From Everydaynodaysoff
War, war never changes…because someone’s always gonna get shot with a maduce in one, and it’ll piss someone off.
People can prattle all they want about if the M1911 is the best damn pistol in the universe or not, and weather it was a good idea to replace it with the Beretta M9 (I carry a M1911 pattern, and I think the M9 kinda sucks personally) or if we ever should have gone down that 5.56x45mm Nato load, and if the M16 is a plastic toy, etc etc etc.
Guess what? EVERYBODY loves the M2 Heavy Machine gun, EVERYBODY, Fucking gun has been in service for almost 80 years, and I don’t know if they’re ever going to change it. Certainly the cartridge it eats (a Scaled up version of God’s Own Caliber) isn’t going ANYWHERE.
Some say the M1911 is Browning’s crowning achievement, other the Winchester 1894. Some will go more geeky and say something like the Pistol Slide with integral breechface.
But when you get down to it, who’s gonna Argue with the Browning M2?
Just make sure you put it together right!
They’re going to change it. The Army is rolling out an M2 improvement program (or may already have) that alters the gun so it is easier to swap barrels and harder to screw up head space after doing so. The might also change the sights to meters like every other Army weapon. But the program’s number one requirement was not to screw the M2 up because everybody loves it.
I dunno if I’d consider improvement to be a significant change. My carry 1911 has an external extractor, slim grips, aluminum trigger, sights you can see, fat-daddy beavertail with “Speed bump”, extended and widened safety lever, and serrations on the front of the slide and frontstrap, and lowered ejection port. Not to mention a 4.25″ barrel, and an aluminum frame hardened with scandium.
To be honest I don’t much care for “Military Spec” 1911s as a personal preference, but all these modern updates don’t make it any less a 1911. Hell even when you get to some of a crazy LDA Paras and the DAO Colt New Agent, we can debate if they’re still a 1911 or not (I might argue that the New Agent is Not as it is such a radical departure).
So I think the improvement of the M2 further solidifies my point. Also good for them, I always here armorers bitch about getting the headspace and timing right after service.
The video clearly shows a problem with operator headspace and timing…. 😉
Yep, its a damn common operator error. A buddy of mine spent most of his 4 years clearing squibs from improperly installed M2 barrels.
On the M9, I shoot with several former Marines and they universally refer to the Beretta as ‘The Italian Tomahawk’.
What’s the origins of that term, or at least the meaning…
I remember reading an M9 review (possibly on a place like 1911.org) that explained that, when originally deployed, Italian slides would crack and fall off. The article then explained that while it did injure a few people, they were able to get it fixed–and rumors that the Beretta beheaded people were greatly exaggerated. 🙂
The reason why I think I may have read it on 1911.org or its ilk, is that my memory associates it with an air of “it’s not a 1911, but it’s a decent gun anyway”.
For what it’s worth, I haven’t shot as many guns as I would have liked, but so far, a .45 caliber 1911 has been my favorite. Even so, I think it’s a fine choice for a State gun!
If I remember correctly their opinion was that when the gun would either malfunction or run dry and your enemy was still running at you leaking and screaming, you turn the gun around and use it to beat the guy to death.
I grew up down the road a piece from Beretta’s importer in Alexandria. When the changeover was occuring, there were several newspaper articles, in the Washington Post oddly enough, decrying the lack of quality in the new sidearm; cracking slides, front sights falling off during range training, internal components breaking, etc.
Heh, yeah but the M9 is mostly aluminum alloy. At least Old Slabsides was all US-Made-Steel, and with that big fat slide, rather than the Guinnie-open-top pistol, the M1911 makes a decent club.
Of course the Mosin Nagant makes the best weapon than all when run dry on ammo, or broken.