Popularity of anemic calibers and late popularity of the .45 1911...

[leadcounsel]

I would second HorseSoldiers overall take. I'm also an avid fan of the 1911 and moreso of the Glock. I served in SOF support, including about a year deployed in Iraq. The M9 was the overwhelming sidearm; maybe not by choice but by availability and contract and requirements; and it was my sidearm too. There were a handful of Glocks and 1911s around and those were picked generally by higher ranking individuals, maybe a few per company.

I cannot speak to what people would chose to carry, but I would venture that most who know about guns would NOT chose the M9 nor the 9mm for a combat sidearm.

I cannot speak to what other Spec Ops units can or do carry.

 

[OldCavSoldier]

I seem to have stirred up a hornets nest with my dislike for the 1911 POS!

No amount of chiding or scolding will make me like the junker any more or less. They are a primitive and crude design failure and belong in the hall of shame along with the folding drop back seat that turned into a bed in the 1956 Nash Rambler, the Chrysler Fluid Drive transmission and Raybestos brake linings. They were unreliable horse killers in 1911 for Teddy Roosevelt and his Rough Riders and tightening up the tolerances and forging them out of Brazilian pig iron has not made them any better over the years.

Now I did confuse the names Eugene and Richard but I have a brother who is named Richard Eugene and I have done that for years..LOL. Besides I am old!

No it is not magazines that cause FTF, it is the stupid design on putting the feed ramp on the static frame and the barrel throat on the moving barrel that causes feed failures.

Americans just don't make good auto loading pistols. They came close with the S&W 39 and subsequent spin offs but the true American Classic is still the Revolver thought up by Samuel Colt then perfected by Smith and Wesson.. I carried a Model 10 in Vietnam and actually got a change to save my butt with it a few times.

The Europeans have always made the best auto loaders Luger, Walther, Makarov and of course Kalashnikov. Our boys feared the German machine guns worse than the devil himself.

I am sorry if I can not share your admiration for the Browning mistake our military got swindled into buying. After working on hundreds of them personally I still classify them as just primitive crude junk!

By the way I own one from every one of the manufacturers that sold them to us.....well Singer never did really sell us any, but they tried. I do like their 8 land and groove rifling better than the 6 that Colt used.

1911 and Teddy Roosevelt and the Rough Riders...? Huh? ***? History told *me* that TR did his thing with the Roughies in 1898...and that he used a favorite Colt SAA in .45LC.....

the 1911 didn't come along until 13 years later......

or....am I the victim of pre-re-writing-of-history?

 

[AJumbo]

I remember a Mas Ayoob article that compared the 1-shot stop stats of the most common pistol rounds, and the .32 ACP scored surprisingly well, like somewhere in the low 60% range. "Anemic" is a matter of perspective, since almost any rifle round will be more effective than any pistol round. Besides, shooting just once really isn't a part of my response plan.