Tag Archives: new handguns

New: Beretta 92SB 50th Anniversary Limited Edition Pistol

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Beretta is marking a half-century of the legendary Model 92, the company has released a retro SB variant of the type that went on to make history.

The original Model 92 hit the market in 1975, one of the first double-stack double-action/single-action pistols available, and soon went on to become a global icon. The company has been honoring the lineage of the “Italian Stallion” this year with limited-edition offerings, and the repro 92SB comes as part of Beretta’s “Celebrating 50 Years of the 90 Series” program.

The repro 92SB is full of classic features such as a polished anodized frame, polished blued slide and barrel, a rounded trigger guard, and a flat dust cover. On the inside, it features all-metal components and upgraded internals, including a short reset trigger bar and D hammer spring. It runs a slide-mounted Type F safety lever.

Beretta 92SB repro
The new 92SB is engraved “Celebrating 50 Years of the 90 Series” on the left side of the slide and has a 1 of 1,526 serial number range, the latter an ode to Beretta’s first firearm contract. (Photos unless noted: Beretta) 
Beretta 92SB repro
Note the ambi Type F safety and all metal components, other than the G10 grip panels. 
Beretta 92SB repro
You have to love the polished externals. 
Beretta 92SB repro
The repro 92SB is a Beretta through and through and ships with a pair of classic-style 15-round magazines with flat base pads. 
Beretta 92SB repro
Finished with G10 grips, each pistol comes in special collector’s packaging, including a challenge coin and a history booklet chronicling the 90 Series legacy. 

The history behind the 92SB

The 92SB was the third production model of the 92 series, building on 1977’s Model 92S, which added the slide-mounted safety/decocker to the pistol. Debuting in 1980, the SB added an automatic firing pin block and an ambidextrous safety lever, and was marketed in both the standard and a compact model, the first for the 90 series.

Beretta 92SB ad

The Beretta 92SB hit the market in 1980, with the 92SB Compact arriving the next year. 
Beretta 92SB ad
The gun found fast success with consumers as well as LE/military customers. 
Beretta 92SB ad
It was soon adopted by the Connecticut State Police in 1983, among many departments. 

Perhaps the 92SB’s greatest claim to fame was that it was submitted to the Army Pistol Trials in 1984 and 1986, which it won, and, with modifications including a squared trigger guard, a matte finish, and a chrome-lined barrel, became the 92SB-F, later just shortened to 92F.

The rest is history.
Army's Pistol Trials,

The Beretta 92SB beat out a crowded field in 1984-86 to win the Army’s Pistol Trials, with the modified 92SB-F being adopted as the M9. (Image: 1986 GAO Report)

The MSRP on the new Beretta 92SB repro is an appropriate $1,526.

New (to Steyr) ATc and ATd Series Hammer-Fired Pistols

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Austria-based Steyr last week debuted a NEW (!) series of pistols designed for both competition (ATc) and defense (ATd) with a familiar feel to them.

As reported by the European gun sites All 4 Shooters and MilitaerAktuell, Steyr made the public debut of the new all-metal, optics-ready, hammer-fired pistols at a media event in Slovenia at the beginning of the month.

As such, these are the first hammer-fired pistols branded by Steyr since the old Gasbremse (GB) gas guns of the 1970s and 80s.

You remember the old Steyr GB, ja?

And the first all-metal pistols since the M.12 went out of production in 1945.

And who can forget the Steyr 1912?

The all-stainless ATc is pitched to competition users and features tuned 3-pound SAO triggers and heavy match barrels with options for 5- and 6-inch lengths.

Meanwhile, the three ATd model 6-pound DA/SA guns, geared more for defensive use, will have alloy frames in three barrel sizes (4, 5, and 6 inches). These use 18-shot double-stack 9mm magazines, with extended magazines available up to 25 rounds. The guns will have modular recoil spring and hammer spring options to allow easy user-level tuning.

The competition-oriented Steyr ATc
The competition-oriented Steyr ATc. (Photos: Steyr via Militaer Aktuell)
The more defensive-minded Steyr ATd
The more defensive-minded Steyr ATd. (Photos: Steyr via Militaer Aktuell)

The new guns appear to be rebranded and upgraded Arex Rex Alphas, a pistol teased in 2017 and delivered to the market in small numbers since 2018. These have typically been imported to the States by the FIME Group.

The Arex Rex Alpha is a more competition-oriented version of the company’s Zero 1 and Zero 2 series pistols, which were essentially updated SIG P226 clones. (Photos: Arex)

Arex, based in Slovenia, has been owned by the Czech Republic-based RSBC Investment Group since 2017. RSBC purchased Steyr last year, making it all make sense. It will be interesting to see whether the guns’ production line will be in Austria or Slovenia.

Price is reported to start at €999, which translates to about $1,170, not counting tariffs. As for the likelihood of these guns making it to America, Steyr has a much more robust in-house Alabama-based importing ability over Arex, so the logic on the branding would seem to point towards the U.S. market.

