Mark Three Vector 22 Shooting System

     Notes: The Vector 22/SS is a 10-round enclosed-cylinder revolver that is capable of firing as a double-action revolver, in semi-automatic mode, or automatic function.  The front half of the weapon is unlocked and pivoted upward, and a loaded cylinder is put into the weapon.  The front half is then swung back down and locked.  The weapon is largely made of injection-molded thermoplastic resins, and looks very much like a box with a pistol grip on the back.  The Vector 22/SS may be sound-suppressed internally, without a protruding silencer. 

     Twilight 2000 Notes: Though a very rare weapon, the Vector 22/SS is one of the plethora of weapons tested by the US military during the Twilight War.

     Merc 2000 Notes: This weapon was never put into production.

M-15 General Officers’ Pistol

     Notes: This pistol was often issued to US Army generals in place of the standard M-9 or M-1911A1.  It is a basically a compact M-1911A1, cut down in size and rebuilt.  It can be recognized by its dark-blue finish, the inscription “General Officer Model RIA” on the slide, a brass plate on the left grip upon which the owning general’s name is engraved, and the seal of Rock Island Arsenal on the right grip.  The sights on the M-15 are higher than the standard M-1911A1. 

Mitchell Arms Colt-Browning

     Notes: These weapons are based on a few Colt-Browning weapons, most notably the Colt M-1911.  One of these is the Alpha .45; it is basically an M-1911A1 clone with a double-stack magazine, ambidextrous safety, ands gray finish with black plastic grip plates; it also has an interchangeable single-action/double-action trigger system.  The Mitchell Gold .45 is also similar, but has a slightly longer, match-quality barrel and an adjustable micrometer rear sight.  The Mitchell Alpha .44 is basically the same weapon as the Alpha .45, but fires .44 Magnum rounds and has a smaller magazine and slightly longer barrel.

Mitchell Arms High Standard

     Notes: These are based on the old High Standard target pistols.  Mitchell once worked for High Standard and decided to use his knowledge to produce these weapons; however, he later lost a patent-infringement suit brought by High Standard, and had to stop making his High Standard clones.  Before the suit, he made several versions, including the long-barreled Citation II, the Olympic ISU II with a muzzle compensator, the Sharpshooter II with a heavy bull barrel, the heavy Sport King II with a shorter barrel than the Citation II (but still a long barrel), and the short-barreled Victor II.  These pistols are made from stainless steel.

NAA Guardian

     Notes: This tiny pocket pistol was popular with civilians for self-defense purposes as well as police officers and government agents for concealed carry and backup purposes.  It is a small weapon with a short grip that can be a problem for large hands and a short range best suited for short-range self-defense.  There are five versions, from the tiny .25 ACP-firing model to the still-small Guardian .380.  In between are models firing .32 ACP and two proprietary cartridges: the .25 NAA, a .32 ACP cartridge necked down to accept a .25 ACP bullet, and the .32 NAA, a .380 ACP cartridge necked down to accept a .32 ACP bullet.

     Twilight 2000 Notes: Though this weapon was barely in production before the Twilight War started, production continued at a good pace throughout the war and beyond.  The versions firing .25 NAA and .32 NAA do not exist, however.

Nighthawk Custom Talon

     Notes: The Talon is a 1911 clone which is exceptionally well-made and has a few unusual features.  Most of these are for esthetics or durability, such as the gray baked-on polymer PermaCoat finish, bright silver aluminum trigger (halfway between a medium and short length, and with a light 3.5-pound pull), slide grooves serrated at 25 lpi (with grips front and back), the top of the rear of the slide checkered at 40 lpi (looks good and reduces glare when sighting), front strap and rear strap also checkered at 30 lpi, and fine checkered wood grips with the Nighthawk Custom Talon logo.  The sights are a wide front ramp and a new rear sight from Novak, similar to their LoMount fixed sights but with a U-shaped aperture; and also adjustable for windage.  These sights have tritium inlays, and are dovetailed to allow them to be removed and replaced with other sights if the owner desires.  The wide front ramp along with the narrow rear aperture can present a tight sight picture, which will give a lot of problems to an inexperienced shooter.  Internal parts are largely of stainless steel.  The barrel is either a standard barrel or a match-quality bull barrel; both are target-crowned.  They are also offered with short or full-length guide rods.  The safety/slide stop is ambidextrous and is of Nighthawk Custom’s own design, larger than the switches on most 1911 clones.  The grip safety is of an unusual shape, narrowing at the top and having a light touch.  The magazine release is slightly extended, but not enough to be accidentally activated. 

     The Talon II is a Commander-sized version of the Talon, with a 4.1-inch barrel.  It is a “heavy Commander” style pistol, using a standard-size frame with a short barrel and slide, and heavier-gauge steel than is standard for 1911-type pistols.  It is, in fact, heavier than the Talon by several ounces, helping to tame recoil and barrel climb.

