The return of BLAM!

[unixronin]

No, I'm not talking about Schlock Mercenary.  olafthunderfoot found this report, which asserts that the US Department of Defense has finally ditched the Beretta M9 (after 20 years of reliability issues and unsatisfactory performance in the field), and is going back to a .45 pistol.  SOCOM has been tasked with finding the M9's replacement, to be designated the Joint Combat Pistol.

I think I know a lot of grunts who are going to be very happy with this decision.

(For Schlock fans, here's some classic BLAM from the archives.)

Comments

[olafthunderfoot.livejournal.com]

~shudders~ glocks are too flippy!

[technoshaman.livejournal.com]

Flippy? as in too much recoil?

If that's your thought, I dunno. I remember being out in the New Mexico desert once, I had a 1911, and my friend had a G21. We were playing kick-the-can, and swapped weapons. I did better *the first time* with his weapon than I had with my own, which I had been practicing with for a year.

The '21 is a fair bit heavier than the '17, even relatively speaking. Personally, I do like the way the 1911 fills my hand, and I'm not a big fan of striker-fired weapons, either. But still. Soldiers do a lot of things to weapons us civillians would never do. Different application, different weapon.

[olafthunderfoot.livejournal.com]

yup, the ones i rented had more felt recoil then my redhawk in .44 magnum!

[technoshaman.livejournal.com]

What the heck were you shooting in that thing, some of unixronin's handloads? :)

As I said, dif'rent strokes.... a fellow I once knew was partial to a little .380 mouse gun known as a "Grendel"... it was only 15oz empty, and while his Chewbacca-sized paws could hang on to the thing, I couldn't; it would strain the web of my hand. Much prefer something about twice that weight...

[olafthunderfoot.livejournal.com]

don't ask me, the range sold me the ammo. problem is the damned gun's too friggin light!

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

Well, actually, the problem -- which is the same problem in most polymer-framed pistols, IME -- is not that the gun is light per se, but that so much of its weight is concentrated in the recoiling slide. This tends to produce very exaggerated muzzle jump for the actual recoil impulse. I recall shooting a Glock 15 or 17 once (the short-slide 9mm, whichever that is), using generlc probably-subsonic 147gr white-box reloads, and it had substantially more felt recoil -- due solely to the muzzle flip -- than my Para-Ordnance loaded with 200gr +P.

[radarrider.livejournal.com]

That would be either the Glock 19 (compact) or Glock 26 (subcompact). I have one of each. The 26 grip is short enough that your pinky is off the bottom. It definitely benefits from a magazine with the optional pinky rest. (Side note: the Glock 17 is the first production model so there was no 15.)

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

Not being of the Glockisti, I stand corrected. :) It was probably either a 17 or 19; it was definitely not a 26.

[olafthunderfoot.livejournal.com]

that's a great theory, but i didn't notice that problem when shooting an H&K USP-45

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

I did. I also noticed that I could feel the trigger flex on every shot.