On this side of the pond, the ATc could be a good competitor against SIG’s P226 X5, while the ATd could take on assorted DA/SA P226 SKUs, if the price were right.

Smith reboots the 9mm snub nose

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Out of production for more than a quarter century, the moon-clipped S&W 940 snub-nosed wheel gun has been resurrected – and modernized.

The original 940 was a 9mm companion to the classic .357 Magnum Model 640, a hard-wearing stainless five-shot double-action-only J-frame Centennial series revolver with a snag-free concealed hammer. Using a moon clip to hold the rimless 9mm rounds, it was fast and easy to reload while opening the revolver to a wide range of easy-to-find ammo.

While the 940 was only produced between 1991 and 1998, huge advances in bullet and propellant design have made 9mm more popular than ever, meaning that in many cases, the variety of self-defense loads available at local retailers in the caliber is greater than any other. With that in mind, rebooting the 940 makes sense.

Further, the new model ships with an XS Tritium night sight in front, something the old model never had. Oh, yeah, and it has VZ black cherry grips and a fluted barrel.

The new S&W 940 in 9mm is a five-shot DAO snub-nose with a concealed hammer. Note the 2.17-inch 1:10 RH twist stainless-steel fluted barrel. Height is a pocketable 4.38 inches. Weight is 23.5 ounces.

The MSRP is supposed to be $999 on these.

Meet the Glock Hunter Series

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Glock Ges.m.b.H. (not Glock US) has released a series of new olive green Hunter Edition pistols in Europe featuring steel sights, threaded barrels, and an option for an installed Aimpoint COA red dot.
The five models in the Hunter Edition are in 9mm (G45) and 10mm (G20) variants and appear timed to coincide with upcoming large overseas firearms trade shows such as Enforce Tac, IWA OutdoorClassics, and WBK International.
The three advertised G45 Hunters all bear extended metric pattern threaded barrels and options for Glock’s new 600-lumen Tactical Light II. There is also an A-Cut G45 Hunter with the new Aimpoint COA, or Glock’s more traditional MOS plate system.
We’ve got no information as to when or if these will ever make it to this side of the pond. However, similar models to these could likely filter out to the States – think about a possible rabbit in the hat for the NRA Annual Meeting in April.

Paging Mr. Bond: The PPK in .32 is Back (and it finally works)

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Walther has reached into the vault to bring back one of its most classic designs, now refined and ready for a new century. Like a spy in from the Cold, the PPK in .32 ACP has returned unexpectedly, and we have the debrief.

The background of the gun is well established. In a nutshell, Fritz Walter, the heir to the famed Carl Walther rifle works, moved in the early 1900s to expand the company into handguns with a line of simple blowback pocket pistols to compete with models like the Colt Vest Pocket and Pieper Bayard. Moving to more advanced designs using a workable single-action/double-action trigger system by the 1920s, the Polizei Pistole, or PP series, soon became a smash hit, despite it being twice as much as the company’s earlier models.

While not the first DA/SA handgun on the market, the PP was much more successful, and soon an abbreviated version pitched as a detective’s gun, the Polizei Pistole Kriminal, hit the catalog in 1930. With a 3.25-inch barrel and offerings in not only .32 ACP (the original PP’s bread and butter) but also spicier .380 ACP, which was then and still is seen as big medicine for European LE types, the sleek, almost Art Deco, PPK soon filled holsters and desk drawers.

The Walther PP/PPK has some serious history to it. (All Photos: Chris Eger/Guns.com)

A huge driver for the gun came from pop culture. While the Walther PP series appeared on screen in films as early as 1938, it was the James Bond film franchise that kicked the pistol into the stratosphere. Sean Connery’s Agent 007 was first issued a Walther in 1962’s “Dr. No” to replace his favored .25 ACP Beretta.

It would continue as his standard through his six-film run and go on to be picked up off and on by successive generations of Bonds.

The pistol is iconic, and in many cases can be a work of art, as shown here at the Walther factory in Ulm, Germany.

By 2013, with the market demand for the .32 waning in favor of the .380, Walther put the models chambered in the smaller caliber to bed.

Now, with improvements in bullet and propellant design leading to the resurgence of 9mm over .40 caliber, and .380 seen as the new 9mm, and .32 seen as the new .380, the stubby little round is much more popular these days.

So, it should be no surprise that Walther is bringing the “old” caliber back for both the PPK and the PPK/S, in stainless and black variants. We have been testing one for the past couple of months.

More in my column at Guns.com.

Did the SIG Fuse fizzle?

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The Fuse, SIG Sauer’s newest P365 gets its name, says the company, as it is the “fusion of capability and concealment.” This is due to still being carry-sized while featuring all the goodies one could want, including a removable magwell, nickel-plated flat-faced trigger, LXG grip module with interchangeable backstraps, optics-ready (RMSc footprint) slide, easily co-witnessing iron sights, and extended 21-round magazines.

All this for well under $800.

