You will find more statistics at Statista
According to the Pew Research Center, America is awash with guns. There are an estimated 270 to 310 million of them, one for nearly every person in the country. Given that huge amount, it comes as no surprise that the gun market is worth an estimated $15 billion. The companies in the infographic below account for two thirds of the total market, manufacturing 8 million firearms each year, acccording to an investigation by Mother Jones.
Ruger manufactures the highest number of guns for the U.S.market each year, 1.64 million. Remington Outdoor and Smith & Wesson come second and third with 1.47 and 1.31 million respectively. Even though calls for tighter gun control have been growing ever louder amid a plethora of mass shootings, guns are more popular than ever. Smith & Wesson recently posted a 49 percent jump in profit for the three months ending 31 July. Their quarterly profits soared to $87.9 million, up on $58.9 million during the same period last year.
S&W M&P Shield. Add a trigger kit from Apex Tactical and a magazine conversion from magguts.com and you have (in the 9mm version) an 8+1 or 9+1 pistol that is very close to a 1911-level trigger pull, very safe to carry, light and relatively flat for about $500-$550 all told. It’s perhaps among the smallest, still relatively shootable, still presumably durable pistols ever produced. The only thing that would make it perfect would be if they made the slide and barrel a bit longer, moving from a 3.1″ barrel to more like a 4″ barrel. I’d prefer this because it would offer more sight radius, a bit more velocity, and a longer slide travel makes for a slight improvement in real-world reliability (although the Shield is quite reliable, as or more so than a lot of self-loaders on the market.)
BTW, if you’re looking for wild-assed ammo, try Underwoodammo.com for some real barn-burners. I wouldn’t put +P+ ammo in a small gun, but they offer some Lehigh bullets (all copper) that are either the newest fad or the most amazing thing since hollow points were invented.
Buffalo Bore makes some handgun caliber good stuff, particularly their .38 Special +P lead hollow point semi wadcutters if you have a .38 snubby that will handle +p loads (like the Ruger LCR and such).
I wouldn’t put +P+ in anything without checking with the manufacturer first, risking a blown gun is not a good idea in a defensive situation.
FWIW, I think the rising popularity of solid copper bullets is a result of the anti lead movement, I can see a day when lead ammunition is banned for the most part. A lot of current firearms may not handle the heavier copper bullets well since they will be too long for rifling twist rates designed for the shorter lead or copper jacketed lead projectiles.
An acquaintance of mine’s latest project is to drive a 125 gr all copper bullet toward 1400-1500 fps out of a semi-auto.
http://www.lehighdefense.com/products/355-9mm-xtreme-defense-125gr-subsonic-supersonic-bullet?variant=21193409796
My suspicion is that it would drive that bullet front to back through a feral hog or a whitetail deer, and possibly through a 450 lb black bear… not to mention an Escalade. What a great woods gun. It would be one solution to the compromise between a rifle (too big to carry in public) and the relatively low penetration of all but the 44 mag-or-higher-class of handguns, which many people simply find too punishing to shoot.
Short of a 357 mag (revolver or Coonan), there’s only one platform that may be able to do this, a rare exotic.
I agree that tailoring precision-reloaded ammo for all-copper/copper-alloy bullets in rifles or pistols is quite an art. Interior ballistics remain the province of alchemy to me.
C’mon, that’s not difficult. A 9×25 Dillon will do that without even trying. 357 SIG and 38 Super Auto can be pushed to around 1400fps with 125gr bullets.
9×25 is a bottleneck case, a deal breaker for me. 38 Super is OK (my first gun, don’t ask why) but max pressure is 36,000 psi. I’m talking 55,000 psi. The pistol cartridges that hit that are rare, indeed.
A 125 gr jacketed bullet at 1400 fps in a 38 Super is surely way above SAAMI max. Trying to do that with an all copper, long bearing surface bullet would be really dicey.
YMMV.
Hodgdon shows a safe load in 357 SIG that gets 1438fps with a 125gr GDHP. You can find it by searching http://www.hodgdonreloading.com/data/pistol
I am unable to contribute to qualities of ammunition,
but I did read a rumor that “crates of weapons” show up
in the alleys in Chicago…free for the taking, to those that
know the drop off stations. Probably BS, but it is the perception
of a Chi. gang member. Haven’t these tactics been used in other parts of the world? So….just maybe, it is true.
Sorry, no link, just popped up after a video played.
edit: found one
http://www.wakingtimes.com/2016/09/13/gang-members-implicate-u-s-govt-dumping-crates-guns-chicago/
The news about Missouri’s new lax conceal carry laws that the legislature passed over Nixon’s veto is interesting today.
I like seeing them, open carry, but it is good to know the criminals aren’t the only ones hiding them.
That news was a bright spot on an otherwise shitty start to my 30s.
Happy 30s
Thanks. I thought it would be better than it was, unfortunately work and real life have been conspiring against me.
Its becoming increasingly clear to me that I will never be happy working for someone else. Fan-fucking-tastic.
Is the main reason my husband and I decided in the 1990s to start putting every extra $20 bill aside and be able to retire to a log home in the middle of the boonies. Live off the fat of the land, so to speak. I was still in my 30s (hubs just turned 40) and it wasn’t easy. However, when I paid our builder and his sons (Mennonites) in cash with 10s, 20s and 100s dated in the 90s and early 2000s, I got a big kick out of it, remembering how it seemed like an impossible dream back then.
Now, if we can just continue to pay the rent-aka-taxes every year, we will be free to live out our lives in the way we choose.
It is WONDERFUL to get up every day and know we work for us. (as long as we can pay the fucking taxes.)
Wow! I think the estimated “300 million” guns in ‘Murica is off by a significant margin!
This should been a FEEL GOOD STORY OF THE DAY!
SW is the third, not bad!
Would be interesting to know what is a share of Shield sales 🙂