Top 10 Handguns

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American Rifeman’s

The editors—alongwith Jim Supica and

Phil Schreier o the NationalFirearms Museum—

count down the best, andmost signifcant, handguns

o the past centuryand a hal.

Did we make the right

choices? You decide.BY AMERICAN RIFLEMAN Staff

Handguns courtesy o the National FirearmsMuseum. Photos by Hannele Lahti.



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hat is a handgun? As dened by the U.S. FederalFirearms Act, 15 U.S.C., Chapter 18: “Handgun.(a) Any rearm which has a short stock and isdesigned to be held and red by the use o a

single hand; and (b) any combination o partsrom which a rearm described in paragraph (a) can be assem-bled.” But a handgun is so much more than that. Handguns or“hand-gonnes” have been a abric o culture and society as longas “re-arms” have been with us. Indeed, according to Pollard’s History Of Firearms, the rst recorded use o “handgunnes” dates to November 7, 1388. Another early appearance o the term inprint dates to 1448 in Archaeologia XXII. 63.

In more modern terms, the allure and importance o thehandgun has increased. One o the best explanations or thiscomes rom the late NRA Director Col. Je Cooper and hisinsight rom The Complete Book of Modern Handgunning .

“The ascination o the pistol lies in the idea o controllingpower with one hand,” he wrote. “Aside rom its value as aghting arm and a sporting instrument, the pistol has other areas o utility. Fortunately, thereare still times and places in which a man mayhave need o a rearm and yet nd a long guncumbersome or impractical.” And that sums up the role o the handgun as well as may be done.

Cooper also wrote, “It is interesting to note that the pistol went rom a negligible, last-ditchsort o gadget into its present orm, almostovernight, historically speaking.” The handgunis a reliable, potent instrument o sel-deense.

Although there are such anomalies as theHeckler & Koch “Mk 23 Mod 0 Oensive HandgunWeapons System,” the handgun remains primar-ily deensive in nature. As Thunder Ranch’s ClintSmith says, “[H]andguns are truly at their bestwhen they are used to ght your way to a rife.”The handgun’s chie advantage is that it is por- table enough to always have with you. I you weregoing to a gunght, unless you’re a Hollywood action hero, thelast gun you’d take is a handgun. I hope never to be invited to agunght (it’s unlikely I’d attend, anyway), but belt-ed and 7.62 mmwould be elements in my choice o armament. No, it is the porta-

bility o the handgun, the act that it may be unobtrusively carriedon the person without undue burden—discreetly or openly—thatis the enduring appeal. Why do police ocers carry handguns?Because they can—all day every day. They are short, handy,appropriately powerul, and easily and discreetly stored.

But handguns are not just about gunghts or personalprotection. They are arguably the most dicult o competitionarms to master. Try competing in NRA Bullseye or 2600, andyou’ll know. World-class handgunners can turn in groups thateven competent rifemen envy. Handy and compact, they havebeen used eectively as hunting arms or centuries. Thinkhandguns are no good or dangerous game? You might want to Google the word “Howdah.” Large, powerul revolvers in

major chamberings are just as appropriate or hunting as theyare or sel-deense and plinking. The T/C Contender revolutionized handgun hunting, but just missed being on our “Top

10.“ Pistol shooting, whether with a vintageWoodsman in the backyard or Hammerliree pistol in Olympic competition is aboutharnessing and channeling that power,

about the discipline o both body and mindin the attainment o perection.

There is an almost unhealthy ascination with “Top 10”lists in our culture. In such rankings, something or someonemust win, someone or something must lose. “Top 10 Hand-guns” is admittedly a pretty broad category, and there is noclear delineation between military and civilian arms—withhandguns they are one and the same with no line to evenblur. Handgun technology through the past 600 or so yearsspans rom a tube in which rudimentary powder and a rockare stued down the ront and ignited with a piece o smol-dering rope to the completely interchangeable, multi-caliber,

polymer-rame SIG P250 introduced last year. So we limited the voting to sel-contained metallic-cartridge handguns,meaning any cartridge gun ater the Leauch-eux Pinre in 1835.

