GETTING
TO GRIPS
WITH
HANDGUN
SALES
Although handguns provoke
discussion about ownership and use
in various parts of the world, they
play an all-important role in our
industry.
The disciplines
handguns are used for
cover everything from
hunting to ISSF and
IPSC competition, cowboy action
to self-defence and the training
that goes with each, and many,
many more. As a result, there is
also a vast array of handgun types,
including semi-automatic pistols,
revolvers and single-shot guns,
with cartridges ranging from .17
HMR right up to .500 S&W and
everything in between, not even
mentioning handguns chambered
for ri e cartridges. With so much
on o er, from shooting styles
to cartridges and gun types, it is
no wonder handguns are such
a popular sector in the market,
32 www.guntradeworld.com
with some incredibly well-known
names manufacturing. CZ, Smith
& Wesson, Glock, Beretta, Sig
Sauer, Walther, Ruger, Spring eld,
Chiappa, Taurus and Heckler &
Koch to name a few, are all key
names in the handgun realm.
ACTION TYPES
e variety of handgun types and
models out there is mindblowing.
e available action types alone
are impressive, to say the least.
Less seen are single-shot and
bolt-action handguns, which
mostly serve as hunting handguns,
but they do have their merits
such as the capability of shooting
ri e cartridges in a handgun,
delivering more velocity and
atter trajectories, thanks to their
longer barrels as well as inherent
pinpoint accuracy.
A lot more commercially
mainstream than single-shot and
bolt-action handguns are revolvers
and semi-automatic pistols. As
the name indicates, a revolver is
based on an action featuring a
revolving cylinder with a number
of chambers to contain individual
cartridges. ere are two types
of revolver actions – single and
double action. With single-action
revolvers, the shooter has to cock
the hammer manually before
every single shot. With doubleaction
revolvers, pulling the
trigger both cocks the hammer
and res the gun. is makes
the trigger pull of double-action
revolvers longer and heavier
than that of single-action ones.
Double-action revolvers with
an exposed hammer can still be
manually cocked before each shot
though, o ering the shooter the
same light, short trigger pull of
single-action only revolvers.
Whereas revolvers were the
mainstay of the handgun world
for over a century, the semiautomatic
pistol has really taken
over the market big time in the
last three to four decades. ese
semi-automatics, also known
as autoloaders ,don’t feature a
cylinder like revolvers do but
use a stacked magazine. eir
action automatically loads the
SPOTLIGHT ON...
HANDGUNS
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