Obsolete

Your skill level, not your gun will decide that. I carry a SIG P239 in 9MM. It will probably become obsolete within 20-30 years, in that better guns will bbe available. But owning a better, newer, more accurate gun doesn't mean that you know how to shoot.

Actually all weapons are already obsolete by your method of rendering it obsolete. Any one with a fancy semi o full auto gun can be taken out by anyone with an "obsolete" gun, thats been proven.

For reference remember the senior citizen who shot up 3 cops whenthey did a drug raid on her home by mistake? she rendered them obsolete.

An old SAA can render a super soldier with a m4 carbine obsolete if used by someone who knows what they are doing.

To do your gun right, its only obsolete when its empty, or when you draw it from a holster, the grip comes out in your hand but the barrel stays in the holster.

I belive this answers the question

"If you are aware, ready to do battle if it insists on coming to you and proficient with the gun you carry, even if its design dates from the previous turn of the century, you probably won't be seriously handicapped because you don't have the gun on the cover of this month's gun magazine."
Stephen Wenger

I figure about 8-10 years...

When the night sites start to fade.

If you're gonna allow me to replace the night sites on my 1911... after I die... or when they have hand held laser guns.

how long do you think it will take before your currently favorite gun that you own becomes obsolete?

Click to expand...

Never. As long as it goes bang every time I pull the trigger, and I hit what I'm aiming at.

weapons may not be cutting edge

However, they can still be effective in practiced hands-
I have shot with some older gentlemen at the range- they used old Smith M&P's, etc- having said that- I would not pick a fight with any of them. I believe that Jeff Cooper was correct when he discussed how important mindset was to winning- look at the Afghans in the 1980's, the American Revolutionaries, etc, they had mostly "obsolete" equipment, yet they were able to prevail by true grit.

as soon as I feel my 1911 is out of date i'll be giving you a answer

Gunfights are won with skill and luck not necessarily with the better weapon. If I could choose between the two, I'd choose luck. Lots of highly skilled gun men and police officers have been killed by much less skilled individuals that had better luck than they had.

Since you can't do anything about your luck the only thing is to improve your skill.

Reminds me of an incident that happened in Tucson, AZ when a sheriffs deputy stopped a car with a BG armed with an UZI. A gun fight ensued resulting in one dead BG shot with the deputy's .357 revolver. In this case it may have been more skill against a better armed individual or just more luck on the part of the deputy.

Any accurate, reliable, multiple shot, and easily reloaded handgun isn't obsolete, strictly speaking, and as other posters have observed, its less the gear, and more the ability to use it.

Obsolescence means that all other factors being equal, there are better choices available than the obsolete choice, rather than there anything being inherently wrong with the obsolete choice. For example, I still have a 12 mHZ '286 with a 20 megabyte drive and a monochrome CRT that will run Word Perfect 5 perfectly well.

I just have better choices than that today, and choose accordingly.

Flipside, there isn't a heck of a lot of difference between Word 95 and Word 2007 to me, I hardly notice which one I'm using.

That being said, here's a list of handgun technology I consider to be reasonably obsolete for defensive purposes, and why:

Cap, blackpowder, and ball designs. They simply can't be reloaded mid fight.

Derringers, single & double shot. They don't reload quickly, handle poorly, and there are much lighter, higher capacity designs available now.

A list of oddball, marginal calibers, such as .25 acp, .32, etc.

Oddball designs like the Grendel. Come on, an autoloader without a magazine, obliging you to lock back the slide and press single rounds in through the top one at a time? Good grief! Another design I consider obsolete is the luger design. Apparently, for all their grace and beauty, they have reliability issues, and even the Nazis considered them obsolete in WWII. Ditto the broomhandle Mauser, given its size and weight.

There might be a few others, but I can't think of them at the moment.

As it stands, I don't forsee any revolutions in handgun design on the horizon.

There will be incremental improvements in materials and manufacturing technology, but the basic form factor and operating system variations have pretty much been worked out and elaborated, and the dead end technology paths have been largely culled off.

I think firearms have progressed about as far as they can until we start getting phasers like Star Trek. There will be new materials and improvements in ammunition but I don't think most firearms become obselete. A 1911 that's nearly 100 years old is still a viable combat handgun. Most DA autos use the system Walther invented in the 1920s.

What does become obselete is certain calibers due to duplication in ballistics. Calibers like 38-40 and 44-40 are still available but you won't find them at Wal Mart.

Obsolescence

I own some of the most modern handguns on the market, but my favorite one is a S&W Model 10 4" standard bbl, square butt .38 Special. Obsolete; Yes!,
Ineffective; No! I don't think anyone would volunteer to stand downrange and have me fire a round at them.

Laser pistol or 1911???? I'll choose the 1911!

Look at it this way, the firearm (no matter the design, SA, DA, DAO) is a tool. YOU are the weapon.

Obsolete? From my cold dead hands!

My current "favorite gun" is a design that is well over 100 years old. Quality and accuracy are never obsolete.

Gee, for a minute there you had me worried. My 1911 was designed about a century ago.

Must be obsolete by now.

Or maybe not...

My daily carry gun is a Ruger SP101. Some considder it to be very obsolete. think about it.

The 5-shot capacity is well below most semi-autos (sometimes even less than 1/3 their capacity).
It is over an inch longer than a Glock 19, and the same weight when fully loaded.
It has a heavy double action pull.
The exposed hammer can snag on stuff as you draw.
The basic design is over 100 years old, using a 1935 modification of a round developed for black powder in the 1800's.

But you know what? It goes bang every time i pull the trigger.
It puts the rounds where I want them to.
The 3" bbl. points like a dream.
and more than anything else, I TRUST this gun. I know that it will work if it has to. And i would not be afraid to use it if the chips are down.

A gun that inspires confidence, and can reliably put shots on target will never be obsolete for me.

BTW, I don't consider j-frame revolvers to be obsolete at all. They have their place, and with safariland type speedloaders, they can be reloaded at speeds approaching that of mag fed autoloaders. Their only shortcomings are their vestigial sights, and the lack of a full stroke ejector.