We looked or technological innovation(in my view the Modello 1889 System Bodeowas a clear winner over the Colt SingleAction Army, but or reasons that escape me,cowboys and Hollywood never embraced theBodeo). Other critical areas included servicelie, impact on contemporary and subsequentdesigns, competition use, and military andpolice use. How many were made and or

how long? We placed high importance onwhat step in the evolution o the handgun wasmarked by a particular design.

The panel was comprised o Brian C. Sheetz,senior executive editor; Glenn M. Gilbert,shooting editor; Aaron Carter, managing editor;Angus K. McClellan, assistant editor; FieldEditors Chad Adams, Wiley Clapp and Mike

Humphries; and National Firearms Museum Director JimSupica, Senior Curator Phil Schreier and mysel.

Each panelist listed his picks or the “Top 10” rom one to 10. A rst-place vote received 10 points; a 10th place vote

received one. With 10 panelists, the maximum score possiblewas 100—the top gun received 92, an “A” in most school systems. The 10 handguns receiving the most points were named to the list. In the event o a tie, the guns with the highest-placed votes received the lower ranking.

Any such list is open to compliments or condemnation.That’s kind o the point o such an exercise. Our votes arelisted on our website, and there is an online poll or members to weigh in with their thoughts. There will also be a “Top 10”blog or staers and members to post their thoughts. We willpublish the poll results along with comments and insights wedeem appropriate in a uture issue. The whole point o suchexercises is to provide entertainment, to encourage debate

and provide education. So were we right? You decide, and letus know at www.americanrifeman.org.

—Mark a. keefe, IV, edItor In ChIef

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10HANDGUNS

“Top 10 Handguns” isadmittedly a prettybroad category, and

there is no cleardelineation betweenmilitary and civilianarms—with hand-

guns they are one andthe same with no line

to even blur.


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riFleman’s top 10 handguns

No. 192 Points

How can this happen? The rearm in question is only twoyears rom its ocial 100th birthday. On March 29th,1911, Col. John T. Thompson o Army Ordnance signed a

letter to Colt’s president in which he announced the adoptiono the Colt .45 automatic pistol as the ocial service handguno the U.S. Army. A joint eort o Colt engineers and dedicatedArmy ocers, working with gun genius John M. Browning, thepistol had won out in test trials against a distinguished eld—including a damnably persistent Savage entry—to become the ocial U.S. military sidearm. This is all well-documented

history and easy to summarize. It is harder to explain why thegun is still with us almost a century later. It is a complex oboth objective and subjective reasons that combine to guar-antee a happy centennial birthday or the pistol o the century, the M1911 Government Model.

In act and ancy, there is much to be said or the M1911pistol. Objectively, I cannot name a handgun that deliversmore mud-and-sand reliability than the Government Model.All o the internal parts are solid chunks o steel, and they lastlonger than the sheet metal pressings and wire parts usedon today’s competing designs. It is an easy gun to maintain

and teach to students. I used to regularly detail strip mine inVietnam to ensure that immersion in rivers and rice pad-dies had not deposited an unpleasant surprise in the gun’sinnards. No tools required. It is accurate enough or personaldeense at 25 long steps, oten beyond. With the attentiono a qualied armorer with premium parts, the pistol shootsunder an inch at 25 yds. It is a credit to the basic design thatit has been shortened, lengthened, widened and otherwiseooled with, or a host o perceived needs both good and bad,

but with no measurable deterioration o reliability. Since thegun was intended or personal deense by service memberswhose duties precluded carrying rifes or carbines, one mustlook closely at what the Government Model has delivered in the way o perormance. Beyond a doubt, there is no otherservice handgun made in the liespan o the Colt .45 that canequal—or even approach—that o the M1911 GovernmentModel when it comes to resolving conficts, stopping ghts,and keeping Americans alive and ghting.

