Advent of the Reliable Auto Pistol Part 3

Part 3 of 3:
Nowadays, auto pistols are expected to be reliable, durable, accurate, and ergonomic. It's more the standard than the exception. And as such the semi-automatic pistol has gained widespread acceptance in military, law enforcement, and armed civilian (I'm all for it) communities. But this wasn't always the case. In fact gaining that trust and acceptance, pried from the purview of the revolver, was hard won and slow to arrive. For most, revolvers were THE firearm of choice for decades both in war and in peace. Sure there were some remarkable auto pistol designs that had successful military careers: the Colt 1911A1, the Browning High Power, the Walther P38, the Soviet Makarov, and a several other semi-automatic pistols. But each had its issues and none ever gained the momentum to overcome the entrenched resistance against auto designs. Most would only function with 100% reliability with FMJ loadings, some had complicated controls, all were heavy, some weren't accurate enough, and some had sights that were just plain awful. Bottom line is they just weren't widely trusted because they had been found to fail with expanding ammunition. And as such, the reliable and usually accurate revolver continued to dominate the US law enforcement scene on through the 1980s.




Book Reference: In the FIREPOWER series by Chris Bishop, entitled "Infantry Weapons." Outstanding series with lots of excellent info...thank you Chris!
The advent of the reliable H&K P7 started the revolution in thinking and it served well and began to wind advocates. But then things really changed with the US Army's adoption of the Beretta Model 92, one of the first truly accurate, easy to fire, truly reliable and durable auto pistol designs. It opened the door of change and many law enforcement agencies followed the military in the switch to auto pistols. But there was still resistance from many quarters and it would take true revolver-like reliability to change their thinking. And then it happened: the outstanding Sig and Glock designs. Since the 1980s that are have an amazing track record in standards of auto pistol reliability and accuracy. And they flung the door of auto resistance wide open. Only on the grounds of personal preference could anyone opt to shoot a revolver over a semi-auto pistol...now critics had lost their long standing argument of reliability against the semi-auto. Simply put, the Glock and Sig designs ushered in the widespread acceptance auto pistols that we see today. They changed the world.
-Nutnfancy

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

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• combat
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• p7
• sig
• p226
• p228
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• beretta
• m92
• browning
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• john
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• makarov
• 1911
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[mikeydoode]

your stupid



[nutnfancy]

@mikeydoode Mikey...its "you're". Stay in school. -- Veri

[scandapoodle]

big fan from sweden here. our police force use Sigs (my favs) and the military uses Glocks. both my mum and dad are police officers and have sigs, before that in the 60s and 70s they carried the small (for its day) and very classy looking Walter PPKs (used by james bond in the old movies and was used by hitler to kill himself)

[da7nesman]

Double action stroke... yum!

[jakkd07]

The Beretta actually won twice. First the AF tested and selected same prior to the 1981 test, but the test was challenged. Then several years later, we have the 1981 Army test in which no pistol passed. After that the Army loosened the standards, and retested in 1984. Only two pistols passed (92/226), and the Beretta had an overall higher percentage of reliability in harsh conditions such as mud, dry conditions etc. And yes, it was cheaper.

Source: GAO report to Congress, June 1986.

[GothChristianPatriot]

Except for a 1911

[Slingsomelead]

Hahaha get em veri

[billymayer1000]

i never saw a cop in d.c. with a sig, they mostly had glocks, maybe a few m9's, and a few revolvers, but mostly glocks

[billymayer1000]

what about the m1911

[billymayer1000]

like an ice pick? what do you mean?

[tiffyj85]

I can't call the glock very ergonomic, esp compared to CZ 75 and Walther P99