     Twilight 2000 Notes: This pistol does not exist in the Twilight 2000 timeline.

Nighthawk Custom GRP

     Notes: The GRP (Global Response Pistol) was reputedly designed by Nighthawk at the request of certain unnamed members of the special operations community, though of course Nighthawk will not disclose who requested the GRP design.  The pistol turned out so well that Nighthawk asked those unnamed special operations units for permission to market the GRP to civilians, which they granted, and the GRP is now available on the general market. 

     The GRP is basically an improved 1911-type pistol.  The improvements start with variants of the Novak Extreme Duty front and rear sights; the rear sight is micrometer-adjustable, and both are dovetailed in and have tritium inlays for night use.  The barrel is heavy and match grade, and the bushing is also match-grade.  Both are hand-fitted, and the chamber is hand-reamed.  The front and rear of the slide have cocking serrations, and the top of the slide has grooves hand-cut into it to reduce glare.  The ejection port is lowered and flared to help ensure that rounds eject properly.  The hammer is skeletonized loop-type Commander hammer.  The grip safety has a hump near the top to allow positive engagement of that safety.  The magazine well is beveled, and the magazine release is extended.  The trigger is one of the few non-steel parts of the GRP, being aluminum, match quality, and adjustable for overtravel and pull.  The slide stop is slightly larger than normal, which also helps the shooter use it quickly and without fumbling; the manual safety is likewise extended.  Most parts of the GRP are hand-fitted, and the fit and finish make the exterior of the GRP look almost seamless.  If you take the GRP in your hand and shake it, it makes virtually no noise whatsoever – there is no play in its parts.

     The finish of the GRP is Matte Black Perma-Kote, while the grip plates are of dark green Linen Micarta.  Nighthawk uses much finer checkering for these grip plates, as well as the frontstrap; many pistols with standard-lpi checkering tend to be abrasive on the hand, especially when chambered for the larger calibers.  In addition, the entire pistol is dehorned as much as possible.  A Nighthawk Recon version exists, which has a MIL-STD-1913 rail under the dust cover.

     In the Fall of 2006, several weapons magazines carried short articles about a version of the GRP called the “GRP II.”  The GRP II is supposed to be a Commander-sized version of the GRP, with a 4.25-inch instead of the 5-inch barrel of the standard GRP, but otherwise built to the same standards as the GRP.  Unfortunately, I have not heard anything about this iteration outside of a few magazine and Web articles; it does not even appear on Nighthawk Custom’s own site.

     Twilight 2000 Notes: The GRP does not exist in the Twilight 2000 timeline.

Nighthawk Custom Lady Hawk

     Notes: As the name suggests, the Lady Hawk is a commander-sized 1911-type pistol designed for use in ladies’ personal defense.  Normally, the slide carries the Lady Hawk name, but at customer request, this can be omitted for male buyers who prefer a smaller self-defense pistol with Nighthawk Custom quality.

     The Lady Hawk is designed around a 4.25-inch Nighthawk Custom match-grade barrel that is crowned and recessed instead of having a bushing.  The frame is of carbon forged steel, and has a slim profile for smaller hands.  The backstrap and grip safety as well as the trigger guard are designed to encourage a high grip on the pistol when firing.  The grip plates are also very thin, and made of checkered black aluminum.  The frontstrap is textured with Heinie Signature Scalloping, as it the backstrap.  The slide is likewise of carbon steel, and has Heinie Straight Eight low-profile night sights mounted on it.  The hammer, sear, extended safety, and extended magazine catch are match-quality and are Heinie designs; ambidextrous controls are available as an option.  The standard finish is titanium blue with hard chromed controls, but alternate finished include PermaKote Black, Sniper Gray, OD green, desert tan, hard-chromed, and Diamond (polished) Black. Operation is single-action.

     Twilight 2000 Notes: The Lady Hawk is not available in the Twilight 2000 timeline.

Olympic Arms OA-93/96/98 Series 

     Notes: This is an M-16, unbelievably, cut down to a pistol-sized weapon.  The lower receiver is actually an M-16 lower receiver, only slightly modified.  The history behind the family of OA-93 and OA-96 weapons stems from attempts to make a lightweight and handy version of the M-16 and CAR-15.  The OA-93 was the first version of this, introduced in 1993.  The pistol was designed in both a civilian arm (the OA-93OSS) and a law enforcement model (the OA-93).  These saw respectable sales, especially the law enforcement model that garnered some popularity with SWAT units across the United States.  However, these weapons were only useful in some tactical situations; for law enforcement, it is felt that these weapons present too much power in a handheld pistol (thus resulting in over-penetration of a suspect).  The passage of the 1994 Crime Bill did much to hurt the design of this weapon, since the law, which forced it to redesign the OA-93 if they wanted to stay in business, affected its design.  