As Americans, we have come to love this marvelous re-arm. Surprisingly, much o that aection is airly recent. Glanc-ing at the Gun Digest or 1970, we see that there was only one

maker o the Government Model: Colt. Today, there are more than I can count. The guns are available in an array o nishesand eatures, but just about every current maker produces amodel similar to the basic gun rst red in anger beore WorldWar I. Although part o this recent love aair turns on wideavailability, there would be no supply o the guns i there wereno demand or them. A good bit o the demand comes roman objective appreciation o the inherent worth o the design,and some o it may be pure nostalgia. More is based on thedevelopment o a style o shooting, developed in the late 20thcentury, which represents the highest and best use o thissuperb rearm. It is the handgun o the century, made by doz-ens o makers and in millions o numbers. The late Je Cooper

best nicknamed the gun when he called it “The Yankee Fist.” Itis the “Pistol, Caliber .45, Model 1911A1.”

—WIley Clapp, fIeld edItor

The M1911, M1911A1 Pistols And Variants

N a t i o n a l A r c h i v e s p h o t o



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No. 253 Points TOP

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Smith & Wesson Hand Ejector Revolvers

First, we need to straighten out this “Hand Ejector” termi-nology. It comes rom when S&W also made hinged-ramerevolvers that ejected red cases automatically when the

gun was opened. To dierentiate rom that style, S&W called itsnew models “Hand Ejectors” in that the red cases had to beejected by hand rom the opened, swing-out cylinder.

The system was developed in the early 1890s and was rstused on the .32 Hand Ejector series in 1896. Basically, any mod-ern S&W revolver is a Hand Ejector. That takes in many millionso wheelguns, but there are multiple virtues to the system. In1899, there came the .38 Hand Ejectors, ollowed by .22s in 1902

and .44s in 1907. A dierent designationsystem called these our basic rame sizesI, K, M and N, respectively. The I-ramemorphed into the J-rame in the early 1950sand the L-rame evolved out o the K-rame in the ’70s. Then there is the massive X-rame. All are derived rom designs o the late 19th century. They all work the same way and handlewith the same simplicity and saety.

That’s a considerable tribute to the basic mechanism, whichmight seem delicate but is remarkably durable. With rareexceptions, these double-action/single-action revolvers comewith excellent trigger pulls in both modes. For precise shooting, the crisp single-action pull can’t be beat, and the double-actionsmoothness is legendary. Above all other virtues o the HandEjectors comes the versatility o the system. It was the platorm

or the police revolver o the century—the K-rame .38—and the oundation or many magnum cartridges.

For police service, plinking, competition, hunting and per-sonal deense, where revolver is the question, Smith & Wes-son is the answer. Thus it has been or more than a century.

—WIley Clapp, fIeld edItor

The Glock 17 earned its third-place ranking or innovationand manuacture numbers, among other things, rather thanservice lie or “coolness,” though some would boldly argue

the latter. Regardless, the pistol has proven reliable, durable,accurate and easy to maintain. To date, more than 4 million

Glocks—the 17 and its variations—have been manuactured.Named or Austrian mechanical engineer Gaston Glock’s

17th patent, the Model 17 was designed and built in less thansix months, and a second version shortly thereater, to vie or the Austrian military contract, which Glock G.m.b.H. hand-ily earned. Foreign militaries and law enorcement agenciesalike soon focked to Glock. Functionally, the 17 was a locked-breech, striker-red, semi-automatic pistol in 9 mm Luger. Thesimilarities to most prior designs, however, stopped there.

Glock—with a background in synthetic materials—designed the 17 with an injection-molded polymer rame,which not only reduced overall weight and manuacturingcosts, but also added corrosion-, weather- and impact-resistance. And the polymer rame held a 17-round-capacitydouble-stack magazine without an unduly thick grip.

Another noteworthy eature o the 17 was “Sae Action,” in

No. 341 Points

Glock 17 Pistol

which a polymer lever projected through the ace o the trig-ger shoe and served as the gun’s only manual saety—threesaeties are deactivated by the trigger pull. It was simple, yeteective, and or every shot the trigger pull was consistent.

Although the polymer-rame, delayed-blowback H&K VP

70Z predated the Model 17, Glock proved that polymer-ramehandguns not only work, but they do so very well. It is a pistol that orever changed the handgun landscape.

