The Gunsite Tactical Revolver
Guns Magazine, Annual, 2001 by Massad Ayoob
Worked over by the Gunsite Custom Shop, this
Smith & Wesson Model 442 Airweight is ready for business!
When you think "Gunsite," you think "Jeff Cooper." When you think "Jeff Cooper," you think "1911 .45 pistol." This, it seems, casts a dim view on anything not .45. Not so.
The fact is, the little J-frame Smith & Wesson .38 Special snubby has always held an honored place at "the school that Jeff built."
In his classic book Cooper on Handguns,
Col. Cooper observed that the Smith & Wesson Chiefs Special was
a useful little gun. Indeed, he noted that it was part of his recommended handgun wardrobe, the gun to be worn with a tailored business suit.
In addition, the little J-frame .38 was the choice of his wife, Janelle. Also, during the second generation of command at Gunsite, an Airweight S&W Centennial "backup gun" reposed in the jacket pocket of then-owner Richard Jee. Indeed,
the five-shot S&W .38 Special snubby has been the backup handgun or otherwise part of the "working battery" for countless Gunsite instructors including Manny Kapelsohn and Ken Hackathorn. I don't see this changing in the third generation of Gunsite management under new owner Buz Mills.
[Remainder of article
here.]
)
