U.S. Marine Corps picks Colt for new pistol

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I am not familiar with 1911's wear, but how long is the barrel good for? I know an AR-15 barrel is good for about 15,000.

I don't know, but I suspect a 45 ACP barrel will last longer than a .223 barrel. 45 ACP is a low pressure, low speed round.

Also, I suspect service rifle shooters replace their barrels before 15K rounds.
 
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Sorry for the (sort of) necro-post.

I agree, and this shit needs to stop. A Glock 21 will almost double the capacity of the 1911 in the same caliber with more reliable mags, has no manual safeties, and doesn't need to hit the pits every few laps. While I would take the 1911 over the M9 or any other DA/SA, slide-mounted decocker abortion, I would much rather take a simple striker-fired piece of tupperware over both of them.

Go ahead and smash into a wall in full gear with a plastic gun and see how it holds up. I personally must have thumped my m9 off a wall at least once every 3 missions on deployment in the act of hopping a wall or kicking in doors, and a plastic grip would not have survived. My 1911 has never skipped a beat, and only had a single FTL when I first loaded HP ammo, and that was because I didn't pull the slide fully and the round went vertical in the feed instead of going into the barrel(operator error, not firearm error). The 1911 fires a better round than the m9, is more accurate than the m9, and has a 100 year proven track record. My grandfather still has his, and it still fires to this day with no FTF/FTL/FTE, and he has often made belittling comments towards the military for ever shifting away from it.

I have watched a 9mm round bounce off the head of a cow, followed by a 30 round mag of 5.56... we ended up having to use 7.62 from a confiscated ak to kill the damned thing. Kudos to the Marine Special Forces for switching back to a gun that actually works, now if only we could get the rest of the armed forces to follow suit...

Also, more rounds does not make a gun better for combat. I point at the m16 versus the M14 for proof. 30 rounds in a caliber that has a 50/50 chance of actually stopping your enemy, or 20 rounds in something that only takes a single round to drop a damned cow. If everything works EXACTLY as trained, the m16 can stop 10 bad guys per mag (2 in the chest, one in the head "winning hearts and minds"), the m14 can stop 20... more if the bastards line up for you. Then you have the 6.8mm round...

But I digress. The point of all this is that the 1911 is a proven performer; I can only hope the other services get it together and let me have one when the time comes to go back over to the sandbox.
 
M1911 said:
Also, I suspect service rifle shooters replace their barrels before 15K rounds.

3,000 to 5,000 depending on the brand for a match grade barrel. Mil-spec barrels are chrome lined and should last a lot longer, though they're not going to be as accurate.
 
My only complaint about the 1911 is capacity. Most agree that you just can't beat the .45 for performance. Most would also agree that the 1911 is just about the most accurate delivery platform for the .45

I recently read a bunch of stuff about Colt and found out the much of the management is made up of Marines. I also found out that the family that currently owns Colt is Iranian. That was a bit of a surprise.
 
Go ahead and smash into a wall in full gear with a plastic gun and see how it holds up. I personally must have thumped my m9 off a wall at least once every 3 missions on deployment in the act of hopping a wall or kicking in doors, and a plastic grip would not have survived.

Obviously I'm a 1911 fan so I'm with you, BUT,

I can't imagine you could harm a Glock during average, or even extreme duties. Have you ever read the Glock torture trials or whatever they call it? Holy hell that plastic receiver can take a beating. However I can only guess as to why the unit decided to go with the 1911 as I've never been in the service but I would think it's partly due to it being an all-steel gun. You could probably kill someone a lot easier and quicker with blunt force trauma to the skull with an empty 1911 than an empty Glock.
 
Cosmetics aside, they should have gone with the G21. The 1911 is pretty cool looking but I don't understand why they would choose that over a polymer, easy to field strip Glock. My 2 cents at least.


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Never understood why no love for the sig 220 from US mil. Same design as sig 226 that has been used by SEALS for decades, but in 45.
 
I have watched a 9mm round bounce off the head of a cow, followed by a 30 round mag of 5.56... we ended up having to use 7.62 from a confiscated ak to kill the damned thing. Kudos to the Marine Special Forces for switching back to a gun that actually works, now if only we could get the rest of the armed forces to follow suit...

[rofl][laugh2] Not to bust your balls, but you guys put 31 rounds into a cow and didn't land a kill shot? I have seen countless cows put down with a single .22 round to the head.
 
A Glock would hold up no problem. Also, the 16 vs 14 comparison is apples and oranges. A Glock21 vs a 1911 is apples to apples ammo-wise. Yet the 21 is lower maintenance and has a higher capacity with less parts. Not to mention it is at least at dependable as the 1911 at a fraction of the price.