—aaron Carter, ManagIng edItor

National Archives photo





No. 433 Points Smith & Wesson Model One Revolver

To the modern eye, the Smith & Wesson Model One looks likemore o an ugly duckling curiosity than a “Top 10” handgun.It’s a diminutive single-action chambered or an anemic .22

rimre cartridge. The hinged barrel has to be tipped up, and thebored-through cylinder removed, to load or unload the revolver.

This little seven-shooter, however, is arguably the grand-daddy o all modern handguns. Ater the development o Colt’s

repeating revolver in the late 1830s, the next technologicalchallenge was the development o sel-contained ammunition to replace the cumbersome and weather-sensitive percussion

system, which required that loose powder, a lead bullet and aprimer all be loaded into a rearm to render it ready to re.

Daniel B. Wesson and Horace Smith had taken one swingat the conundrum with a lever-action repeating pistol, whichcame to be known as the Volcanic (see No. 5), and it proved tobe ar rom satisactory. They sold the design to a shirt manu-acturer who saw some promise in the lever-action concept.His name was Oliver Winchester.

Undaunted, Smith and Wesson ound a winnerin their second partnership. They introduced the

rst widely successul American repeating handgunchambered or a sel-contained metallic cartridgein 1857, and named this rst S&W revolver, logicallyenough, the Model One.

It was chambered or a cartridge that isessentially the blackpowder twin to today’s .22 rimire short , and it oundimmediate success. The era o themodern handgun had begun. Allo today’s modern cartridgehandguns can trace theirlineage to the littleModel One.

—JIM SupICa, dIreCtor,natIonal fIrearMS

MuSeuM

Volcanic Volitional RepeaterNo. 531 Points

The story o the Volcanic is also the combined stories oSmith & Wesson, the sel-contained cartridge and theWinchester Repeating Arms Co. Only the genius o John

Browning surpasses the infuence o this gun in uture rearmdevelopment. Prior to 1848, almost all rearms were loadedwith loose or packaged powder, a ball and a separate primer.Walter Hunt changed all that in August 1848 with his inven- tion o a hollow-based, conical-shaped bullet that held thepropellant in the base cavity o the round. Hunt employed the

services o a noted New York gunsmith by the name o LewisJennings to manuacture a rife suitable to re his sel-contained cartridge. Unable to successully market the new gun,



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Few revolvers, i any, are as revered or recognizable as the

Colt Single Action Army, also known as the “Colt Peace-maker” or Model o 1873, given its acceptance into the U.S.

military in that same year. Although Samuel Colt died in 1862,his idea o a revolving-cylinder rearm culminated in what isknown today as “The Gun that Won the West”—along with theWinchester 1873, o course. It became legendary in Bualo Bill’sWild West Show in the early 20th century and has been immor- talized in countless Western movies and television shows.

Colt’s Mg. Co. built and delivered more than 37,000 SAAs or the U.S. military rom 1873-91, the period during which it was

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No. 631 Points

Colt’s Single Action Army Revolver

standard-issue. The then-new sel-

contained cartridge revolver, in itsoriginal Cavalry guise, came in .45 Colt, had a 7½"barrel, solid-rame construction and a blued, color-casehardened nish and walnut grips. By the end o the First Generation production (1873-1941), it had been availablein at least 30 dierent chamberings, production exceeded more than 350,000, and they were available engraved or in customcongurations. Add in the Second Generation, the Third Genera- tion, then the replicas and clones, and we’re talking millions oSingle Action Armys.

Servicemen o the day considered it rugged, sturdy anddependable, and the SAA withstood months and years oabuse on the Western Frontier and around the world. Cow-boys, soldiers, hunters, rontiersmen, outlaws, sheris andshopkeepers were attracted to its power and well-designedsimplicity. It bore witness to some o the most historicallysignicant events o the past 140 years. George A. Custer’s 7thCavalry carried them at Little Bighorn; Theodore Roosevelt’sRough Riders carried them at the Battle o San Juan Hill; T.E.Lawrence carried one in Arabia; and Gen. George S. Pattoncarried his amous ivory-gripped Sin-gle Actions rom 1916 until his deathin 1945. Colt continued manuacturingversions o the gun periodically, and today still oers a number o models

or sale, as do other manuacturers. It truly is an American legend.

