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Army on a quest for new handgun
Alaska Dispatch ^ | May 4, 2015 | Tim Barker

Posted on 05/04/2015 9:47:01 PM PDT by skeptoid

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To: spetznaz
There's more recent data on the suitability of the Marine Corps' re-adoption of the 1911 platform in the Colt M45 CQBP that doesn't come from glowing reviews in the fawning periodicals that the beaverbeards read.

It turns out that the adoption of the Glock 17/19 by MARSOC is because the acquirement of the Colt M45 CQBP is quickly being regarded as a big mistake. I'll let everyone do their own reading elsewhere on the subject of the problems they encountered with it.

I do think this spells the end once and for all of the 1911 in military service, sort of like bringing back a beloved movie star way past their prime to play the lead role in a new action movie. Just a miserable thing to watch.

41 posted on 05/05/2015 8:31:30 AM PDT by The KG9 Kid
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To: ozzymandus
SIG P220 would be just fine with me.

Nothing terribly wrong with the 220, though the early ones had some problems, now long-resolved. But I like something with a bit larger bore diameter.


42 posted on 05/05/2015 8:33:33 AM PDT by archy
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To: HANG THE EXPENSE
I have an idea. Lets go back to the colt 45.

I never really left. Though I'll sometimes carry something else instead or as well, the M1911/ M1911A1 has served four generations of my family, and I may see that extended to a fifth.

43 posted on 05/05/2015 8:35:46 AM PDT by archy
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To: The KG9 Kid; Jacob Kell
Of course, the U.S. Army hates Navy ideas and will cheap out and go with the Smith & Wesson M&P gun, or something.

The MK 23 MOD 0 was built as an "offensive" handgun for U.S. special operations forces under USSOCOM, as per request made in 1989. Military versions of the firearm have the writing "MK23 USSOCOM" engraved on the slide. The first MK 23 production models were delivered to SOCOM on May 1, 1996. The first use of MK23 USSOCOM handguns of which I'm aware was by the US Military Advisory team in El Salvador circa 1987-1990, who were restricted by congress from carrying rifles but could carry handguns. Both the MK23 and H&K SP89 handguns were fortunate results of that limitation.

44 posted on 05/05/2015 8:44:19 AM PDT by archy
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To: Ruy Dias de Bivar
The only thing better would be the old Puckle Gun which fired square bullets, said to be better for killing moslems.;-D

And whose paper-wrapped cartridges were semi-waterproofed with pigfat rendering, unlike those for the Land Pattern Brown Bess musket, which utilized beef tallow. .

45 posted on 05/05/2015 8:47:40 AM PDT by archy
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To: papertyger

The sailboat always gets there when the power boats are out of gas.


46 posted on 05/05/2015 8:54:42 AM PDT by Jack Hammer
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To: archy
That's the Mk 23 Mod 0 SOCOM 'crew served' pistol you're talking about.

I'm talking about the new 'Mk 24 Mod 0' pistol that replaced it.

47 posted on 05/05/2015 9:10:49 AM PDT by The KG9 Kid
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To: The KG9 Kid

I have heard of the myriad issues the M45 CQBP had. An extremely beautiful gun, but unfortunately one with enough issues to make service wide adoption problematic. I think you hit the nail on the head when you said that alone probably killed all chance of a 1911 adoption, although to be honest even with the M45 issues the fact would still have remained that there are better modern weapons available today than the 1911.


48 posted on 05/05/2015 9:51:59 AM PDT by spetznaz (Nuclear-tipped Ballistic Missiles: The Ultimate Phallic Symbol)
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To: skeptoid
I think that we need to put a little more scrutiny on mission before we try to decide what handgun actually meets that mission's needs. Who uses a handgun in the military? Sentry duty, OK, where the users are generally not all that qualified, and minimums are pretty low to be honest. And as a secondary offensive weapon for special operators, who are highly qualified and for whom minimums are stratospheric.

That's only two sets of needs and already it's nearly impossible to meet them both. We cheat on procurement a little by opening the options for the special operators, and I'd open them even further if I were making the decision. But even for them it simply isn't a primary weapon.

So do we arm sentries and the like with, say, a short-barreled .357 magnum revolver? Consider the training advantages (OTOH, consider the painfully slow reloads. Does this matter for a sentry?) I tend to doubt that would satisfy all the needs, but we won't know if we don't ask.

49 posted on 05/05/2015 10:15:52 AM PDT by Billthedrill
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To: Billthedrill
Revolvers don't withstand abuse. That isn't going to work.

Whatever the US Army chooses, it's going to be a DA/SA gun with an external safety or a single action with a long long trigger pull and it'll have to fit in the hands of a little girl.

That newish SIG 320 with the modular trigger group design might make the most sense, but SIG-Sauer isn't exactly the stellar company they used to be.

This project is going to require years of field testing before they settle on a winner and the US Army has already balked at choosing a new sidearm in recent years after making every manufacturer spend a wasted boatload of R&D cash in return for nothing.

50 posted on 05/05/2015 11:16:11 AM PDT by The KG9 Kid
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To: archy

Sawed-off M79?


51 posted on 05/15/2015 12:00:58 PM PDT by DuncanWaring (The Lord uses the good ones; the bad ones use the Lord.)
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To: DuncanWaring
Sawed-off M79?

Yeppers! With the barrel just long enough to run either HEDP rounds or the longer flares, including the nifty infra-red aerial flares invisible without night vision.

52 posted on 05/22/2015 7:49:33 AM PDT by archy
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