I put 1,000 rounds through one in the past couple of months.

Full review in my column at Guns.com.

The P365 Grows Up…

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With the P365 micro 9mm platform not even a decade old, SIG has updated the platform with the new Fuse variant that includes all the features expected on a full-sized practical/tactical pistol.

The new SIG Sauer P365 Fuse gets its name, says the company, as it is the “fusion of capability and concealment,” being still carry-sized while clocking in with a very full feature-set that includes a removable magwell, nickel-plated flat-faced trigger, LXG grip module with interchangeable backstraps, optics-ready (RMSc footprint) slide with decent iron sights, and extended 21-round magazines.

The new SIG Sauer P365 Fuse. (All Photos: Chris Eger/Guns.com)

The pistol will be available in at least three different SKUs, including one shipping with two 21-round and one 17-round magazine, another with a Romeo X Compact micro red dot installed (shown above), and a state-compliant (10-round mag) version.

The P365 Fuse compared to the P365 XMacro Comp. Note the Fuse is a bit longer but remains the same height and width. Both use SIG’s 17+1 round flush fit P365 mags and accept extended magazines as well– which we will get into.

For a frame of reference, the full-sized P320-M17 specs out at 8 inches overall, with its standard 4.7-inch barrel, just a skosh bigger than the Fuse. However, don’t let that one spec confuse you, as the P365 variant is much slimmer, shorter in height, and almost a half-pound lighter. Keep in mind both are shown with 21-round mags inserted and with corresponding versions of the Romeo X enclosed red dot.

More in my column at Guns.com.

Return of the Arm Pistol

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Arguably the first large format AR-style pistol to hit the market is now set to make a return, no brace needed.

Firearms maverick Mack Gwinn Jr., a Vietnam-era Special Forces veteran, in the early 1970s acquired the rights to Colt-made IMP-221, a stockless, gas-operated bullpup pistol intended to provide aircrew with a compact survival gun chambered in .221 Fireball. While the Air Force had already scrapped the project, Gwinn made lemons into lemonade, adapting the design to use 5.56 NATO and accept standard AR mags, launching the Bushmaster Arm Pistol.

Bushmaster Armpistol ads started popping up in the early-1970s

The original Gwinn/Bushmaster Arm Pistol borrowed from both AR-15 and AK-47 designs, with its AR-style rotating bolt and AK-type long-stroke gas piston.

Based on the Colt IMP-221/ Air Force GUU-4/P air crew weapon originally designed at Eglin Air Force Base, the original Gwinn Firearms in Bangor, Maine produced the 5.56mm Bushmaster Arm Pistol “in limited quantities” for the USAF in the early 1970s before sending it to the consumer market. Just 20.63 inches long, the Arm Pistol had a lot of M16-style features in a very abbreviated bullpup format.

With the Arm Pistol long out of production and Bushmaster now in at least its third reincarnation since Gwinn sold the company in 1976, his son, Mack Gwinn III, has founded Maine-based Hydra Weaponry and returned a much-improved version of the design to production.

We caught up with the fine folks from Hydra at the recent 2024 NRA Annual Meetings in Dallas to “lay arm” on the new BMP-23.

Hydra feels the BMP-23 is the 5.56mm pistol that Gwinn Jr. would have built if he had access to today’s CNC machinery and technologically advanced materials.

21st Century Survival Gun

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A simple new platform that will be headed to shelves this summer is from North Carolina’s Veteran-owned Dark Mountain Arms.

The Stowaway system is a single-shot bolt-action, take-down firearm that is initially being offered in 5.7 NATO but, as it is multi-caliber via an easy swap out of a bolt face and barrel, future options on the table include 9mm, 4.6×30, .22 LR, .22 WMR, .17 Mach2, and .17 HMR.

A packable design with a weight of less than 3 pounds (2.8 pounds for the 16-inch threaded barreled rifle and 2 pounds flat for the 5-inch barreled pistol), the gun can be stowed in two primary pieces and then easily reassembled.

More in my column a Guns.com.

Calling Mr. Roscoe

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One interesting new (well, rebooted) gun design that I am looking forward to testing this summer is the Heritage Roscoe.

A salute to the old-school pocket revolvers from the days of Mike Hammer and Philip Marlowe, the cigar-box-worthy .38SPL +P Roscoe looks right out of the mid-20th Century, clad in a deep glossy finish, classic round butt wood grips, fixed sights, and a 5-shot cylinder. Plus, it is available in both 2- and 3-inch models.

Best yet, it has an ask of $350, which should translate to $299-ish at retail.

Heritage, the Taurus subsidiary best known for its affordable single-action rimfire pistols and carbines, has launched the Roscoe line. This comes almost a decade after Taurus sunset its popular Model 85 5-shot small-frame revolver line– upgrading it to the larger 6-shot Model 856– and recalls the company’s history during the old Bangor Punta days (1962-72ish) when it was a sister to S&W and they shared tech.

More in my column at Guns.com.

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