Читать книгу The Gun Digest Book of Combat Handgunnery онлайн

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Both at 14.5 ounces, S&W Airweight .38 Special at left is only slightly larger than Beretta Tomcat .32, right. Author chooses the .38 hands down.

The Winchester Silvertip, the CCI Gold Dot, and the Federal Hydra-Shok are hollow-point .32 rounds developed in hopes of getting the .32 caliber up off its knees. They get all the power out of the round that is probably possible. The problem is, there isn’t that much there to start with. We’ve tested these in the slaughterhouse on smaller hogs and goats. The bullets usually deform. Sometimes they expand and sometimes they don’t and sometimes the hollow cavity just turns into a little fish-mouth shape. However, unlike some .380 rounds, they don’t seem prone to ricochet. If they don’t get the caliber up off its knees, they at least get it up off its belly and onto its knees, and that’s something.

Tomcat with tomcat, Beretta on left and Scottish Fold on right. Some have job descriptions more suitable for “mouse-guns” than others.

Jeff Cooper once said that people buy .45s for the powerful cartridge, and buy 9mms because they like the design features of the guns. It follows that people buy tiny guns so they can have some sort of firearm without being inconvenienced by a significant weight in the pocket or by wearing a concealing garment.