I know, the title is somewhat redundant, but this beats them all (sent by Reader Tony M., thankee — I think):
After 123 years, the immortal Colt-Browning 1911 pistol has finally left U.S. military service.
The immortal 1911 really has no historical equal. It has been the longest-serving sidearm in U.S. military history. Almost every company in the business of manufacturing handguns today makes some variation of the 1911.
And yet, it’s no longer good enough for our troops? To continue:
While nothing lasts forever, and while it’s easy to see the logistical advantage in a sidearm that uses the NATO-standard 9x19mm cartridge, it’s a sad day for gun aficionados, especially those of us with a fondness for John Browning’s 1911.
For those of little historical learning, I should point out that the reason that the U.S. Army adopted the Colt 1911 .45 ACP in the first place was that their .38 cartridges (similar to the 9x19mm) just weren’t killing savages efficiently. But of course, people who make “logistical” choices are seldom the same ones who actually have to shoot people dead.
Never mind: let our troops use three rounds of 9mm Europellet fired from their German-designed peashooters to do the same job as the .45 Automatic Colt Pistol bullet can do with one.
I’ll just continue to carry my 1911 and be glad of it.
Bah.
The 1911 is favoured by assassins because the round is subsonic and makes no telltale crack. The nine mill Uzi, which won several important wars for Israel, has one point four times the muzzle velocity and the Glock one point five times. As you know, it’s the foot-pounds that make the impact and the NATO 5.56 punches through steel that the 7.62 bounces off. I’m alive today because some idiot terr with an AK took cover behind a tree thinking it would stop a high-velocity bullet.
Well, as I have intimated before, I am not a handgun guy. That being said, when I was in the Army, the 1911 was my sidearm and I had to be able to use it. Being a cold warrior era troop, that opportunity never came up. I always had confidence that if I needed it either in the frozen Alaska outback or the streets of DC, it would be there for me.
I used to joke that the only reason that I even qualified with it was because we were using knock down targets and the rock spray from impacts in front of them scored as hits. Now, many years later I happened to be looking at my DD214, and saw “qualified sharpshooter pistol (.38)” – FFS! Yeah, 40 years later there’s no way I’m getting that corrected,. To my knowledge, the US Army didn’t carry any .38s in their arsenal at that time. I know for a fact that I carried a 1911! Damn clerk somewhere had a good laugh, and its on me for not reading it more carefully and getting it corrected when I got (honorably) discharged.
Well, I just checked the internet memory hole, and apparently the US Army did use .38 revolver for the MPs at that time. I was not a MP and I damn sure didn’t carry a revolver! Given that my final discharge papers were done at Ft. Myers in Arlington, VA, and most the troops coming through there at the time were MPs, it was an understandable mistake (or not).
Funny that. I was an MP in DC from 66-70, and our sidearm was a 1911! We very seldom carried one; our go-to-the-street arm was an M-14 or 12 ga pump.
I never even saw a .38, and our officers carried a 1911 when a sidearm was required.
Like yours, my DD-214 is not correct, in that it doesn’t even mention that I qualified expert on a 1911, M-1 Garand and M-1 carbine.
My 214 from 1978 doesn’t show any of the weapons I was qualified for.
Well its not like the waitress at IHOP on Nov 11th is going to read down the DD214 and see the .38 qual and say “well, you could had gotten bacon with that free meal if only you had qualified with a real handgun!”
Um, shouldn’t that be 112 years?
Kim,
I have a couple buds from The Philippines … and these fellows go to their mother-land every couple of years. Interestingly enough, for matters of personal protection, “the locals” saw the wisdom of JMB .. and a significant number of households within that island nation has at least one 1911, chambered in the venerable .45acp. Reminds me about how Teddy “Rough Rider” Roosevelt learned about The Mauser Brothers, and then adopted (stole) their design in the form of the 1911 …
– Brad
The 1903 Springfield?
Patent Theft is the sincerest form of flattery.
Thank God I can carry what I want.
On that note, time to pack up for a trip to the range.
JQ
Carry what we want to an extent. CT and MA needs to have some lawsuits go to the Supreme Court.
– where to carry
– “assault” weapons ban
– roster of allowed firearms (MA)
– public “sensitive” places
Hoping the Supreme Court takes up some of these cases.
As for the 45, I used to shoot 45 all the time when I worked in the gun biz. All ammo has skyrocketed now. Thanks to BID-inflation
I stick to my 9MM europellet and the 357 Magnum.
And for those that laugh, that’s fine, but the Ruger 10/22 is still my favorite rifle ever made. Sadly, the libtards are starting to label those as assault weapons too, since it’s a semi auto that takes an external mag.
Icing on the cake is that if the military is no longer using the 1911, then the libtards are less likely to label it as a “weapon of war”.
check out ccdl.us that is a CT based group similar to MA’s GOAL group. CCDL has several lawsuits to bring CT into compliance with free America under the Bruen decision. we are winning in the courts which is good but expensive. Time to replace the legislators with Americans.
JQ
Not that big of a deal, I carried a 1911 occasionally on my first 2 ships. They were fine, but the M9 is fine now. And of course soon it will be the SIG.
The not so secret point of .mil pistols is they are very seldom shot in anger. All the combat arms types are at least carrying M4s, the side arms are just backup.
Also, so far as I know SOCOM still has Mk23s in inventory so there is a 45 available for those guys. (BTW – I don’t know if they still do, but the SEALs used 38 revolvers for a long time.)
“As I walked out in the streets of Laredo”
As I walk down any street in New York…
I’d prefer to carry my Colt 1911 in .45 ACP, if you wouldn’t mind.
Some of the savages there can take a full magazine of 9mm pew-pews to no effect
Given the high likelihood that the current illegitimate regime will use those same troops to try and round us up and load the boxcars, I’d just as soon see the dot-mil armed with airsoft and nerf toys rather than any real weapons. Maybe they can get trained as de-escalation counselors and try to “talk” us into railcars.
And on that same note, cops should get the Barney Fife treatment – one .38 revolver, carried empty, with a single round in their pocket in case of emergency.
Certainly the BATFEieio, but it seems, of late, that that rule should apply to the Fibbies, too.