Saturday, December 31, 2016

Whisky Tango Firearms Deadpool Cerakoted Kimber Custom II

Whisky Tango Firearms (WTF) of Sarasota, Florida creates custom cerakote designs.  I think one of their most creative and probably popular designs has to be their Deadpool 1911.  If you aren't familiar with Marvel's Deadpool and the hit 2016 movie (rated R) by the same name then this review won't mean very much to you.

The WTF Deadpool pistol begins life as a full-sized Kimber Custom II 1911 in .45 ACP.  From there, Whisky Tango Firearms goes to work on it.  Their attention to detail is flawless.


Whisky Tango Firearms' Handiwork


The Deadpool character was a military trained marksman and mercenary.  The Kimber Custom II is capable of the accuracy that a marksman would require.
This target was fired at 21 feet with Remington 230 ball ammo.  Feeling that I would not be capable of replicating this shot, I stopped to preserve this target for posterity.


This target shows 21 rounds also fired at 21 feet.  


The above image shows 21 rounds at 30 feet.


And lastly we have 28 rounds at 45 feet.


And now for a really last look, here is 5 rounds at 15 feet at a business card size target.

I know there are a lot of Kimber-haters out there but this one was as accurate as anyone could want and ran through 150 rounds of the Remington ammo without any problems whatsoever.  Deadpool would be proud.

Monday, December 26, 2016

Taurus Spectrum .380 ACP--New for 2017

Taurus has announced that they will be producing a new micro-.380 ACP pistol for deep concealed carry.  Taurus has had modest success with their .380 model TCP 738.  The new Spectrum is much sleeker looking than their earlier model and bears a resemblance to the original Ruger LCP.  One thing that the Spectrum does have in common with the 738 is that both of them almost have sights.  

A pleasant feature of the Spectrum is that they will be produced in a plethora of color schemes.  Otherwise the pistol's specifications are exactly what you would imagine them to be:

  • 6 round magazine capacity with a 7 round extended magazine.
  • 2.8 inch barrel
  • An overall length of 5.2 inches
  • An unloaded weight of 10.2 ounces
  • A completely unnecessary internal lock
  • An MSRP of about $286.00
I would expect to see an in-shop retail of $250 or less.

Although we here at the Average Joe's Test and Evaluation laboratory don't have one to wring out it does not mean that we weren't doing important work on this pistol.  We spent a great deal of time coming up with names for each of the different color options Taurus has shown us.

This one is named "Sea Foam"

This option was a tie between "Feces" and "Chocolate Nougat" 

This one is "Monochrome Yawn"

"Mint Chocolate Chip"

And lastly another tie between "Snow and Asphalt" and "Stormtrooper" 

Taurus frequently gets a bad rap.  I have owned several and while all of them have been accurate and reliable, I am aware that this has not been the experience for a lot of people.  One of the problems for retailers may be due to the multiple colors.  Obviously not all of the colors are going to be popular and only time will tell which ones are going to move and which ones will sit on the shelf (I'm guessing "Feces").

I kind of think I want one.  Probably go with the "Stormtrooper".