Posted on 12/11/2004 6:12:01 AM PST by Mr. Mojo
The Coast Guard is trading in the 9 mm sidearms it has used for 18 years in favor of a more powerful pistol, the Sig Sauer .40-caliber automatic.
Lt. j.g. John Strasburg of the Office of Cutter Forces at Coast Guard Headquarters in Washington, D.C., said the service has started to take delivery on the first of 12,000 handguns to be purchased under a $4.2 million contract. Field units will start to get them next September.
“It's going to take a while to get all the weapons out to the fleet,” Strasburg said. “The transition plans are still in development in terms of who's going to get them first. The target date of September 2005 is only when we're going to start the transition. It may take a year after that to get it out to the entire Coast Guard.”
Eventually personnel authorized to carry sidearms at Station New London and the Coast Guard Academy will have the guns.
He said 22 Coast Guard marksmen helped to evaluate 46 models of handguns from six major vendors, firing 15,000 rounds during three weeks of tests in Altoona, Pa., and Fort Benning, Ga. The guns were each rated on 53 characteristics, and the shooters kept detailed logs about the rounds they fired.
“It was a very extensive evaluation,” Strasburg said. “It's all they did for three weeks.”
The testers were looking for a gun with a low-profile hammer so it would not catch on life vests at sea, and they wanted a particular type of rail that would allow the service to mount lights for a laser sight or illumination on top of the gun.
He said this is the first time the service has adopted a handgun other than the one used by the Department of Defense, which still uses the 9 mm.
The acquisition program coincides with the acquisition of new guns by the Department of Homeland Security, the parent agency of the Coast Guard. The department is outfitting its offices of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Customs and Border Protection, Transportation Security Administration and Federal Law Enforcement Training Center with Sig Sauer and Heckler & Koch handguns in 9 mm as well as .357- and .40-caliber.
At the time it was put into use, the 9 mm was hailed for its large magazine — 17 rounds — and long-range accuracy. It replaced the .45-caliber automatic, which was heavy and had limited accuracy, but had enormous stopping power.
One Coast Guard officer said the Sig Sauer .40 makes more sense for boarding teams and other law enforcement functions because its heavier round provides greater stopping power, and when it is used it will probably be at close range and in a situation where the Sig Sauer's 12 rounds will be more than sufficient.
Strasburg said another problem is that the 9 mm pistols are aging. They were designed to fire up to 5,000 rounds, but Coast Guard guns fire an average of 500 rounds per year, mostly in training, so the average 9 mm in service now has fired almost twice that number of rounds.
“The Berettas have gone long beyond their service life,” Strasburg said. “We're getting a lot of frame failures, and there are other unreliability issues.”
The .40-caliber Sig Sauer emerged from the tests as the top choice of the testers, he said.
“The .45 has the stopping power, the 9 mm has the penetrating power, so this gives us something in between,” Strasburg said.
The gun that the Coast Guard has selected is a variation of the popular Sig Sauer P229 known as the P229R-DAK.
This will also be the first time that the Coast Guard will provide its forces with three different types of ammunition, which can be tailored to a particular mission. The types will be:
•Jacketed ball ammunition, the only type that is in use now, which is designed to pass cleanly through a target. This will be the only ammunition authorized for use in joint operations with the Department of Defense.
•Hollow point, a type of bullet designed to mushroom on impact, causing a more devastating wound.
•Frangible or “soft” rounds, made of ceramic or metal powder that are designed to break apart into dust when they hit something hard, to prevent ricochets during close-quarters combat.
“The reactions so far have been phenomenal,” Strasburg said. “We have a lot of experienced shooters in the office, people with a lot of trigger time, and they all say it fires great.”
Ping!
Nice! How much did that thing cost? Did you have to get a Fed. Tax Stamp?
Is the writer really this stupid?
I'm glad to see the Coast Guard heading in this direction. I remember in the early '70's when a pacivist commandant decided that he didn't want Coasties to have guns. It tarnished our "good guy lifesaver image". But of course we now live in a much different world. We must have a Coast Guard that is trained and equipped to handle a multitude of threats.
My 4" Taurus in .357 is extremely well made and has a rock solid feel.
I know a guy at the range who's happy with his. I prefer Smiths, but the Taurus is a good deal and strong.
"Sig Sauer"
I don't know anything about guns, but that is just a great name for a gun. Really sounds like it could plug ya.
I'd be looking for a round that would turn anything hard I hit into dust. Now that would be a bullet!
But at least they got rid of those 9mm sissy pistols.
Nah, just ignorant. He takes info in, misinterprets what it means through lack of exerience, and passes it on.
I had the veritable S&W Mod 29 (Dirty Harry's gun) with 6 inch barrel and Pachmyer grips and found it to be the most accurate and comfortable revolver I'd ever owned. Haven't tried the Taurus.
The Mod 29 was far superior to the Ruger SP-101 .357 snubby, which didn't get enough muzzle velocity to mushroom hollowpoints and left the palm aching after target practice.
The S&W was mainly for going out in the woods as open carry.
Sig makes an awesome weapon...glad to see our guys in the USCG will be using them. I have often said if I could only have one gun, it would probably be my Sig chambered in .357 Sig. My H&K USP .40 runs a close second. BTW, I just bought another H&K USP .40...the compact this time :^)
how about the taurus with the ported barrel? Does it really work to cut down the muzzle flip?
It's my USPS issued weapon. We've started receiving part of our "customer service" training from a company started by Janet Reno. Next week we learn about CS/CN gas.
RESULT : Dead bad guys.
•Hollow point, a type of bullet designed to mushroom on impact, causing a more devastating wound.
RESULT : Dead bad guys.
•Frangible or “soft” rounds, made of ceramic or metal powder that are designed to break apart into dust when they hit something hard, to prevent ricochets during close-quarters combat.
RESULT : Dead bad guys, NO dead good guys.
pingarooney
I like the 229 DAK. It's the closest thing to a Glock in terms of cosistant trigger pull. It is a nice pistol, but I wonder what they are paying per gun for them? That is not a cheap handgun. I think they run about 750 bucks at the shops for that particular configuration. Another thing I like about them is the fact they come with a rail under the slide to attach a tactical flashlight like a Surefire or a Streamlight.
I, however, choose to stick with my 3rd generation Glock 19
loaded with 127 gr +p+ Winchester Ranger ammunition. It comes close in power to a 357 magnum.
The Glock is easy for anyone to learn, I wonder why they just didn't opt for the Glock 22 or 23 like the FBI carries?
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.