Remington XP-100
The development of handguns has progressed in a series of seismic jolts. One came in 1963, when Remington announced the XP-100, which looked like a prop from a Buck Rogers movie. It was not so much a handgun as a one-handed rifle. To make the gun, Remington utilized the bolt action from its Model 600 carbine, a Zytel stock borrowed from the Model 66 .22 autoloader, and a barrel rib and sights from the Model 660 magnum carbine. Designers didn't stop there, though. They also cooked up a red-hot varmint cartridge called the .221 Fireball to chamber in the new gun. The result was historic: For the first time, varmint hunters could pound pasture poodles without a rifle, and handgunning had taken on a whole new dimension.