—anguS k. MCClellan, aSSIStant edItor

Hunt and Jennings sought a partnership with Cortland Palmer,who invested heavily in the manuacture o the gun and whoalso sought out the help and advice o Horace Smith to makeimprovements to the gun and assist in marketing the rife.

More than 5,000 Jennings rifes were completed by 1851at the Robbins & Lawrence Co. in Windsor, Vt. At the Rob-bins & Lawrence actory, Smith made the acquaintance oanother noted gunmaker, Daniel B. Wesson who was alsoemployed at Robbins & Lawrence. Wesson was workingon a project to make a pistol that red the newly developedsel-contained metallic Flobert cartridge. It was there, atRobbins & Lawrence, that Smith and Wesson gured that themagazine repeating rife o Jennings could be improved i itused a sel-contained cartridge. In 1852 the two men ormeda partnership that today stands as one o the most successulicons o rearm manuacture and development in the history

o the world.In 1853 they took out a patent on an improved metal-lic cartridge that is today the single most produced roundever, the .22 rimre. Adapting this round to a magazine-edpistol resulted in the introduction o the Volcanic pistol in

1854. Large- and small-rame pistols in.31 and .41 calibers were manuactured,yet problems persisted with the eed andextraction systems. Palmer, eeling that the

endeavor was a bottomless money pit withno hope o success, bowed out o the partnership and wasreplaced with a wealthy New Haven, Conn., haberdasher by the name o Oliver Winchester. Smith and Wesson sold theirinterest to Winchester, who reorganized the company rstunder the name Volcanic Arms and then as New Haven ArmsCo. Later, with the help o shop oreman and inventor Benja-min Tyler Henry, Winchester was able to develop and marketHenry’s progression o the Volcanic into the amed HenryRepeating Rife. That eventually led to another reorganizationo the company, which became known as The WinchesterRepeating Arms Co. in 1866.

Smith & Wesson ormed a second partnership in Novem-ber 1856 and began producing revolvers on the Rollin Whitebored-through-cylinder patent (the S&W Model One, No. 4),and the rest is, as they say, history.

—phIl SChreIer, SenIor Curator, natIonal fIrearMS MuSeuM






No. 731 Points Walther PP, PPK, PPK/S Pistols

The PP, or Polizei Pistole or “police pistol” is not a singlemodel, but really a series o blowback-operated semi-automatic pistols developed by Walther that includes

the PP, PPK, PPK/S and PPK/E. Their common eatures includean exposed hammer, a double-action trigger mechanism, asingle-column magazine and a xed barrel that doubles as theguide rod or the recoil spring.

The PP was released in 1929 and the PPK in 1931. ThePP and the PPK were among the world’s rst successul

double-action semi-automatic pis-

tols. Instead o having to manuallycock the hammer on a PP, a singlelong pull o the trigger cocked thehammer then released it to re.The slide’s movement cocked thehammer or single-action operation or subsequent shots. Therewas also a saety on the slide thatsaely dropped the hammer whendepressed—a device better known today as a decocker.

From 1929 to 1945, they were madeexclusively by Walther in Zehla Mehlis,

Thuringia, Germany. Ater the warWalther set up shop in Ulm, Germany.

By combining eorts with Manurhin justacross the border in Strasbourg, France,

Walther was able to resume production o the PP-series pistols. For years they were imported by Interarmso Alexandria, Va., but like other Walther pistols, they are currentlydistributed by Smith & Wesson. All production has been under

license rom Walther, including U.S. manuacture o the PPK/S.The PP was made in both 7.65 mm (.32 ACP) and 9 mm Kurz(.380 ACP), and the smaller PPK was available only in 7.65 mm.Beore and during World War II they were sold commerciallyin Germany and produced or the German police and military,including the Lutwae and Nazi Party ocials.