     The OA-96 has not met with strong sales, as the design changes have led to a different weapon entirely than the previous OA-93.  The 30-round ammunition well is pinned and welded in place, and as such it cannot be detached.  The OA-96 has a button in the rear that opens the upper receiver and can then be loaded via stripper clips.  The original OA-93 has continued to be produced, but in a different configuration, with the biggest change being that of an added forward handgrip.  Several companies overseas which cater to mercenaries have purchased quantities of the new OA-93TG and OA-93 and are offering them for sale to individuals; one particular change is adding the upper receiver if the carbines based upon the OA-93, which was offered for sale to law enforcement personnel.  Some dealers have also added modified upper receivers and burst control groups that turn the OA-93 and OA-93TG into very deadly compact pistols.  With the common use of the vortex muzzle suppresser the weapon’s muzzle blast is greatly reduced and the weapon is easier to control as a result. 

     Twilight 2000: The OA-96 and OA-98 do not exist.

Olympic Arms 1911 Pistols

     Notes: Olympic Arms produces a number of 1911 clones through their Schuetzen Pistol Works.  These 1911 clones have a number of common features: matched frames and slides, hand-fitted and headspaced barrels, ramped and throated chambers, lowered and widened ejection ports, beveled magazine wells, hand-fitted triggers and sears, with the triggers hand-adjusted for length of travel and pull weight, extractors adjusted for reliability, extended manual safeties, widened grip safeties, adjustable rear sights, dovetailed front sights, and full-length guide rods.  All 1911-type pistols can be had in stainless steel, black carbon steel, or what Olympic calls the Deuce configuration (stainless steel frame topped with a black carbon steel slide.

     The Matchmaster 5 is for the most part a classic 1911-type pistol with a 5-inch barrel and smooth walnut grip plates laser-etched with a scorpion icon.  Finish is stainless steel with a matte clear finish.  The standard trigger guard is squared, but a round trigger guard may be requested.  Likewise, the standard frontstrap has finger grooves, but a smooth frontstrap may be had.  The Matchmaster 6 is identical, but uses a 6-inch barrel.  The Big Deuce is finished with a parkerized slide and a bead-blasted stainless steel frame, and has a 6-inch barrel made from 416 stainless steel.  The Big Deuce has double-diamond checkered grip plates of fine-grade walnut or exotic wood.

     The Westerner series differs primarily in the finish of the frame and slide – they are color-case hardened instead of having more standard pistol finishes.  The grip plates are of high-quality plastic, but are ivory-colored and laser-etched with the Olympic Arms seal.  The smallest version is the Constable; this version uses a 4-inch barrel on a full-sized frame with a loop-type hammer, sort of a Commander-type version.  The Westerner is a full-sized 1911, with a loop-type hammer and a 5-inch barrel.  The Trail Boss is essentially the same, but has a 6-inch barrel.

     The two pistols simply called the Short Models are in appearance similar to the Matchmaster series, but smaller.  The finishes are bead-blasted stainless steel, with a squared trigger guard as standard and a rounded one as an option.  The frontstrap has finger grooves.  The grip plates are the same as on the Matchmaster series.  The Cohort has a 4-inch bull barrel on a full-sized frame; the Enforcer uses a compact frame with a bushingless 4-inch bull barrel, and the Triplex Counterwound self-contained recoil spring system.

     Twilight 2000 Notes: These pistols are not available in the Twilight 2000 Notes.

Olympic Arms (Whitney) Wolverine

     Notes: The original design for the Wolverine was a product of the now-defunct Whitney Firearms corporation.  The Wolverine was originally called the Lightning by Whitney, but early in production they decided to change the name of the pistol to the Wolverine.  This name continued until about halfway through the Wolverine production run, after which the Lyman Sight Company decided to press its patent on the Wolverine name for anything firearms-related (they had a scope on the market also named the Wolverine).  The name of the pistol was then changed to the Whitney Auto-Loader.  Production of this pistol began in 1956, but Whitney made only one production run of them, making about 10,000 copies. Whitney Firearms was then sold to the Charles E Lowe Company, who built and sold a few more from existing parts, but they never actually made any.  Sales of these pistols continued until 1963.

     The Whitney versions of the Wolverine were constructed using a light alloy frame/receiver/grip unit; the receiver portion being cylindrical and open at the top.  (Grips plates are of wood.)  The Wolverine had no slide per se, but instead used a sort of cylindrical insert almost like a barrel shroud/receiver insert.  This in of itself led to a rather complicated mechanism with an equally complicated operation, which is sort of a unique subset of blowback operation.  The striker/firing pin was one unit and was not held in place by any sort of spring, but instead held against the breech block by virtue of the fit of the pieces.  And one thing is certain: the Wolverine does have a large amount of pieces, most of them tiny; but when put together, the result is virtually flawless operation.  There is no bolt hold-open device when a magazine is emptied, but there is a magazine safety.  The design of the Wolverine was quite futuristic in looks at the time of its inception, with a raked grip, a ventilated sighting rib atop the pistol, adjustable rear sights, and a generally “space-age” looking design that probably put off a lot of prospective buyers at the time. 

