Free Republic
Browse · Search
Bloggers & Personal
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Check Out The Best 5 Handguns Currently On Planet Earth
nationalinterest.org ^ | June 23, 2020 | Kyle Mizokami

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.


TOPICS: Chit/Chat; Military/Veterans
KEYWORDS: banglist; cz75; dsj03; glock; guns; m1911; rkba; sig; smithandwesson
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-20 ... 81-100101-120121-140141-150 last
To: MarkL
Opinion only: the Taurus 92AF is superior to the Beretta mainly because the safety lever is on the fram not the slide. The pistol is a direct copy under license. And the double action trigger pull is in the 8-10 pound range.

Another pistol to try is the CZ82 in 9x18 Makarov caliber. 12 round mags and a great double action trigger for the first shot thirteenth round. I carry this daily, with two extra mags ... the ferals are getting bunchy and I want to be sure to have enough lead gifts to go around.

141 posted on 06/26/2020 7:41:34 AM PDT by MHGinTN (A dispensation perspective is a powerful tool for discernment)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 101 | View Replies]

To: cuban leaf

your wallet?

.

.

.

.

.

.

Yeah I know lol.


142 posted on 06/26/2020 7:43:40 AM PDT by wita (Always and forever, under oath in defense of Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 13 | View Replies]

To: yarddog

Low profile or adjustable sights?


143 posted on 06/26/2020 7:55:23 AM PDT by wita (Always and forever, under oath in defense of Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 41 | View Replies]

To: wita

On my Ruger which I no longer have, the rear sight folded.


144 posted on 06/26/2020 8:55:54 AM PDT by yarddog ( For I am persuaded.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 143 | View Replies]

To: yarddog

Oops, I was thinking of another thread.

My Brownings have basic sights.


145 posted on 06/26/2020 8:57:32 AM PDT by yarddog ( For I am persuaded.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 144 | View Replies]

To: yarddog

Mine also, however on occasion I wish I had the other sights.


146 posted on 06/26/2020 1:58:27 PM PDT by wita (Always and forever, under oath in defense of Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 145 | View Replies]

To: cuban leaf

That came immediately to mind. When the Sex Pistols came to America, the airline tried to make it very difficult for them, due to their drug activity. Johnny Rotten said that they were facing a pretty thorough strip search before boarding the plane. He said the searchers decided better of it after they searched Sid Vicious. Not worth the trouble.


147 posted on 06/27/2020 5:27:36 AM PDT by gundog ( Hail to the Chief, bitches!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 66 | View Replies]

To: cuban leaf

Your belly? Lol.


148 posted on 06/27/2020 5:30:53 AM PDT by Vermont Lt
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 13 | View Replies]

To: RainMan

My fav too.


149 posted on 06/27/2020 5:33:07 AM PDT by ScholarWarrior
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 36 | View Replies]

To: PROCON

150 posted on 06/27/2020 5:41:48 AM PDT by jpsb
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-20 ... 81-100101-120121-140141-150 last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
Bloggers & Personal
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson