The M1911, also known as Colt 1911, or Colt Government, is a single-action, semi-automatic, magazine-fed, recoil-operated pistol chambered for the .45 ACP cartridge. The pistol's formal designation as of 1940 was Automatic Pistol, Caliber .45, M1911 for the original model of 1911 or Automatic Pistol, Caliber .45, M1911A1 for the M1911A1, which was adopted in 1924. The designation changed to Pistol, Caliber .45, Automatic, M1911A1 in the Vietnam War era.
Fabrique Nationale Herstal, self-identified as FN Herstal and often referred to as Fabrique Nationale or simply FN, is a leading firearms manufacturer located in Herstal, Belgium, owned by the holding company Herstal Group which is in turn owned by the regional government of Wallonia. It is currently the largest exporter of military small arms in Europe.
The .25 ACP (6.35×16mmSR) is a semi-rimmed, straight-walled centerfire pistol cartridge introduced by John Browning in 1905 alongside the Fabrique Nationale M1905 pistol.
The Cobray Company was an American developer and manufacturer of submachine guns, automatic carbines, handguns, shotguns, and non-lethal 37 mm launchers. These were manufactured by SWD. In the 1970s and 1980s, Cobray was a counter terrorist training center in addition to being an arms maker under the leadership of Mitch WerBell.
The Arms Corporation of the Philippines (Armscor) is a firearms manufacturing company headquartered in the Philippines. The company is known for its inexpensive 1911-pattern pistols, revolvers, shotguns, sporting rifles, firearms parts and ammunition. The company, whose manufacturing facility is located in Marikina, produces about 200,000 firearms and some 420 million rounds of ammunition a year, where 80 percent of this is exported and sold to over 60 countries. In 2017, the company was renamed Armscor Global Defense, Inc..
Forjas Taurus is a Brazilian manufacturing conglomerate based in São Leopoldo, Rio Grande do Sul and Albany, New York. Founded in 1924 as a tool and die forging plant, the company now consists of Taurus Armas, its firearm division, as well as other divisions focusing on metals manufacturing, plastics, body armors, helmets and civil construction.
Kel-Tec CNC Industries Inc., commonly referred to as Kel-Tec, is an American developer and manufacturer of firearms. Founded by George Kellgren in 1991 and based in Cocoa, Florida, the company has manufactured firearms since 1995, starting with semi-automatic pistols and expanding to rifles and then shotguns. Kel-Tec is a privately owned Florida corporation. George Kellgren, Kel-Tec owner and chief engineer, is a Swedish designer who also designed many earlier Husqvarna, Swedish Interdynamics AB, Intratec and Grendel brand firearms. The company has been developing and manufacturing a wide variety of firearms, ranging from semi-automatic handguns, i.e. pistols, to semi-automatic rifles and shotguns.
A caliber conversion sleeve or adapter sleeve is a device which can be used to non-permanently alter a firearm to allow it to fire a different cartridge than the one it was originally designed to fire. The different cartridge must be smaller in some dimensions than the original design cartridge. Alternative names sometimes imply the type of dimensional difference. A chamber insert may be used for a shorter cartridge of similar base diameter. A supplemental chamber or cartridge adapter is typically used for a shorter cartridge of reduced diameter. A cartridge conversion sleeve may include a short barrel of reduced bore diameter. Shotgun conversion sleeves may be called subgauge inserts, subgauge tubes, or gauge reducers. Sleeves intended for rifle or handgun cartridges may have rifled barrels. Additional variations may allow centerfire weapons to fire rimfire ammunition and/or retain autoloading function with the smaller cartridge.
The United States Practical Shooting Association(USPSA) is the national governing body of practical shooting in the United States under the International Practical Shooting Confederation (IPSC). Its over 35,000 active members and over 500 affiliated clubs make USPSA the largest practical shooting organization in the United States and the second largest region within IPSC after the Russian Federation of Practical Shooting. USPSA publishes a monthly member magazine called Front Sight.
The Heckler & Koch HK45 is a semi-automatic pistol designed by the German arms manufacturer Heckler & Koch.
The .45 Super is a powerful smokeless powder center fire metallic firearm cartridge developed in 1988 by Dean Grennell, a well-known writer in the firearms field as well as managing editor of Gun World magazine. It is dimensionally similar to the .45 ACP round but has a thicker case wall and is loaded to higher pressures, which offers an average 300 feet per second (91 m/s) improvement in muzzle velocity over the .45 ACP. The cartridge was co-developed by Tom Fergerson and Ace Hindman.
Nighthawk Custom is an American firearm company based in Berryville, Arkansas, US, that manufactures custom M1911 pistols, rifles, revolvers, shotguns, and tactical knives for competition shooters, military, law enforcement and self-defense.
Multigun, Multi Gun or Multi-Gun, often also called 2-Gun or 3-Gun depending on the types of firearms used, are practical shooting events where each of the stages require the competitor to use a combination of handguns, rifles, and/or shotguns Multigun has a lot in common with ordinary IPSC/ USPSA single gun matches, and matches generally have courses of fire where the shooter must move through different stages and engage targets in a variety of different positions.
The Chiappa M6 Survival Gun is an over and under combination gun that comes in four versions; with a 12 gauge or 20 gauge shotgun barrel over a .22 Long Rifle or .22 Magnum barrel. It has a similar appearance to the original M6 Aircrew Survival Weapon, with a unique skeletonized metal buttstock surrounding a polypropylene foam insert. It also uses double triggers and an enclosed firing mechanism.