     In 2004, Olympic Arms revived the Wolverine, having bought the design; in this new incarnation, it was known as the Olympic Arms Whitney Wolverine.  The biggest difference between the old Wolverine and the new Wolverine is the construction material: the frame/receiver/grip unit of the new Wolverine is made from polymer instead of light alloy (though the magazine well has an internal light alloy lining).  The appearance is otherwise basically the same, and the parts are largely finished in black or made from black polymer, as the original Wolverines were finished in black.  Unfortunately, on the new Wolverines, the magazines are quite difficult to load to full capacity; generally, somewhere around the 6^th or 7^th round, you need to insert the takedown tool or a cartridge into a hole in the magazine follower to force it down so you can load the rest of the rounds.  These magazines, when fully-loaded, can also be difficult to seat in the magazine well. 

     Both the old and new Wolverines are unusually-accurate weapons for their short barrel lengths (4.6 inches).  Sight pictures on both are excellent, and the sights are also dovetailed into the “slide.”  Both function with exceptionally with virtually no lubrication.  Both will digest virtually any type of ammunition you throw at them, though they are designed to function best using high-velocity ammunition.  However, you really want to read the instruction manual before disassembly, and don’t lose any of those tiny parts!

Phoenix HP22/25

     Notes: These are tiny pocket pistols.  They are some of the few pocket pistols in these calibers able to reliably load and fire hollow-point bullets.  They are simple blowback pistols of unsophisticated design, but have a sighting rib above the barrel.

Phoenix Raven P-25

     Notes: Originally made by Raven Industries, the P-25 is a small .25-caliber pistol with a barrel of surprising length considering the size of the weapon.  P-25s built by Raven had no magazine safety, but the models produced by Phoenix do.  They may be finished in nickel-plate, blued, or chrome. 

Precision Small Arms PSA-25

     Notes: Precision Small Arms is manufacturer of pocket pistols, primarily centered around its PSA-25 pistol – essentially a modernized Browning Baby-type weapon.  The members of the PSA-25 are all basically identical in design, though individual version vary greatly in finish, materials, and/or other customizations.  All of them use 2.13-inch barrels and are fed by 6-round magazines, firing the same caliber -- .25 ACP.  Most use black polymer grip plates and have simple, non-adjustable, low-profile sights.

     The “representative” version of the PSA-25 is the Traditional Model.  Finishes may be black oxide, blued, or polished blue.  The frame and slide are of light steel alloy, with a barrel made from stainless steel.  In addition to the polymer of the grip plates, the surfaces of the magazine release, safety, and trigger are coated with textured polymer.

     Most of the variants of other variants of the PSA-25 are identical to the Traditional for game purposes.  The Nouveau-Satin Model has a brushed nickel finish, extending to even the controls, transfer bar, and extractor.  The Nouveau-Mirror Model is identical to the Nouveau-Satin Model except that the finish is polished nickel instead of brushed nickel.  The Stainless Steel Model is also identical except for the polished stainless steel finish.  Montreux 18-Karat Model starts with polished stainless steel, and then almost all exposed metal parts are plated with Rose Gold (a mixture of 75% 18-karat Gold, 21% Copper, and 4% Silver); the magazine catch and trigger are not so coated.  Grip plates are of ivory.  The Montreux 24-Karat Model is identical except for the grade of gold used in the Rose Gold mixture.  The Diplomat Model has a polished blue finish for the slide and frame, with grip plates of ivory.  The trigger, the screws for the grip plates, the safety, transfer bar, and magazine catch are plated in 24-karat gold.  The Renaissance Model is a limited-edition model elaborately-engraved by hand (by Angelo Bee, formerly of FN) in a Vine pattern.  Finishes are custom and limited only by imagination, though most have at least the trigger, grip plate screws, magazine catch, and safety are plated in 24-karat gold.  Grip plates are usually of ivory.  The Imperiale Model is of the same bent as the Renaissance, but the engraving is a scroll pattern inlaid with 24-karat gold, and the ivory of the grip plates carry a scrimshaw design of the buyer’s request.

     The Featherweight is somewhat different, using a frame of T6 aircraft aluminum with a matte finish.  The slide is of polished stainless steel.  Controls are polished nickel-plated, while the trigger is plated with 24-karat gold.  Grip plates may be of black polymer or translucent polymer.