SIG-Sauer P320 to replace Beretta M9

[Excalibur]

I think had the US Army not had their budget gutted post WWII, they would have been getting new 1911s instead of keeping the old ones in inventory until the 80s. There's accounts that the 1911s were in rough shape and that was one of the deciding factors to get a new one by the 80s. They could have easily adopted the Browning Hi-Power like the British but like with the FAL vs the M14 thing, America wanted to be "different" and Beretta won that contract anyway.

The 1911 still is the longest service sidearm in the US military and it was hard for the old school to abandon the .45 caliber in favor of 9mm. It was a political choice to go with the "new" DA/SA design

I highly doubted the US Army would have adopted the Colt T4 since it had no trigger guard.

[Spartan198]

Originally Posted by Excalibur

I highly doubted the US Army would have adopted the Colt T4 since it had no trigger guard.

It used a fold-down trigger guard.

http://securityarms.com/20010315/gal.../2900/2904.htm

[Mazryonh]

Originally Posted by Excalibur

I think had the US Army not had their budget gutted post WWII, they would have been getting new 1911s instead of keeping the old ones in inventory until the 80s.

There are a lot of people in high places who expect a "peace dividend" to be available after every major conflict where funds can be diverted from the armed forces without compromising their abilities to other ends. As the Korean War and the Vietnam War proved after WWII, peace doesn't often last.

The US Army could have done a lot of other useful things too, such as adopting the British .280 cartridge as a good General Purpose Cartridge, sparing us the "golf bag" approach with 7.62mm NATO and 5.56mm NATO.

[S&Wshooter]

Originally Posted by Excalibur

I think had the US Army not had their budget gutted post WWII, they would have been getting new 1911s instead of keeping the old ones in inventory until the 80s.

You know, except for the fact they explicitly set out to replace them with a 9mm, with continual efforts to do so starting in 1947, and only didn't because of budget constraints (IIRC it came down to one brigadier general's decision, and he decided not to proceed due to cost, in favor of replacing the 1911 when they wore out, which I think was expected to happen sooner rather than later since they were basically disposable and weren't even fully heat treated). Not that all the potential replacements were DA/SA, as the earliest efforts were why the Colt Commander (in 9mm) was developed


I love 1911's, but they weren't the best they could be until post WW2, when Colt started making the Commercial 1911's using fully heat treated, forged steel. Before that, peening (pre A1) and cracking (A1) were a known issue