The PP is beautiul in appearance, innovative in design andsmooth in operation. It has inspired numerous copies, includ-ing the Soviet Makarov, the Hungarian FEG PA-63 and theCzech CZ50, but none o them hold a candle to the original.

—glenn M. gIlbert, ShootIng edItor

No. 827 Points

C96 Mauser “Broomhandle” Pistol

Designed or Mauser by a trio o Swiss brothers, theFederles, the C96 was state-o-the-art at the time itappeared at the turn o the century. Mauser produced

and sold more than a million C96 pistols between 1896 and1937. In addition, vast numbers o unlicensed copies contin-ued to be made in Spain and China until the 1950s. It has anumber o unique eatures that set it apart rom later semi-automatic pistols, including a xed, 10-round box magazineorward o the trigger guard ed by stripper clips, a bolt that

traveled within its upper receiver and a thin, awkward grip that gave it its “Broomhandle” nickname. These eaturesmade the C96 unduly large and unbalanced.

Despite these limitations, the Broomhandle was popularand remained in service or decades. There were a number oreasons or its success. To start with, it was the rst semi-automatic pistol reliable and powerul enough or military

service. Second, because it was compatible with the pro-duction methods and technology o the time, Mauser coulddeliver them, so it was always available. Last, it was suppliedwith a detachable buttstock that doubled as a holster. Thenecessity or a proper grip and precise sight alignment makehandgun marksmanship a skill with a steep learning curve. TheBroomhandle’s long sight radius and detachable shoulder stockmeant that inexperienced troops were ree to shoot it rom theshoulder. Although technically a handgun, the Broomhandlewas arguably a compact semi-automatic carbine in disguise.This quality is lost on many today because purpose-builtmilitary carbines and submachine guns have been available ordecades. In sum, the Mauser C96 (Construktion 96 ) was not therst, nor was it the best, but it was the rst commercially andmilitarily successul semi-automatic pistol.

—glenn M. gIlbert, ShootIng edItor


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John M. Browning began development o the Hi Power, hisnal pistol design, at the request o Fabrique Nationale,which was motivated by the prospect o ullling a French

military request or a service sidearm. Variously known as theGP, or Grande Puissance , which is French or high power, or Grand Rendement , or “high yield,” the pistol is more commonlyreerred to simply as the Hi Power or P-35—the latter reerring to the year that it was adopted by the Belgian military ater theFrench passed on it in avor o a similar, inerior design.

For its day, the Hi Power was indeed capacious, holding13 rounds o 9 mm Luger in its staggered, double-columnmagazine. Yet the Hi Power still managed to present a grip

rame that allowed a comortable grasp by all but the smallesthands. It also possessed a natural pointability exhibited byew handguns beore or since that time.

Although Browning’s rst prototype was o blowbackdesign, the second was a simplication o his already well-regarded locked-breech M1911 concept. But the Hi Powereliminated the M1911’s swinging link in avor o a rame-mounted cam bar and corresponding cut in the barrel’sunderside. It was typical Browning design: pioneering, simpleand oolproo. Operationally, though, the Hi Power was still the amiliar locked-breech, single-action semi-automatic thatcould be carried with the hammer cocked and locked by the

manual, rame-mounted saety. John Browning died in his FNoce in 1926 beore the gun was nalized, and it was FN’sDieudonné Saive (best known or the Fusil Automatique Leger )who nished the design and shepherded it into production.

Changes to the gun’s original design have been relativelyew. The internal extractor gave way to an external type airlyearly on, and the saety eventually became more generous indimension and ambidextrous. Also, investment cast rames,said to be stronger or the later .40 S&W versions o the pistol,replaced the orged and machined rames used in earlierguns. Variations, some rare, have included tangent-sightedmodels that accept detachable shoulder stocks, experimentalaluminum-rame and large-caliber models and licensed cop-ies with shortened slide/barrel assemblies.

