THE INSIDER

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...

Nosing around, I discovered there’s a big community of people who share photos of what’s called their “Pocket Dump.” That’s a photo of a set of...

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.

A hunnert’ years ago on a graveyard shift I was engaged in a spirited disagreement with a bad guy. My new friend and I eventually fell out of a pick-up...

Not very long ago I stumbled onto a sort of “fixer” S&W Third Model Hand Ejector in .32-20. The nickel is worn, but once I cleaned her up some, tuned...

It seems we struck a chord when we published that Insider on how to fix buggered-up screws (Insider, May/June 2017) and you guys reached out to me wanting...

"Having a gun” is, indeed, a good idea if you need one. People who carry guns for defense (or even sometimes because they have to, like cops), often...

Due to an act of overt, shameless kindness on the part of J.J. Reich and staffers at Vista Outdoors I was able to scrape up a nice assortment of various .22...

I had fun shooting some old battle-weary Colt 1911’s — tossing in a Rock Island Armory basic mil-spec 1911 too — a few issues ago (Insider, July/Aug...

I find, as I season a bit, the more complicated gun “systems” are becoming less and less appealing. Not because they aren’t good, or fun or fancy, or...