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.”
Random:
I use an OLD 3inch S&W .38 with Glazers for bed stand and 1911 or Para ordnance for almost anything else.
.44 Special in a magnum revolver is maybe best in the league for camping etc.
If you do anything at all on a revolver - ALWAYS chamfer the forcing cone.
9MM was designed to wound, not to stop or kill. Moreover, in an urban situation it's penetration (walls etc.) is a heavy liability.
I may be the only person on earth who seriously dislikes Glocks.
This is a really good move. A step in the right direction anyway.
I carried the 1911 .45 for all my boardings and was around just as the 9mm Beretta was coming online-- but I never carried one. The argument for the 17 round magazine never made any sense. What the CG needs is a one-shot stopper. Any combat is by definition going to be at very close quarters, and the bad guy needs to go down instantly.
Sure, the Beretta carried 17 rounds... but you need every single damn one of them. The .45 is a one-shot stopper.
This .40 is pretty good, better than a 9mm, and the Sig is a very high quality pistol. It's a decent choice though I might have preferred the P220 in .45 rather than the P229.
The addition of frangible and hollow point rounds is a very very good step. It's a safety thing. Improves the knockdown power of the bullet, while at the same time preventing overpenetration through the thin bulkheads that are commonly found on boats. These rounds will be more likely to stop in the first thing they hit whether it is a bulkhead or a bad guy.
dude, you really ought to read up on S&W... it was bought from the slimey english holding company that kissed Slick Willies @zz and is now a wholly owned American company again that ripped up the Klintoon Kontract and have, at least in my eyes, regained their reputation and their honor!!!
"Hey Tonk ~ when you be getting yours? :)"
Maybe for Christmas? LOL
Actually Coast Guard Auxiliary are never armed.
BUT there is nothing about when I'm not on "duty" LOL
if you do find projos to reload i bet they will be a b!tch... they are so hard that much of a crimp and they will prolly either crack or shatter in the die without some kind of crimp ring on them maybe???
When did that sale go down?
Ah, the wonders of women in combat. You can say goodbye to using the 1911 types for ever.
Paid more than twice that for my P229. No complaints though. Like any Sig, fine firearm worth every cent
couple years ago now... there was a great write up in the NRA Rifleman on the company when the .500 came out i think that told all about it being bought out from the brits and going back to it's roots etc.i know how you feel, i felt the same way since i have a S&W 9mm and a .45 it made me sick
they have done the right thing...
I'm trying to figure out how he gets his left elbow into that position with that grip on the handgun
I've handled some M&Ps and Outsdoormen models from the 20's and 30's that incredibly smooth triggers.
Legend. Made it's mark compared to the underpowered .38 then being used (military). Next came the mighty .357 which could destroy an engine block (compared to the weak .38 (Highway Patrol).
Of course, legends never die and I will get flamed by all the .45 guys!
Try carrying the 29 in your pocket for a day and then tell me which one is superior.
Good for you! :)
I have a mod 17 in .22 4 inch bbl that is from 1960 or 61. Other than a little holster wear on the tip of the bbl, its perfect.
The only "legend" in that particular statement by the author is the .45's "limited accuracy."
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