HK USP

     The USP is a semi-auto pistol developed by Heckler & Koch in Germany, it was initially designed to replace P7 hand guns.

   What really makes USP an awesome gun is its self loading mechanism, which is based on short recoil operation. 
   When a cartridge is fired it produces recoil against the breech, this pushes the barrel and the slide together after 3 mm of unrestricted backward travel when the bullet leaves the barrel and gas pressure drops to safe levels, a shaped lug under the barrel locks in a hook under the barrel but the slide is still free to move and since it gains enough momentum during those 3 mm the slide assembly does the ejection of used cartridge and feeding of the new one. On returning of the slide, it again locks back with the barrel, moving the barrel forward into the battery, and so the gun is ready to fire the next bullet.
  This short recoil operation produces considerably less recoil, making the gun more effective in tactical operations, and desirable weapon for military and civil applications.

  The USP was originally introduced for .40 S&W cartridge, but the 9 mm parabellum variant was introduced at the same time. and in 1995 HK introduced a .45 ACP variant as well.

 Aside from standard version, HK USP has many variants.

USP custom sport: 
  Its almost identical to standard USP except its designed for accuracy shooting, practice and competitions.
  It has match grade barrel, match trigger, adjustable sights and mostly found in 9 mm parabellum. 

USP compact:
  It is the scaled down version of USP, available in all cartridges as standard USP 9 mm parabellum, .40 S&W and .45 ACP, and additionally the .357 SIG. 
 Its like a smaller version of the gun but since its smaller size the magazines have lesser round per clip ratio and have a hand-grip extension to accommodate with shooter's hand. 

USP tactical:
  The USP tactical is the advanced version of USP.
Designed for military applications, it can be equipped with all kinds of accessories like suppressor, lazer sight and halo sight. 
Its available in all cartridges 9 mm parabellum, .40 S&W and .45 ACP. Its equipped with fully adjustable rear sight, high profile front sight, extended threaded barrel and O-ring (for suppressor), a match-grade trigger and a adjustable trigger stop. 

USP Compact tactical:
   It is a .45 ACP hand gun designed for special operations. it is made to have the power and capability of a full sized USP tactical in a smaller more concealable package. 
It has threaded barrel extension with O-ring, polygonal bore profile, and taller sights to be used with suppressor.
  But because of its smaller size, its not that comfortable to use as full sized USP and doesn't have that much punch, but a concealable weapon equipped at the right time can do hell of a damage in close combat. 

USP Expert:
   It is available in all USP cartridges ( 9mm parabellum, .40 S&W and .45 ACP) and includes all the features of Tactical except the threaded barrel. It has an extended steel slide which hides the O-ring but it reduces and recoil and muzzle flip by increased barrel weight. it has adjustable sights and can also use extended magazines or jet funnel magazines. 
 Jet funnel magazines are clear plastic and can hold 18 9mm para rounds and 16 .40 S&W rounds.

USP Match:
   It is available in all USP cartridges (9 mm Parabellum, .40 S&W and .45 ACP), and is designed to appeal to target shooters, except of all the features included in Expert, Match is distinguished by its barrel weight, which replaces the elongated slide of Expert. The barrel weight acts as the counterweight which greatly reduces the recoil and help in target tracking.
How ever this variant of USP has been discontinued in 1999, but can be bought by a special order.

USP Elite:
    Its available in 9 mm Parabellum and .45 ACP. and takes all the features found in tactical, match and expert, fitted with a 157 mm barrel and 235 mm slide. This makes the gun longer, the long slide makes the gun slightly more accurate compared to other variants  but longer gun make it harder to draw rapidly, making it a but uncomfortable for uniformed personnel  How ever is more preferred for all gun enthusiasts.

Colt 1911 (M1911)

      Its a single-action, recoil operated gun chambered for .45 ACP, which served as the primary side arm for US forces form 1911 to 1985 until M9 Beretta took its place.
   But because of its popularity and style gun enthusiasts keep it, since it is a relyable weapon, Modern varients of M1911 are still used by some special forces units through out the world. 

  It is also popular among civilian conciled carry self defence weapon since it's slim design and the power of .45 ACP cartridge.
 John Browning was concidered the father of all modern semi-auto pistols and rifles since this gun was his design, its design was widely copied through out the world and soon became the very foundation of most of the modern hand guns. 

 This weapon has seen many bloody wars, line WW1, WW2, Korian and even veitnam war, but following its success it was adopted by almost every millitary through out the world. Having its two varients M1911A1 and M1911A2 made it adopteable to almost every type of milltary use, and even today generals are given this gun like a medal for their service. 

 It weighs about 1100 Grams (Without magzine) so its light, and has barrel length of 5.03 Inch (127 mm), 4.25 Inch (108 mm) and 3.5 Inch (89 mm).
 Producing muzzle velocity of 251 m/s. 
 It has a deatachable box magzine of 7 rounds of .45 ACP  

Desert Eagle

    The Desert Eagle is a large frame gas operated semi-auto pistol developed by Magnum research of US and IMI in Israel.
Its a beautiful gun that's been featured in over 500 movies, and Games.  

   The Desert Eagle's gas operated mechanism is normally found in rifles, as opposed to the normal blow-back and short recoil mechanism normally found in the hand guns. When a round is fired and bullet reaches the muzzle breach, there is a small hole in the barrel in which the excess gas from the bullet moves pushing a piston inside a cylinder, which is located under the barrel, the piston in turn moves the slide. The slide moves rewards on two rails on both sides of the barrel, operating the mechanism, and loading a new bullet. This reduces the excess muzzle flash, which tend to block the targeting iron sights.
  

