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going on 100 :browning 1911
hijumperrs2
Member Posts: 70 ✭✭
is it the finest firearm ever built? from fortunes made in the aftermarket to lives saved in theatre.to competition events and the future of this platform.ask any soldier currently deployed if they would carry a match grade to combat.what are your thoughts?
Comments
Like the 1911, they were made the right way from the start[:D]
You can make small improvements to a 1911, but the gun will stay the same.. 300 years from now they will look at it and wonder how come the 1911 gun was around for 200 years virtually unchanged.
Why?
Because shooting a 230 grain slug at 850 fps is not rocket science, it has the desired effect at "the target" It's reliable, tough and durable...
How old will the AK47 become...?
So, no it is not "the finest firearm ever built" it is probably not "the best" by a long stretch.. But it has something that a lot of firearms do not have... a "quality" that I can not define...
The d**mn thing just "feels" right....
Strangely, I have one modern "plastic" gun that has that same strange feel of "quality" ... My Steyr Scout......But I doubt that it will survive unchanged for 100 years...
Yes those winchesters were designed by Browning...or at least the first 3, and the last two were scaled down from the 1886. You can beat the pro's and con's of the 1911 to death, and we have here in this forum...don't believe me, use the search function, and type in 1911.
Best
is it the finest firearm ever built? from fortunes made in the aftermarket to lives saved in theatre.to competition events and the future of this platform.ask any soldier currently deployed if they would carry a match grade to combat.what are your thoughts?
"Finest firearm ever built" is highly subjective. Finest in what way?
1911 is a great gun, no doubt, though it has underwent any number of evolutionary changes making it better over the years (EG: better sights, better magazines, match triggers, etc).
I think its fair to stipulate that given the choice, most soldiers would NOT opt to carry a bone stock WWI era 1911 into combat in this day and age. Nor should they.
Of the current police and military who ARE still carrying 1911s for service work, most of them who have any input into the process are carrying updated versions with improved sights, grips, equipment rails, mags, etc.
A true "match grade" 1911 probably isn't the best choice for combat, as the particular subset of features it has to make it match quality (ie target sights, 3-4lb trigger, high tolerances, etc) also work somewhat against combat use.
It also probably fair to say that if JM Browning were alive today to design a gun, his gun would be different than the stock 1911. Again, its not that there is anything necessarily wrong with the 1911, per se, but they're labor intensive and expensive to manufacture, and there have been a lot of developments in metallurgy and firearms design in the last 100 years that would (and do) get incorporated into new guns.
Even the gun Browning designed after the 1911 (eg the Hi-Power) had a lot of evolutionary improvements.
(And yes, I think it was/is one of the finest). Question is somewhat moot, as lesser designs always fade into obscurity after a few years, and the longevity of the 1911 is proof enough.
Joe
Emmett