Pistol Reviews

The Pistol is widely defined as any type of firearm designed to be fired with one hand. This includes derringers, ancient "hand cannons", and novelty sorts such as a cubic puzzle that transforms into a working, muzzle-loaded gun. Pistol designs are as variable as the people that design them.
Here at Gun Review Spot we tend to focus on the types of pistols that people actually own, and use for personal and home defense, competition, and hunting while skipping over antique and "novelty" pistols that rarely get any use. After all, it's hard to competently write a review on a pistol that was handed down over the course of seven generations, all of which have never fired it.
Primarily, the information you'll find here will include cursory overviews of various guns that are well loved by their owners who happen to be willing to share a bit about them. These pistols tend to be still being made or have recently been removed from the production lines but are still being carries and used on a consistent basis for their intended purpose.
Pistols fall into a whole host of sub-categories. Some gun enthusiasts make a point to develop elaborate classification mechanisms that rival the library Dewey decimal system in complexity. We try to follow Einstein's advice to "Make everything as simple as possible, but not simpler," and thus we have chosen to group all pistil reviews into a four distince sections:

Types of Pistols
1) Service Pistols - this is by far the largest category of the bunch. Service pistols are traditionally adopted from designed produced for military and law enforcement agencies. They are usually "full size" in nature and feature a 4" to 5" barrel.
2) Compact Pistols - these handguns tend to be closely related to their service pistol brethren. Usually, the only difference between the two is that the compact variation has a shortened grip that allow the pistol to be concealed inside-the-waistband with ease. All other features, including barrel and slide length, remain the same.
3) Sub-Compact Pistols - if you love your service pistol, but need something very small for a backup gun, then the sub-compact is the choice for you. The action and safety systems of the service pistol are all incorporated, for the most part, into the the sub-compact variation of the gun. Problems can develop in the radical shortening of the slide, barrel, and frame however, and often a number of compensating design elements are integrated into these pistols to keep them operating properly on a consistent basis.
4) Pocket Pistols - the smallest members of the group, pocket pistols are purpose built to be easily concealed. Included in this group are small semi-auto pistols, small-frame revolvers, and single or double shot derringers. These guns are not considered to be an acceptable primary weapon by many due to the resulting lack of penetrating power allowed by the small cartridges that are necessary to produce a pistol that is functional but still fits in the pocket.
5) 1911 Pistols - without any doubt, John Moses Browning's legendary design adopted by the U.S. Military in 1911 is the most loved and most copied pistol of all time. The guns is a service pistol by nature, but as pretty much every gun company that makes pistol now has added a 1911 variant to it's lineup, we have decided to dedicate a separate category to this legendary firearm. After all, only Glock makes a G22, but any number of companies are currently making 1911 pistols.
The newest pistol reviews can be found below. Links to further sort them by the above five categories are provided at the top of each list.
PISTOL REVIEWS
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The 84FS is a compact pistol by Beretta that features a 13 round double-stack magazine. It shoots the .380 AUTO cartridge and is available in anodized black or ...[Read More]
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Reviews of the XD-40 Tactical pistol with the longer 5" barrel, two magazines each carrying 12 rounds of .40 S&W ammo. Features a polymer frame, ambidextrou...[Read More]
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One of Kel-Tec's most popular sub-compact pistol designs, the PF-9 is a single-stack 9mm double-action only pistol. This 7 round capacity pistol is one of the ...[Read More]
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When designing the Range Officer 1911 pistols, Springfield Armory upgraded the internals to match-grade TRP quality while trimming extras like the full length g...[Read More]
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Carrying 13 rounds of .45 ACP ammo, the XD-45 service pistol is one of the most popular guns which Springfield Armory makes. Offered in over five color configur...[Read More]
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The Springfield Armory XDm-40 has a slightly more powerful round that comes at the expense of capacity as this service pistol loses three rounds in each magazin...[Read More]
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The Loaded Micro Compact with its 3" barrel and aluminum frame was the next evolutionary step in the sub-compact 1911 arena. Smaller and lighter than its predec...[Read More]
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The Tactical XD-9 features a longer 5" barrel designed to enhance accuracy at longer distances. 16 round magazine remains the same as do most of the major eleme...[Read More]
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The Springfield Armory Lightweight Operator shares the integration of a picatinny rail with other Operator 1911s but it also sports a lighter frame made from al...[Read More]
The XD-357 is one of the less popular renditions in the XD lineup made by Springfield Armory. New guns are only available in black Melonite, both traditional 3-...[Read More]
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