vintage guns

Question
hi.  I know nothing about guns, and im wrting a play with gangers in the 40's.  Could you tell me a few names of some handguns or pistols in the 1940's if you know any.  Like calibers and size and stuff like that hehe.  
Thanks!

Maddie

Answer
Maddie,

Well, the most familiar arm of the gangster era is the Thompson model 1928 sub-machinegun, aka the "Tommy gun" or "Chicago typewriter." The Thompson chambers the .45 ACP cartridge, meaning it's .45 caliber (.45 inches wide) and is fed by a 20 or 30 round stick magazine or 50 or 100-round drum magazines.

In terms of handguns, among the most popular of the era would have been the still popular Colt Government Model of 1911, otherwise known as the "Colt .45" or the "nineteen eleven." It's a single-action pistol with both a grip-depressor safety and manual thumb safety. Normal mode of carry is with the hammer cocked and the chamber loaded with the thumb safety set in the upward "on safe" position. It's thumbed downward after drawing to make it ready to fire. The 1911 is the exact same caliber as the Tommy Gun (.45 ACP) and holds seven of those rounds in its magazine. The 1911 weighs about 2.5 pounds and is 8.5 inches long.

The British-made Webley Mark VI was introduced in the early years of the 20th century and saw service during WWI. Later, it was retooled for the .38 Special cartridge. It's a six-shot, double-action revolver that folds down at the front of the frame for loading. The Webley weighs 2.5 pounds and 11.25 inches long.

The Smith & Wesson M&P revolver debuted in 1899 and is a modern double-action revolver in that holds six .38 Special cartridges and is loaded via a swing-out cylinder. It was still a popular arm for both police and bad guys during the 1940s. The M&P (Military and Police) is about the same size as the Webley, but a bit lighter.

The Browning High-Power is a modern 9mm Luger pistol still produced today that was first produced in 1925. Aside from the lack of a grip safety, it functions almost identically to the 1911. It held 13 rounds in its magazine. The High-power weighs 2 pounds and is 7.75 inches long.

In 1929 Walther introduced the PP (Pistole Polize), the first automatic pistol to use a truly safe double-action mechanism. It too fired the 9mm Luger cartridge. A shorter version, the PPK (the "K" standing for "Kurz" which is German for "short") was introduced shortly after the PP. The PPK weighs 1.25 pounds and is 6 inches long. I don't have stats on the PP, but figure another inch of length and probably a half-pound of weight is pretty close.

The Walther P38 debuted in 1938 and may not have been too widely available in the states until after the war. Essentially and updated version of the Walther PP, the P38 became the basic pattern most semiautomatic pistols produced since were based on. The P38 weighs 2 pounds and is 8.25-inches long.

Well, hopefully I've been of some use to you. If you have any other questions, please feel free to ask a follow up.


Kyle