THE WORLD’S COOLEST HANDGUN

This is a Smith & Wesson 340PD .357 magnum.  Incredibly powerful, a bullet fired from this gun will go right through an engine block.  It weighs twelve ounces.

It is an American gun, manufactured in Springfield, Massachusetts.  The cylinder is titanium, and to get it to be that impossibly lightweight, the frame is made of scandium.

Scandium?  What’s that?  Scandium is a basic element with the atomic number 21.  It is a rare earth metal that is far stronger, lighter, and corrosion-resistant than stainless steel.  So strong and lightweight that it can withstand the enormous forces generated by the sequencing of a nuclear warhead detonating.

Scandium also has unique capabilities of nuclear absorption to control neutron emission, preventing the plutonium from fissioning prematurely in a thermonuclear bomb explosion.

Yet scandium is extremely rare, and costly to refine.  Expense was no object, however, to the builders of H-bombs in the Soviet Union.  Then came the end of the Cold War and the end of the Soviet Union.  Thousands of nuclear missiles were dismantled.  The smart folks at Smith & Wesson realized that they could buy the missiles’ scandium parts  – and make guns out of them.

See that depiction of an atom engraved on the 340PD’s frame?  That signifies that this is the Ultimate Cold War Trophy Gun.  Yep, this gun is made of Soviet melted-down nuclear warheads (don’t worry, it’s totally non-radioactive).  How cool is that?

This is not a gun for target shooting.  It’s a gun to save your life.  The average .357 magnum weighs 36 ounces.  The law of Conservation of Momentum (mass times velocity) here means that the recoil energy increases with the square of the velocity, such that a gun weighing one-third (12 oz.) of a gun weighing 36 oz. will have nine times the recoil.

To minimize the recoil effect on your hand, have your gun dealer order Hogue wrap-around soft-rubber grips with a sorbathane insert.  For practice shooting, order a pair of "mechanic’s gloves" with a gel pad (used for operating vibrating equipment like a jackhammer) from Grainger Supply.  Be sure and use .38 Special ammo, not the .357 mag cartridge.

That’s for practice.  For home protection, or when you’re carrying (you do live in a Concealed Carry state, right?), have it chambered with five .357 full-mag rounds.

It’s the ideal piece for both men and women, so feather light and small you can have it in a coat pocket or clutch purse and won’t even notice it – yet you’ll put down anyone threatening your life with one round (don’t take any chances, though, with just one). 

The emotional satisfaction from it signifying America’s winning the Cold War against the Soviet Union is a priceless bonus.