Table Of ContentMASSAD AYOOB’S
GREATEST
HANDGUNS
OF THE WORLD
DEDICATION
his book is respectfully dedicated to the late Dan Shideler, the man
T
who made it possible.
I didn’t get to meet Dan until late in the first decade of the 21st
Century, though I’d been reading his work for years before. It was his
idea for us to collaborate on something for FW Media, and the next thing
I knew, I had a contract for the first volume of the Greatest Handguns
book.
He would have edited this second volume had he lived long enough,
but tragically, he and his encyclopedic knowledge of firearms were both
taken from us altogether too soon.
Dan, it all worked…and wherever you are, you’re the one to thank for
these books being in print. Thank you, Brother, and Godspeed.
—Mas Ayoob
CONTENTS
Foreword
Introduction
Chapter 1: The .41 Magnum
Chapter 2: Auto-Caliber Revolvers
Chapter 3: The Beretta 92
Chapter 4: The Bren Ten
Chapter 5: The Browning High Power
Chapter 6: Colt Pocket Model
Chapter 7: Peacemaker: Colt’s Single Action Army
Chapter 8: The High Standard Supermatic
Chapter 9: Smith & Wesson .22/32 Kit Gun
Chapter 10: The Mauser C96
Chapter 11: The Ruger Single-Six
Chapter 12: The Sig-Sauer P226
Chapter 13: Thompson/Center Single Shots
Chapter 14: The Walther Legacy
FOREWORD
few years ago Massad Ayoob caught up with me and settled down
A
to the task of convincing me that I surely was becoming bored
with nothing to do. (The fact that he was sitting on the other side
of my office desk at the time and he could not see me behind the
towering piles of paper thereon was not considered.) To this day I am
convinced that I could have slowly gotten to my hands and knees and
crawled out of my office…and he would never have known that I was
gone. With the benefit of hindsight I should have done just that, because
by continuing to “hang around” I found myself agreeing to author the
needed Foreword for his soon-to-be-published book, Massad Ayoob’s
Greatest Handguns of the World.
Dave Brennan, right, discusses Glock .40s with Mas Ayoob.
As I recall, Mas kept insisting that I had a moral obligation to do so,
since I was the one who had originally suggested the idea to him.
Obviously I have not yet learned to keep my big, fat mouth shut in life.
Fast forward to the present day. The book, upon its publication,
promptly became a brisk seller. Indeed here at Precision Shooting
magazine we sold bunches of them. It wasn’t hard to sell them,
admittedly. Mas did a great job of writing the 288 full size pages of text
and the supporting color photography was of equal quality. And the
handguns chosen for coverage were the best of the best of the last one
hundred or so years. There were Pythons, Combat Magnums, Highway
Patrolmen, Colt Woodsmen, S&W Models 36, 27, M&Ps, Colt Model
1911s (of course) and probably a dozen or so more. For many of its
readers it was Old Time Week, as they renewed their memories of long
gone days and long gone firearms, both never to return.
Fast forward, again, to the present day. The publisher has decided to
go ahead with Volume II, which will, not surprisingly, carry the same
title as the first. Another 15 or 20 new guns will be featured, for which
there simply was not room in the first book. And for the 841 callers who
just had to complain to someone about the absence of the S&W Model
57 (the .41 Magnum) in the first volume…here, here, dry those tears
and stop sniffling…we swear that it’s in the second volume, and we’ve
given it extra space, just to make it up to you.
And when I heard about the second volume forthcoming I mumbled to
myself… “I wonder what turkey he’s going to get to write the Foreword
for this one?”
Dave Brennan
Editor
Precision Shooting magazine
Manchester, CT
INTRODUCTION
elcome to Volume II … and if you bought Volume I, thank you,
W
because the good sales of that one were the reason this one was
commissioned.
A whole lot of chapters scheduled for the first one didn’t make it when
we ran out of room. Editor Dan Shideler wanted to make it more visual
with more and bigger pictures, and that left less space for words.
There was an angry thread at www.sigforum.com which took me to
task for not mentioning the SIG-Sauer series as among the greatest. Alas,
that had been one that wound up on the cutting room floor after Volume
I. It is, most certainly, here in Volume II.
Some at www.coltforum.com were shocked that a book with the
words “Greatest Handguns” in the title did not include the Colt Single
Action Army. When we had to cut some out, we decided to keep a
twentieth century focus, so the SAA was deferred to the book we hoped
would follow if reader interest warranted…the book you are now
reading.
Both of those chapters appeared originally in Dave Brennan’s
magazine, The Accurate Rifle. So did several of the other chapters
appearing here. The Thompson/Center chapter originally appeared in
American Handgunner magazine, and is reprinted here courtesy of
editorial director Roy Huntington. Some chapters, including those on the
Mauser C96, the Colt Pocket Model, and the .41 Magnum, were written
expressly for this book.
Criteria were simple enough: “Did the gun in question ‘make a
difference’?” The Colt Peacemaker, “the Gun That Won the West,”
obviously qualifies; the qualifications of some others were less obvious.
Sometimes, the difference was limited to a relatively narrow field of
users, as with the High Standard Supermatic. There were good .22
target pistols before and after it. Yet, the Supermatic ushered in the age
of a .22 auto engineered for super accuracy, and equipped with quick
change barrels that delivered modularity and flexibility without
sacrificing precision grouping capability. (Yes, the S&W Model 41 had
that too…but it came later. The High Standard gets the credit for
establishing the concept.)
The Colt Pocket Hammerless set the stage for one of the most widely
produced genres of handgun the world has ever seen, the flat little .32
and .380 carry autos. The .41 Magnum never met the expectations of
popularity that heralded its arrival in 1964…but the reasons why it
didn’t make it an important case study in how ebbs and flows in trends
and forces outside the gun design room can influence firearm trends and
sales. And then, there are handguns such as the Mauser C96, whose
effects can reach far, far beyond the world of the hand-held firearm.
I had a great time researching this material, research that spans
several decades. It was a labor of love. I hope you get just as much
enjoyment out of reading it.
Massad Ayoob
October, 2011
