Sheesh, if people approached car sales the way they approach guns ("I won't buy the new model until the engine's been proven for
ten years!") we'd still be driving stage coaches
"While a larger version of the design seemingly acquitted itself well in some military testing before WWI, the design itself seems to have languished for some time. Just curious why."
Manufacturing costs, end of story. That and a market seemingly well satisfied by the 1911 for SA single stack carry guns. I rather imagine that 5-axis CNC has reduced the former quite a bit, the utterly relentless onslaught of pistols more identical than the last the latter (for me at least). Time for something new, guys. The 1911 is great and all, but it's just a mechanical design and it's been rehashed for over 100 years, now. Let's see where Remington and others can run with this hesitation concept. Your favorite gun is still safe; no need to try and smother this one in the crib
"The fixed barrel design has been successfully used in some modern pistols, but it's also certainly taken a backseat to the Browning system. German and American engineers have certainly tried the fixed barrel concept enough times."
I don't understand the reference to a "fixed barrel system" or "concept" as though they are a class of guns. Tilting barrel refers to something very specific; moving the barrel vertically to engage locking surfaces on the slide. To my knowledge tilting barrels have never been done for any other reason.
A fixed barrel merely means the locking and/or delaying is done by some other means far more vague and varied. A C96 is nothing like a PPS is nothing like a Wildey is nothing like a Steyr GB is nothing like a Remington 51. What all those guns do seem to be is fairly accurate for their size and manufacturing quality (obvious exception being C96's abused by the Chinese
). And that's a fairly reasonable claim to make, since no repeatable barrel lockup is needed for accuracy, just a decent quality barrel and trigger. If modern machining makes the Pedersen a profitable action, we may soon find it preferable to the many interlocking close-tolerance parts inherent to Browing designs. The man was a master of metallic choreography, but hardly a Kalashnikov in his design approach. Pederson was even worse, but this new execution based on his design looks very much simplified over the earlier effort.
Remington has presented us; an entirely plausible concept, a fantastic feature set, a truly innovative approach, and an attractive execution. There is absolutely no reason not to give them the benefit of the doubt on this one. It's not a model they've been continually cutting costs on (700 series), nor a product aimed at the lowest end of the market (870 express series), nor a product uprooted during its production cycle (Marlin/Remington lever actions). Just as Dodge came out with the new Grand Cherokee and redeemed its name, so can Remington still produce a great firearm occasionally.
TCB
