ADVENT OF THE RELIABLE AUTO PISTOL PART 3
ADVENT OF THE RELIABLE AUTO PISTOL PART 3, Part 3 of 3: Nowadays auto pistols are expected to be reliable durable accurate and ergonomic Its more the standard than the exception And as such the semi automatic pistol has gained widespread acceptance in military law enforcement and armed civilian Im all for it communities But this wasnt always the case In fact gaining that trust and acceptance pried from the purview of the revolver was hard won and slow to arrive For most revolvers were THE firearm of choice for decades both in war and in peace Sure there were some remarkable auto pistol designs that had successful military careers: the Colt 1911A1 the Browning High Power the Walther P38 the Soviet Makarov and a several other semi automatic pistols But each had its issues and none ever gained the momentum to overcome the entrenched resistance against auto designs Most would only function with 100% reliability with FMJ loadings some had complicated controls all were heavy some werent accurate enough and some had sights that were just plain awful Bottom line is they just werent widely trusted because they had been found to fail with expanding ammunition And as such the reliable and usually accurate revolver continued to dominate the US law enforcement scene on through the 1980s Book Reference: In the FIREPOWER series by Chris Bishop entitled Infantry Weapons Outstanding series with lots of excellent info thank you Chris! The advent of the reliable H K P7 started the revolution in thinking and it served well and began to wind advocates But then things really changed with the US Armys adoption of the Beretta Model 92 one of the first truly accurate easy to fire truly reliable and durable auto pistol designs It opened the door of change and many law enforcement agencies followed the military in the switch to auto pistols But there was still resistance from many quarters and it would take true revolver like reliability to change their thinking And then it happened: the outstanding Sig and Glock designs Since the 1980s that are have an amazing track record in standards of auto pistol reliability and accuracy And they flung the door of auto resistance wide open Only on the grounds of personal preference could anyone opt to shoot a revolver over a semi auto pistol now critics had lost their long standing argument of reliability against the semi auto Simply put the Glock and Sig designs ushered in the widespread acceptance auto pistols that we see today They changed the world Nutnfancy