Posted on 09/03/2011 12:42:43 PM PDT by smokingfrog
“The M9 is at the end of its lifecycle,” declared Maj. Art Thomas [not shown], small arms branch chief at the Maneuver Center of Excellence at Fort Benning, GA. “It is an old weapon.” Pig pile on Beretta! True story: armytimes.com comes not to praise the Beretta M9. They come to well and truly bury the Maryland-made 9mm handguns. Here’s the bullet point version of why our men in uniform need to ditch the b*tch for something better . . .
• The[M9's] slide-mounted safety. When solders rack the slide to alleviate a jam or stovepipe in the M9, they often inadvertently engage the safety — and won’t realize this until they reacquire and squeeze the trigger.
• The open-slide design, which allow contaminants and dirt into the system.
• The lack of a modular grip, integrated rail and night-sight capabilities.
• The inability to suppress.
• Limited service life — replacement should have a service life of at least 25,000 rounds.
That last one really sticks in the Army’s craw. “Service life is a key issue,” Daryl Easlick told the times. The project officer for close effects (“How was work today honey?”) reveals that the M9 is only required to fire 5,000 rounds. “We are looking for a threshold capability in the magnitude of five times better than that.”
But wait M9 fans! There’s less!
(Excerpt) Read more at thetruthaboutguns.com ...
Beautiful weapon, but I think they want more mag capacity and fewer parts. The Glock would fit that easily.
Nice.
We don’t be messin’ around in Mr Roger’s neighborhood.
Someone will have to tell my CHL instructor. You tell her, I'm afraid of her... Actually she's a nice lady, distracting, but nice. And she has a big scary looking former Marine husband. He looks scary, she is scary. I think she carries a .40, but I know she shoots a .45 sometimes.
And while I'm a pretty big guy, I agree with them. It's way to big for what it is.
Probably, the military is not really gun friendly and is very big on uniformity of equipment. There are some good reasons for that. What happens when the guy runs out of his personal stash of ammo? Have "mamma" send some more from home?
However wasn't always so, or at least the powers that were may have been a little more willing to look the other way in a less PC environment than today's military has. My reserve CO carried a .44 magnum as an AF intelligence officer in Southeast Asia. (In those days the issue sidearm for AF pilots and rear area types was a .38 revolver) I've read that one guy had his own .444 Marlin lever action that he used as a "bunker buster".
You need to try the XD .45 on for size...then you’ll have two to choose from. ;o)
The M9 is a piece of crap IMHO. I was told the competition for the new Service sidearm came down to the Sig P226 and the M9. The Army chose the Beretta because it is cheaper. As most of us know, the Sig is far superior. The Army should have kept the 1911 and told the NATO weenies to pound sand.
As an emergency protection sidearm I shouldn’t think a pilot would need a whole heck of a lot of ammo. If he used it I would also think he would have some time to get some more or have a back-up issued weapon.
You can only carry so much in the cockpit and I would think if you could be responsible enough to fly an airplane you would be responsible enough to carry enough ammo.
500 rounds should be enough for casual and emergency use for just about anyone.
I never liked the 9mm because it lacked the stopping power needed when fighting someone in battle gear. For me, a double stack 45 was a better choice. I have large hands and have no problem with the grip. It wouldn’t work for most females, though.
Our pilots were allowed to carry a personal side arm during Desert Storm. The base didn’t have enough M-9s to issue to the pilots. I don’t know if they had limits on caliber.
Doesn't fit the hands of most of the female troops, either, which was supposed to be one of its big advantage features over the old M1911A1 .45.
My fiancee was considering getting herseld a M92 civilian version after she left the USAF, and then she tried my old East German PM Makarov.
Now I'm looking for a new Makarov.
No, the SIG 210 is a masterpiece. The SIG 228 is certainly acceptable, even excellent.
But the SIG 210 is an absolute masterpiece.
You sure know more about Sig than I do. I looked it up - the mid-20th century original Swiss pieces fetch huge prices from collectors. It is interesting geometry too, a lot like the older 1911s. At 900 grams, that is like the Suburban of pistols. Must be nice.
“Time to return to the 1911.”
The Marines have been remanufacturing their old 1911s as SOC pistols......They are extremely popular with the guys that have their boots on the ground......
Return to???? We never should have left!
How ‘bout a .40 or .45 version of Browning High Power?
It would be enough gun, and sturdy enough enough to last forever.
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