American Rifleman TV is in Springfield, Mass., to visit the Smith & Wesson Performance Center, where some of the gunmaker's finest custom firearms are manufactured. What is unique about S&W Performance Center firearms is that although many of the firearms might contain special features that are typically found only in "one off" custom guns, the manufacturer produces them in large enough quantities to keep them affordable and available to everyone. Many Performance Center guns—like the new Ported M&P Shield—originate from standard designs and are then customized and tuned for precision, while others are created from the ground up to include hand cutting and fitting.
Springfield Armory's Hellcat Pro is taller, longer and heavier than the company's original Hellcat, but these dimensional increases actually do a lot to benefit the armed citizen.
Ruger may be celebrating its 75th anniversary in 2024, but the first firearm designed and built by William Batterman Ruger, the semi-automatic Savage Model 99 conversion seen to the left, came some 10 years before the Standard Model debuted in 1949.