But, overall, as with most true classics, the Hi Power sim-ply soldiered on as Browning originally conceived it,

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Browning Hi Power PistolNo. 925 Points

earning the trust o groups as diverse as the German Wehrmacht , the armies oBritain, Canada, Greece and NationalistChina, and countless law enorcementagencies and civilian shooters worldwide. It remains in pro-duction today by Fabrique Nationale.

In the retrospective o the “wondernine wars” o the 1980sand the ollowing advent o polymer-rame pistols, many haverelegated the steel-rame and walnut-stocked Hi Power to the category o quaint but outmoded designs. Although theremay be an element o truth in that sentiment, the BrowningHi Power nonetheless possesses a quality o design, eeland workmanship that compel some individuals to trust it as the best nine a man can carry and to cherish it as one o theworld’s truly great handguns.

—brIan C. Sheetz, SenIor exeCutIVe edItor


The Browning Hi Power, in addition to being the primary sidearm o most

NATO countries, was used by both the Germans (below) and the Allies during World War II. This sectioned Hi Power (above) was made by Inglis in Canada.



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The post-World War I era, through Prohibition, theDepression and other trials, saw the rise o a new classo criminal in American society. Well-armed villains,

such as Dillinger and Capone’s henchmen, used repower andV-8 Fords on their crime sprees. At the time, most ederal andlocal law enorcement agencies issued medium-rame .38 Spl.revolvers. A quest or more repower ensued, and by the early

1930s luminaries such as Elmer Keith and Philip Sharpe infu-enced Smith & Wesson leadership, and—with Winchestercooperating in ammunition development—went to work on anew platorm.

The result was what many irearm experts consider the high-water mark or American revolver-making whenin 1935 S&W ushered in the magnum era with the remark-able Registered Magnum. Making its debut amid the GreatDepression at $60, this was an immensely expensive gun.But it was unique, as each purchaser was issued a cer- ti icate o registrat ion that matched a number engraved

No. 1018 Points Smith & Wesson Registered Magnum Revolver

on the revolver. Consumers could choose between stocks,hammer, sights, trigger, inish and barrel length.

Smith & Wesson expected the Registered Magnum to bemore o a niche oering, which is refected in its price andcratsmanship. The topstrap and barrel rib exhibit checkering that is proo o a master engraver’s touch. The wood-to-metalt is meticulous; the bluing is unmatched, deep and rich; the timing boarders on perection. These qualities, present throughout the entire S&W line during this era, are rendered to their ullest measure in the Registered Magnum.

The revolver was nothing short o exquisite, and the cartridge itsel was truly revolutionary. With perormance that wellexceeded the .38 Spl., the .357 S&W Magnum became the mostsignicant challenge in law enorcement to the decades-longdominance o the medium-rame .38s until the advent o the9 mm Glock 17. With higher velocities and more downrangeenergy, the .357 Mag. revolutionized handgun hunting. A hitwith lawmen, hunters and shooters, the .357 Mag. launched the magnum age—one that has yet to dissipate.

With demand drastically outpacing production capability,approximately 5,500 Registered Magnums were producedrom 1935 to 1938; in 1939 production was standardized, and the process o registration was eliminated, orever setting a

nite production amount or this pivotal revolver.The Registered Magnum—and its .357 Mag. cartridge—

orever ushered in the magnum era. The big N-rame wenton to house even more powerul cartridges, including the .41Mag. and the most amous big-bore handgun cartridge o all time, the .44 Rem. Mag. In contemporary times, S&W has onceagain reclaimed its perch atop the magnum mountain with the blistering .460 and the massive .500 S&W Mag. But thegenesis o it all, the original spark in the prolieration o big-bore magnum chamberings, orever belongs to the RegisteredMagnum and its .357 S&W Mag. cartridge.

—Chad adaMS, fIeld edItor

Blame Elmer Keith, Phil Sharpe and Smith & Wesson or handgun “magnumitis.” The frst “Magnum” revolver was the Registered Magnum introduced in the then-new .357 S&W Mag. cartridge.Each gun came witha certifcate, and the registration number

was stamped on the rame. Yes, we know it’s a Hand Ejector.

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