The Kimber K6s DC: Notes From The Field”
When the double action, swing-out cylinder revolver began to take shape in the late 1800s, it seemed like the designers had already used up all their energy by the time they got to the back end. The grip frames on these guns were universally small, and the grips (or “stocks,” in S&W parlance) almost looked like they were afterthoughts.
One of the most celebrated qualities of the double action revolver is its simplicity. The mechanism is easy to understand and operate, and having everything “out there in the open” makes their operation pretty transparent, even for the greenest of newbies. Any instructor who has seen an unfamiliar student get confused by the collection of buttons and levers and switches on the side of a semiauto pistol can appreciate how the revolver’s minimalist nature simplifies teaching the manual of arms.
Continue reading “How To Safely Unload a Double Action Revolver”
Of all the skills that a serious student of defense needs to consider, an emergency reload using only a single hand is probably the least important. Since training time is always limited, it’s important to prioritize and spend our time on the things that give us the best return on investment. For most of us, that includes more “pedestrian” things like the basics of weapon presentation and marksmanship, and doesn’t include preparing for the remote possibility that we might need to conduct a one-handed revolver reload.
I admit it. I’m a gun nut. It doesn’t matter if they revolve or cycle, or if they load from the front, the back, or the bottom. It doesn’t matter if they hold a single cartridge or half a box full. It doesn’t matter if they’re made of blue steel and wood, or Tenifered steel and plastic. If they go “bang,” I love them.
Continue reading “The Kimber K6s: From a Blank Sheet of Paper”
Justin’s excellent article on the Universal Revolver Reload (URR) raised a question from a RevolverGuy seeking suggestions for how he could avoid burning himself on the forcing cone of his revolver when executing the reload. He’s not the first to encounter this difficulty, and fortunately, there’s an alternative technique that can help: the StressFire Revolver Reload.
Back when the revolver was King, wheelgun shooters and manufacturers paid attention to details that are sometimes overlooked today. A great example of this, is the host of trigger and hammer options that were available back when sixguns still filled most of the duty holsters and won most of the matches.
