I'm returning to metal handgun frames

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Fun2Shoot

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Don't know quite why, but lately I have been trading off my poly-framed handguns and am returning to steel or aluminium frames. I've owned and shot handguns for over thirty years now and for the last 15 years my predominant frame choice has been synthetic.

I've owned several poly Rugers, several XD's and have considered many other poly-framed guns along the way, but I have lost my infatuation with the idea that a few ounces of weight saved and a few dollars saved too is the big attraction it used to be in a plastic-framed gun.

I bought my first all-metal gun in a long time recently. I purchased a S&W 3913 (compact 9mm single stack DA/SA) and love the feel of the alloy frame and the extra few ounces of weight gives the gun a better balance to me and I am back on target a little quicker during rapid fire I think.

I may still buy a poly-framed gun again if a particular gun attracts me, but I really think that I am going to return to my original handgun roots, that is, all-metal auto-loaders both now and in the future.

There is just something very satisfying about all-metal construction that a poly-gun never gives me.
 
I always say, "There's enough variety out there that you have to go w/ what works best for you." Afterall, no matter how big a collection may get, SD/HD is still a basic mission for them.
Me, I prefer steel & polymer. The only alu frames I have are on my Berettas.
 
I prefer steel frames at the range where the extra weight is a help. I prefer polymer for carry where the lighter weight is a help.

Each has advantages and disadvantages, I go with the best compromise for the situation.

--wally.
 
The Beretta PX4 is a nice feeling polymer. Try to find one to borrow/shoot before you impugn all polymers.
 
The Beretta PX4 is a nice feeling polymer. Try to find one to borrow/shoot before you impugn all polymers.
Click to expand...

Well, I would borrow a PX4, but I'm not a friend of George Jetson, so I can't borrow his. :neener: And how many poly guns have you owned, not shot, but owned?

No impugning on my part toward plastic-fantastic guns, I've owned more poly auto-loaders than steel or alloy.
 
I only own one Poly frame gun, one I bought, up front, and was asked to T&E and try to tear up. My feeling was, if I spent my money, wrung it out, tore it up, let the factory fix it, and sell it. Be honest with whomever I sold it to.

The kind of folks I hang with , are old school like myself, even if some are younger, some much younger.

My personal gun preferences of platforms, calibers and all - I have stayed with since I was six years old and that would be 1961. I/ we don't give one whit about .40cal, it was not around, and by golly a BHP is a 9mm gun, not a .40, no matter what anyone tries to "educate me/us".

Blue Steel is #1, Blue with aluminum alloy , such as a Model 37 , or Lt Wt Commander. Then comes Stainless, then stainless with Aluminum alloy.

Plastic was for my Dart Pistol that looked like a 1911 with a horsey on the stocks and I shot the Indian Test Pattern on the TV with suction darts.

Plastic for me and some of "us" - fills a niche. Niche guns we call them. Remove the Model 10, 19, 64, 66, BHP, 1911, ...etc, from the hiding spots, farm/ranch vehicles, and tractors, stick a Plastic gun in their place.

Travel guns, land or air. Lockable containers (land or air) and not worry about it.
Same reason I have one Swiss Army Knife Classic in my travel kit, and one Spartan...Give me a real knife, a Case, with Chrome Vanadium blades I know works.

Old boy had some surgeries ( got him in there, might as fix another problem he been putting off), nothing major, just painful. Can't do his regular steel gun, can't do his steel alloy either.
Some Doctor's restrictions on recoil. He tried one plastic gun, small one, did not like it at the time.
He is CCW when he does get out some two older steel guns, and folks fuss about these guns.
This old boy has BTDT and...his daughter CCWs a Lt Wt commander or K frame. She too has a niche Plastic gun...

Matter of preference, then again some of us are downright ticked off with the MFGs, the politics and not producing / going to quit producing Blue, K frames, and REAL 1911s with real Metallurgy and not this newfangled crap.
Just to name a few.

