Few handguns have ever achieved the status of the SIG Sauer 226 family. The SIGs are the issue pistols for the FBI, Navy SEALS, the British SAS, the Secret Service and literally hundreds of special forces and police teams around the world. It is as accurate as many targets pistols and as reliable as…. well…. a SIG.
Americans who faced its fury in WWII, called it the Schmeisser, nicknamed after a man who had nothing to do with its design. But the machines pistol designated MP38 and MP40, perfectly matched Germany’s philosophy of all out-war. They soon proved themselves on battlefields across Europe, a terrifying weapon in the hands of an apparently unstoppable military machine.
Some times the ugly duckling wins. Who would have thought that the homely Mosin-Nagant bolt action rifle would rise from its imperial roots in Russia and to become one of the successful firearms in history. It also captured the hearts of American gun buyers used to the best in everything. Indeed, the Mosin-Nagant story is unique.
The year was 1825 and the man who made his name with fine dueling pistols and superb sporting rifles, was getting ready to see his name become a household word. Philadelphia gun maker Henry Deringer looked at the huge flintlock pistol of the day and had an idea of a different sort of gun – small, lightweight and concealable. He called his new gun The Derringer Pistol.
Perhaps not surprisingly, few firearms have been designed by murderers serving prison sentences. Of those few, fewer still are adopted by the U.S. Military as a major war fighting tool. David M. Williams, a convicted murderer and former moonshiner redesigned a prototype from Winchester which became the M1 Carbine.
In America, some times bigger really is better. At least it seems that way when dealing with handguns. And they don’t come any bigger than the Ruger Redhawk and its Super Redhawk brother, both that have come to define the phrase “big bore”. Hosted by Joe Mantegna. See below for more information and reference links to this episode.