THE INSIDER

I’d always considered myself an amateur shooter — basically a gun-crank, as we used to be called — until one day in about the middle of my police career.

We are a burly, larger-than-life, muscle-bound country. America is populated with the off-spring of adventurers and the fearless people who took a leap of...

In light of all the “retro-this” and “retro-that” it suddenly dawned on me I was a “retro” myself. And, as a matter of fact, so are most of the...

A disconnector in a 1911 is a vertical bit of magic connected to the fire control system (hammer, sear, spring, etc.), moving up and down depending upon...

If we don’t take the time to build the foundation today, it will all die, now, with us. Don’t let it die. Take pre-emptive strikes. Reach out to new...

Lest I be accused of over-using “genius” — this time I’ll reach for more adjectives.

I honestly, really, completely wanted to dislike this gun. I mean, just look at it. It’s everything silly you can think up. It looks like a hose nozzle...

"Hey, um … uh … you’re talkin’ about a wood plane on a, um, you know, uh, like a gun website, you know?”

Amos lifted his welding helmet after working on a gouged side plate on a S&W revolver. Scout was always interested when Amos was TIG welding and although he...

Yeah, I know, we all have one or more of them, and there’s nothing wrong with that. In experienced hands — and I mean near-expert hands — they are...

If you read my Insider about putting a classic “Old West” patina on new guns, here’s a bunch of extra photos I had from the process.

It’s funny, but to many people — including me — a “cowboy” gun just doesn’t look right unless it has a certain patina.

This all started typically for me. I walked into a gun store on University Avenue in San Diego about 1980 and there, staring at me from the display case,

In about 1969 I was 15 “going on 16” as we used to say. I had a hopeless case of the “gun crazies” and had been suffering from the syndrome since I...

I sort of stumbled onto this .38 Special Colt Officers Model a couple of years ago. I did a favor for a friend and he asked if I wanted “Something in a...

First of all, this isn’t my fault. Editorial Director and fellow conspirator here, Mike Humphries, sent me a photo of a tiny NAA revolver in a pocket holster,

I was casting about at a garage sale some years ago and my eye caught what I first thought was an air pistol of some sort. When I picked it up, I realized...

I’ve become enamored with the .32-20 cartridge of late and after some scrounging found a barrel in that caliber on eBay for my early first generation...

I’ve always been enamored — is it okay to be enamored? — with the Model 12. If you’re not up to speed, it’s a K-Frame S&W with an aluminum alloy...

Amos looked at the .38 Super he was working on. It had been vexing him, but he thought he might be onto why it was acting up for Jake Hughs, a good customer.

Other than making them go bang a few times for fun, it dawned on me I had never actually targeted one of the old break-top revolvers. Their reputations run...

"Uh, hey Roy, can you help me with my gun?” It always starts like that, doesn’t it? “Been there, done that,” you say?

About a year or so ago I had the crew from the Cylinder & Slide shop here at the old homestead for a week-long “How to rebuild a S&W K-Frame revolver into...

When I was a cop I used to carry a couple of $100 bills in my wallet when I had range duty.