WE know ~ 100 y/o design , be it revolver or semi from Colt, Smith, and such, in the calibers Proven - are going to last, been doing so.

Only one plastic gun I really like, and one they need to bring back - Remington's Nylon 66 .22 rifle that is feed thru the buttstock.

Little ticked about Marketing cramming down throats what THEY want to sell, to kick out faster, make profit off of [Quanity - Not Quality] and Brainwashing folks with propaganda crap to sell these guns.

Just me. I gotta right to be wrong.
Then again same right means - I gotta right to be right.

3" Blue K frames, RB , 3" Blue J frames..
1911 as JMB designed it, 5" and Commander size.
BHPs, in 9mm
You get the idea...
 
Lots of folks like polymer-framed guns, and that's fine with me. There's little doubt that Glocks, XDs and such are light, tough guns that do their jobs well. A good case of form following function.

On the other hand, my safe is filled exclusively with metal-framed guns. My first reason is purely irrational: aesthetics. Metal speaks more toward my own (possibly outdated) notions of quality and craftsmanship. My other reason is value. I just can't shake the fact that, once a manufacturer sets up the mold, they can shoot plastic frames out for pennies apiece. A metal frame, however, requires forging or casting, machining, fitting, and finishing. To me, a steel or aluminum frame gives you much more for your gun buying dollar.
 
Polymer/Plastic belongs in electronics and disposible cameras not my guns.
 
I have nothing against polymer guns. If you like them, shoot them.

The heft and feel of crafted metal and fine wood speak to my soul, polymer does not.
 
One advantage I have found with polymer framed pistols with double column mags. The pistol with loaded mag weighs nearly the same as two loaded mags, so the whole setup balances very nicely in a shouldr rig.
 
Nothing wrong with that , my carry is polymer but I've been on a metal buying tear lately (for some reason I've been desiring old S&W semi's lately )
Right now I'm hunting for a 1006 , 59 and a 3913 :) .
 
I pick up my first plastic gun (Glock) the day after Christmas. I'm willing to give it a chance but it'll earn it.
 
I like steel. There, I said it.

Aluminum is good for CCW, but I don't need many CCW guns.

Polymer is okay, but I can't seem to hang on to one. The Walther P99 A/S survived the longest. It had great ergonomics, was very sleek with its flush decocker, and had an interesting trigger. But a steel gun came along and took the P99's place. Right now, the M&P is appealing. The Browning Pro-9 is also interesting with its choice between decocking and cocked and locked.
 
Single stack, single action, manual safety steel framed autos are becoming the only guns I get satisfaction from shooting.

My Sig P226 is still my 'SHTF' pistol, but the older I get (46 now), the less I worry about 'bugging out' or social chaos.

These days I enjoy my S&W 952 (so sweet), my Ruger NRA commemorative Mk II, and my Colt .38 Super along with my custom 9" .357 Encore and Freedom Arms model 97 .357.

Fewer rounds go downrange, but I enjoy them more.
 
As George Hill says ... (this is NOT a direct quote but it's late at night and I don't want to wake half the house looking for the magazine article) ... you can call it "Polymer" and do whatever space-age stuff that you want to it but the bottom line is that it is still PLASTIC -- the stuff that Happy Meal toys are made out of and it doesn't belong on a gun.
 
Good move. Plastic is best suited to squirt guns and bubble gum. When a plastic gun runs out of ammo, what are you going to do? Throw it? A loaded squirt gun is a more effective projectile, if aimed well. Plastic guns have their place, I'm sure, but cold steel is best for most recreational and self defense purposes.

Just my opinion -

wb
 
I carried a Glock for years, and it certainly held up fine through everything I ever did to it.

But the weight difference is negligible. If you can't get used to the bulk of carrying, the weight is not really a concern anyway. Comfort is relative. Use the gun that fills the mission, not the one that is the most comfortable. (I carry a full-size, steel 1911.)
 
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