The Kimball Pistol

A surprising amount of handguns have been chambered in Rifle Rounds. Not just those technical Ar15 and AK "Pistols", but lots of interesting and unique firearms, such as Remington XPs and others. The .30 Carbine was a truly ubiquitous round in Postwar America, and ended up becoming a caliber in Ruger Blackhawk revolvers, AMT Automags, and the Kimball Pistol of the mid to late 1950s is perhaps the lesser known of the three.

A couple weird observation on my part: Does anyone else notice a magazine release?

It was a failure of a gun. Roughly based on a High Standard rimfire semi automatic pistol, its half-slide setup is the same design, and even with a heavy recoil spring I couldn't imagine that small bit of slide could take much high pressure punishment. It's locking system consisted of a ring shaped bore that allowed the case to expand, achieved its lockup through case swaging. Not only that, but the slide, upon firing, continued backwards until stopped by a vertical post (also like High Standards/Colts). This system ensured that the post would take a huge amount of abuse. If the vertical post got worn down enough along with the pathetic slide lugs (and they would) then nothing would stop the slide from burying itself into the shooter's face.

Funny enough, in the same vein of taking rimfire frames and making them center fires, High Standard made for three years the G-380, basically a .380 ACP caliber High Standard HD (I think, I always mess up their models). Its neat to see the huge interest that this simple, fixed barrel half slide setup evoked in early postwar shooters.

Ruger Offerings for 2011

Ruger has come out strong for 2011 with the new LC9 pistol. They say customers were looking for a full caliber LCP, so they delivered.

"On the heels of the overwhelming and on-going success of the LCP®, customers repeatedly requested a lightweight, compact 9mm pistol. Frankly, they wanted an LCP chambered in 9mm" said Ruger CEO Michael Fifer. "Delivering an American-made, compact 9mm that provides the same legendary Ruger reliability as the award-winning LCP, LCR® and SR9® became our focus. Meeting customer expectations is our goal and key to Ruger's continuing success," Fifer continued." -Ruger Press Release

Looks like Ruger put a couple nails in Kahr's coffin with this number.

In other Ruger News, the Gunsite Scout Rifle is sure to excite some people. The Scout Rifle concept has been pretty slow going in general, but at least this is a huge step forward over the Steyr Scout. I think it would be a great rifle for those who want these features.

"Ruger has taken an in depth look at the intended purpose of a Scout Rifle and developed a full-featured rifle designed to meet the Scout Rifle criteria of hunt, fight, defend," says Head. "This firearm offers outstanding features in an affordable, versatile and reliable rifle designed to deliver .308 Winchester performance in a variety of situations. It is compact, lightweight, offers 10-round box magazines, can be fit to the individual shooter, and accommodates a host of optics. It is a serious rifle for those serious about rifles."

At a $995 asking price it isn't cheap, but the M77 action, like all Rugers, is a tank. A neat addition for the new year.

via http://www.ruger.com/news