Posted on 06/23/2020 9:49:47 AM PDT by PROCON
All are excellent weapons for defense, and in some cases offense; they are equally at home in a homeowner’s gun safe or carried as an officer’s sidearm.
Here's What You Need To Remember: Locked away behind the Iron Curtain and unable to secure contracts with the Czechoslovakian government, the CZ 75 failed to gain adherents until the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. Today the pistol is available in an updated form, the CZ 75BD, featuring a firing pin safety, decocking lever and underbarrel accessory rail, and available in a variety of midsized handgun calibers.
The bustling global arms trade has resulted in many excellent handguns in the last hundred years. Some of the best handguns are more than a hundred years old, while others have been in production for less than a decade. All are excellent weapons for defense, and in some cases offense; they are equally at home in a homeowner’s gun safe or carried as an officer’s sidearm. Here are five of the best handguns currently in service worldwide.
The Colt M1911A1
Designed by prolific gun designer John Moses Browning, and first introduced in 1911, the Colt 1911 pistol was meant to replace weaker .38 caliber pistols used by the U.S. Army during the Philippine Insurrection. The 1911 was the U.S. military’s first semiautomatic handgun, marking a permanent turn away from military revolvers.
The original 1911 weighed 2.4 pounds and had a seven-round internal magazine. In 1924, the gun was updated, mostly for ergonomic reasons, to the 1911A1 standard. The 1911A1, while internally complex by modern handgun standards, is still a popular handgun. The end of handgun’s patent, coupled with the weapon’s enduring usefulness resulted in almost every major U.S. gun manufacturer releasing its own version of the handgun. In 2012, the U.S. Marine Corps Marine Special Operations Command adopted the Colt M45A1, an updated version of the 1911A1, as its standard handgun.
The Glock 17
The Glock 17 was built around three key ideas: simplicity, reliability and ease of use. The handgun is easy to take apart, with a single press of the button removing the slide for cleaning and access to the barrel. The Glock passed the Austrian Army’s reliability test with flying colors, jamming only once in ten thousand firings. And the weapon was expressly designed with an eye on “pointability”—the pistol’s natural ability to act as an extension of the shooter’s hand-and-eye coordination.
From the original Glock 17, capable of carrying seventeen rounds of nine-millimeter ammunition, the Glock line has expanded to cover nearly all semiautomatic calibers, including .45 ACP, and the gun has replaced the 1911A1 pistol in such organizations as Marine Special Operations Command and the U.S. Army’s Delta Force.
The Sig P226
Developed by the Swiss-German partnership Sig Sauer to replace the M1911A1 in the U.S. Armed Forces, the Sig P226 failed to win the contract but received a major boost when U.S. Navy SEALs rejected their Beretta M9 pistols in favor of the Sig.
The P226 was an evolution of the Sig P220, a postwar favorite of Western and Western-oriented (such as Japan) armies worldwide. The pistol is a so-called double-action design, meaning a single long pull of the trigger will both cock the pistol and release the firing pin, firing the pistol. Users can also operate the Sig in single action mode, in which the pistol is manually cocked and a shorter trigger pull releases the firing pin. The pistol is equipped with a side-mounted decocker for lowering the hammer without firing.
The Sig Sauer P226 served with the U.S. Navy SEALs for twenty-eight years, before eventually being replaced by the compact version of the Glock 17, the Glock 19.
The Smith & Wesson M&P
Smith and Wesson is one of the oldest names in American firearms. Although the company was mostly known for revolvers, it was inevitable that the company would come out with a Glock-style polymer handgun. The result, the M&P (Military and Police) became highly successful in its own right.
Introduced in 2005, the M&P features a steel-reinforced polymer frame and stainless-steel slide. The M&P was one of the first guns to feature three interchangeable palm swells, allowing the user to configure the pistol to better fit his or her hand. The M&P also features ambidextrous slide stop and magazine release. Unlike the Glock, the M&P can be disassembled without pulling the trigger.
The M&P is available in a number of midsize pistol calibers, including nine-millimeter, 357 Sig and .40 Smith & Wesson, as well as .45 ACP. The M&P mostly serves in police forces in the United States and abroad.
The CZ 75
One of the best handguns in the world wasn’t even available to recreational shooters for much of the Cold War. The CZ 75 handgun, introduced in 1975, borrowed a great deal from John Moses Browning’s late model pistol, the Browning Hi-Power, both externally and internally, but is not a copy, and features significant differences. The nine-millimeter pistol could carry up to sixteen rounds, making it one of the largest-capacity handguns of its day.
Locked away behind the Iron Curtain and unable to secure contracts with the Czechoslovakian government, the CZ 75 failed to gain adherents until the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. Today the pistol is available in an updated form, the CZ 75BD, featuring a firing pin safety, decocking lever and underbarrel accessory rail, and available in a variety of midsized handgun calibers.
The five best handguns on planet earth are the five you own and shoot regularly!
I carry the P238 in my front pants pocket in a pocket holster. I modified my pants to deepen the pockets so that it wouldn't show. Easy to have with me every minute of the day.
I bought a second one to replace my Ruger LCP. The trigger and sights on the P238 are so much better.
I really like it when I roll over at night and I can see those three dots glowing on the night table.
I have a 1911 and a CZ 75BD. That CZ is THE most accurate and reliable handgun I own....and I own “a few”. Its so ergonomic its like it was made for your hand.
I have been buying the 33 round mags of late. Methinks some day soon they may become a valuable form of barter.
I love my CZ75B, as it is one of the most accurate and fun guns to shoot. That being said, it is heavy so I don’t use it for carry.
Glocks are crap, huh? Tell me more:
Ask yourself if your gun of choice could do that, and be honest with yourself.
The 3/4” shorter length is not really significant. The 8 oz of weight loss is VERY significant. That Commander sits on my hip in a pancake-style holster all day and I don’t even notice it. A full-size steel frame - I notice it. Kimber now makes a full size with an aluminum frame. I just had to get one and it is sweet!
Sounds like you have experience so let me ask this, does leaving rounds in the clip weaken the spring over time or cause any issues that might affect the feed?
...True!...
...the 1911 has a "feel" that no other auto has in my opinion...
...but (IMHO)only the DE in 10mm offers the same stopping power and...
...2nd and 3rd round accuracy seldom found by us novices with a 45...
For what it's worth, the only mag I ever that kept rounds in them for a long time was a Ramline Taurus PT-99 mag that I had forgotten to unload, and the 17 rounds were int for nearly a year before I realized what I had done. I gave it a try and it worked flawlessly, but Ramline also used a coil spring, secured near the magazine lips, so these results would be very different from a "standard" magazine.
Mark
I meant to ditch the 8 round mag that is included with the pistol.
FWIW, I keep a supply of extra wolf springs for every personally owned application.
Mark
I think I may be buried with the 625! :-)
Mark
Wow that’s a lot of work!
What? No Beretta 92 FS? Blasphemy.
Have a CZ. Fits like it was molded to my hand. Had some feed issues with some ammo, but a little polishing did the trick.
Guns are a personal choice both because of fit, but being able to function.
And what did she finally decide on?
She decided on nothing.
Currently there are surplus (police trade-ins) G22s. The conversion from 40 to 9mm is easy with a replacement barrel. If you want a G17, try out the trade-in G22 with conversion barrel. Works just fine, and there are 33 round mags for it in 9mm.
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