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The G21 would of been my choice also (if it has to be .45 ACP).

Super easy to maintain, very reliable and ultra low maintenance, plus its high cap.

Otherwise, I'd advocate for the G31. High capacity, smaller gun, same take down and reliability but the ammo is going out a lot faster and can melt through weaker body armor no problem.
 
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Here's a revolutionary idea: Who gives a shit?

I think maybe 500 pistol rounds have been fired in anger in the entire GWOT. Shit, as I was getting out of the Corps in 2009, the plan was that nobody below the rank of Colonel would have a pistol because it was pointless.

While I was a squad leader, one of the Platoon Commanders in the company suggested every squad leader and up have a sidearm. My company commander asked me why I should have a sidearm, and I told him I couldn't think of anything a pistol has that a rifle does not. It's just another piece of serialized gear to clean and be accountable for, and they really add nothing special to the equation.
 
Here's a revolutionary idea: Who gives a shit?

I think maybe 500 pistol rounds have been fired in anger in the entire GWOT. Shit, as I was getting out of the Corps in 2009, the plan was that nobody below the rank of Colonel would have a pistol because it was pointless.

While I was a squad leader, one of the Platoon Commanders in the company suggested every squad leader and up have a sidearm. My company commander asked me why I should have a sidearm, and I told him I couldn't think of anything a pistol has that a rifle does not. It's just another piece of serialized gear to clean and be accountable for, and they really add nothing special to the equation.

If your rifle/carbine goes tits up, would you prefer nothing, or a handgun and a few mags for it?

-Mike
 
Go ahead and smash into a wall in full gear with a plastic gun and see how it holds up. I personally must have thumped my m9 off a wall at least once every 3 missions on deployment in the act of hopping a wall or kicking in doors, and a plastic grip would not have survived
.

You say this but some of us know better. I'm guessing you're "one of those guys" that has never owned a polymer framed handgun?

The only way to kill a Glock/XD/etc really with physics is to shoot it. That's the only way I've seen a polymer gun fail in such a fashion. If bullets are hitting your sidearm, you have bigger problems, more than likely, then the kind of gun you are carrying.

-Mike
 
You say this but some of us know better. I'm guessing you're "one of those guys" that has never owned a polymer framed handgun?

The only way to kill a Glock/XD/etc really with physics is to shoot it. That's the only way I've seen a polymer gun fail in such a fashion. If bullets are hitting your sidearm, you have bigger problems, more than likely, then the kind of gun you are carrying.

-Mike

I've seen a P2000 snap in half from falling off an ATV.
 
Just from falling? Or did another vehicle run over it? [laugh]

Just falling. Actually, I didn't write my sentence very clearly. The P2000 snapped in half when the individual carrying it in a duty holster fell off an ATV and landed on his gun side.
 
Given that glocks have been tortured by many different people under all sorts of circumstances including having been thrown out of a small plane, I would dismiss this as a one-off manufacturing defect rather an indictment of the design itself. Polymer frames generally aren't brittle enough to do that.

They wiggle and vibrate with each shot (just watch the slo-mo), so this looks to me like a lightning strike sort of failure absent a trend.

Metal frames can fracture as well (as did the slides in the recent test of Colt's new-old 1911 and again with the 92's testing vs Sig in the 80's).
 
HK: Because you suck and we hate you. [laugh]

Every time someone starts criticizing HK, some guy has to post a picture of that HK catalogue photo screw up. [rolleyes]

And I'm that guy [rofl]:

badbrochure.jpg
 
If your rifle/carbine goes tits up, would you prefer nothing, or a handgun and a few mags for it?

-Mike

It all depends what the situation is. Google "MARSOC Afghanistan" and you'll notice that no one is carrying a pistol, because pounds equal pain, and carrying a weapons system that is only good at extremely close ranges is pointless when your engagements are >100m. CQB is a different story, but we're not talking about SWAT teams here.
 
Here's a revolutionary idea: Who gives a shit?

I think maybe 500 pistol rounds have been fired in anger in the entire GWOT. Shit, as I was getting out of the Corps in 2009, the plan was that nobody below the rank of Colonel would have a pistol because it was pointless.

While I was a squad leader, one of the Platoon Commanders in the company suggested every squad leader and up have a sidearm. My company commander asked me why I should have a sidearm, and I told him I couldn't think of anything a pistol has that a rifle does not. It's just another piece of serialized gear to clean and be accountable for, and they really add nothing special to the equation.

I don't agree with you at all. I think a pistol should be required for all soldiers in combat zones. I carried an M9 and a M16A4. the M9 with 2 mags was not inconvenient for me to carry. I was a big fan of the peace of mind of having two weapons instead of one.
 
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