Category Archives: Historical

In the comments on yesterday’s article on the PMC Starfire, Shawn requested a data dump on the Winchester Silvertip. The Silvertip handgun projectile was designed in reaction to Winchester-Western products’ poor showing in the Law Enforcement Assistance Administration (LEAA) testing of the 1970s. While greatly derided now in light of modern test protocols from theContinue reading “Winchester Silvertip Data Dump”

No one will officially admit what the “HST” stands for. Is it “Hydra Shok Two” or is really just a meaningless set of three letters? The initial patent applications were filed in November 2000, and Federal’s Douglas W. Carr and Lawrence P. Head received US Patent #6,805,057 in October 2004. By that point, Federal hadContinue reading “Federal HST Data Dump”

The following is an early 1990s interview with Chip McCormick (Shooting Star Magazines and CMC) by Johnny Rowland. It is basically an ad for the CMC EDM hammer and sear, but there are a couple of interesting bits. At one point, you can see a prototype for what became the Mitchell Alpha, designed by JimContinue reading “Vintage Chip McCormick Interview – Early 1990s”

Since I mentioned Pin Shooting the other day in the Kaswer Pin Grabber article, I thought that I would share this video from the 1986 Second Chance match. The origin story of Second Chance Body Armor and the pin shoot is a bizarre one. On the evening of June 17, 1969, Davis was delivering pizzasContinue reading “Second Chance Combat Shoot – 1986”

Since we are on a Second Chance Body Armor kick, I thought I’d circle back to a gimmick round sponsored by Richard Davis – the Thunderzap. Available in .38 Special and .45 Auto, the Thunderzap was a lightweight, hyper-velocity hollowpoint made from 100% fluorocarbon resin. Contrary to popular belief, the round was not designed byContinue reading “Thunderzap Data Dump”

We’re back with another projectile data dump today, telling the story of the Smith & Wesson Nyclad and its latest generation, the Federal Syntech family. The story begins when a company named ALCAN was formed in 1948 in Alton, IL. They were best known for shotshells and components, although they briefly dabbled in making plasticContinue reading “Nyclad Family Data Dump”