  The advantage of using a gas operated mechanism is that it allows the gun to use a far more powerful cartridges, allowing this gun to compete with Magnum Revolvers. 
  Downsides of this mechanism is that it makes the gun very large, and it discourages the use of unjacketed lead bullets, because the lead particles breaking of during firing can block the gas tip and clog in the cylinder, preventing the proper function. 

  Although many Desert eagles were made but the strongest prevailed, Mark I which is no longer produced has same cartridge availability as Mark VII.
The Mark VII Desert eagle is available in .357 Magnum, .44 Magnum and .50 AE.

But Mark VII with .50 AE just became the platform for      Mark XIX Desert eagle which is also available in all .357 Magnum (9 Cartridge clip), .44 Magnum (8 Cartridge clip) and .50 AE (7 Cartridge clip). and is available in 6 Inch and 10 Inch Barrel lengths.

M9 Beretta

         The M9 Beretta or Beretta 92 is a semi-auto pistol which uses 9x19 mm Parabellum bullets, it was adopted by US armed forces when it won a competition against Colt 1911 in 1985.
Although some other modern hand guns are also used in US military M9 is the most popular of them all.

The original early M9 Beretta.

 The only hand gun that can gave it a tough time in beating is SIG Sauer p226. 
  How ever now the M9 is out dated and is scheduled to be replaced in 2013 or 2014, by a more modern hand gun.
In 1970 the US military made an attempt to sync the weapon requirements for all 4 branches of military  since all of them required a very different type of weapon to work in the field.
Mariens needed a hand gun with rapid deployment, accessories and rate of fire.
Army needed a gun with range and accuracy.
Navy needed a gun that was envorment resistant, high bullet capacity and comfortable in close combat.
Air force needed a light weight hand gun pilots can carry with them selves for protection in case of a crash.

The only hand gun which had all these qualities was M9 Beretta at that time, since 9x19mm Parabellum was chosen as a standard Nato hand gun bullet this gun was the right choice.

Tactical M9 with a suppressor attachment.

Modern and better equipped M9 Beretta.

   The M9 is a short recoil single/double action semi-auto hand gun which uses a 15-round staggered box magazine, with a magazine release button which can be placed on both right or left for both right handed or left handed shooters.  
  Almost all parts of M9 are completely interchangeable, for easy maintenance, modification and replacement. Its barrel bore is hard chromed to reduce wear tear from moving chamber head, this increases its life span significantly. 

  It also has multiple safety mechanisms to prevent any accidents.

 The real problem with this gun is its stopping power, most of the M9 users are dissatisfied by the power of a 9x19mm Parabellum and the soldiers returning form theater of war request replacement with another weapon and .45 ACP bullet for their handguns. Also there are some issues with its slide.

Smith & Wesson model 29

      It is a six shot double action revolver chambered for .44 Magnum bullet.
Its available in 3, 4, 5, 6, 6.5, 8.7 and 10.7 inch barrel, other barrel lengths are also available eighter by order or made by custom shops of S&W.

    Its production was started in 1955 and it soon became popular among gun enthusiasts, and it soon became popular among the movies because of its shape, and its distinguishing style, it was the most powerful hand gun at the time of its release and it kept its title until the release of model 500. 
How ever its still one of the strongest guns ever of course after model 500.
  Over the years many variants of this gun have been made, but its classic look was kept the same. 

Model 629 is a modified version of model 29 where its six inch version was modified to have a full barrel under lug   how ever its smaller versions were also modified to model 629 in later years giving them distinguished shape over the years.

Snub nosed model 629

Model 629 Deluxe, talo edition

Model 629 Stealth Hunter.

(Competition oriented)

S&W model 500 (Smith and wesson)

    This is a large frame double action large calibre revolver used .500 S&W magnum bullets, and has a 5 bullet cylinder. 
  It is built of S&W's special X-Frame because none of the existing revolver frames were capable of handling the muzzle energy, and recoil of .500 Magnum. This makes it the world most powerful revolver built today, and is sold as the world's most powerful hand gun.

Model 500 <.500 magnum> (above)

Model 629 <.44 magnum> (below)

Model 500 shot at night time.

   The model 500 can fire 22.7 Grams bullet with 602 m/s muzzle velocity having 4100 J of energy, which is significantly larger then any and gun bullet we know to date. 

   This gun can kill any living thing on earth, including earth, just shooting whales could prove to be trickier.

Model 500 with compensator

Model 500 without compensator

    Because of this revolver using the world's most powerful handgun production bullet, it has to most powerful recoil ever, to cancel to much excess recoil this gun uses compensator, forward balance, rubber grips and even shear weight of the gun is used to cancel the recoil. 

  Other then all of its qualities this gun has awesome style, and is available in 4, 6.5, 8.75 and 10 inch barrel variants. 

Colt Anaconda

       First introduced in 1990 by the colt arm's dealers the Colt Anaconda is a large framed double action revolver with a full barrel ejection rod lug, with a six round cylinder.
     The Colt Anaconda was chambered for the powerful .44 magnum and and .45 Colt centre fire ammo.

  

   The Colt Anaconda was was made to compete with the other .44 magnum contemporaries, like S&W model 29. 
  How ever the Anaconda was introduced late but even so it did business almost better then other contemporaries of .44 Magnum .

 This gun immediately became popular with sports enthusiasts and hunters, but since this gun is a bit too large it was not used for law enforcements, because it can't be concealed carry. 
 This gun was officially discontinued in 1999 but it was continued to be produced by Colt Custom Shops until 2003.

 The Anaconda has features of all its predecessors and even more, like frame shape of Colt King Cobra  and the ventilated barrel style of Colt Python, how ever unlike its predecessors the Anaconda is only available in stainless steel finish. 
It came equipped with 4,6 and 8 inch barrels, with a neoprene synthetic combat style grips.