The Great Canadian Pistol Shoot-off

It was announced on July 27, 2012, that the U.S. Marine Corps was going to spend $22.5 million to acquire 12,000 brand new Colt M1911A1's in .45 ACP to replace their aging 9 mm calibre Barretta 92F's.  This announcement reminded me of the piece below, a version of which appeared in Esprit de Corps magazine.

The occasion for the piece below was the contention that Canada's Browning Hi-Powers were failing in Afghanistan, due, it was admitted, to damaged magazines.  Damaged magazines was an excuse to call for the purchase of the Sig Sauer to replace the Browning as Canada's combat pistol.  I disagreed, and recommended an M1911 design in .45 ACP instead as a better replacement for the Hi-Power than then Sig.  The USMC evidently reached a similar conclusion.

By Vincent J. Curtis


6 Sept 06

“Over the years, the Browning Hi-Power 9 mm pistol has become old and obsolete.  Designed in the 1930s and produced in the 1950s, many suffer from repeated stoppages (especially when forced to use decrepit magazines), and are not equipped with night sights (such as tritium sights.)  It is urgent that the Army replace this system with a more modern pistol.”

                                                            From “The Bulletin” Vol 12 No 3, May 2006

The cry has gone out: we need a new pistol.  The Browning is NS.  Time to get something new and better.

To a gun-nut, an announcement like this is like a mating call to a moose.  Not only do we get to indulge in a favourite pastime, talk about guns, but it is a downright patriotic duty to offer advice on what to do.

A survey of guns and calibers would be almost endless, and writing space is limited.  So we’ll cover the most representative guns and the best calibers.  If you’re favorite gun or caliber isn’t here, well, we’re being merciful to the trees.

There are three calibers and four guns to consider.  The calibers are: the 9 mm, the .40 S&W, and the .45 ACP.  The guns are the Browning Hi-Power, the Sig Sauer, the Glock, and the Para-Ordinance M1911.

First the calibers.  The 9 mm would not even have been considered as a fighting caliber on this side of the ocean had not a huge load of French ammunition landed on English shores in June, 1940.  The Sten gun was designed to use this ammunition, and the Browning pistol was also made to use it.  The trouble with the 9 mm is that it lacks stopping power.  It ricochets too easily off buttons and such, but also tends to over-penetrate.  It can go right through because the velocity is so high.  The good point to it is that it doesn’t recoil much.  It is the standard NATO pistol round.

The .40 Smith and Wesson is a new caliber that has been widely adopted by police forces.  It has much the same ballistics as the .45 ACP and has more stopping power than the 9 mm.  Nothing bad can be said about it, except that being a police round, there is lots of non-military spec ammo about.  Easy to make accusations of non-Geneva Convention ammo if a .40 S&W were adopted as the new Canadian pistol caliber.  It is a popular caliber and all military pistols are or can be made in it.

The .45 ACP (for Automatic Colt Pistol) was the ammunition developed for the Colt M1911.  It features a fat, heavy bullet that travels at moderate speed.  It has good knock-down power.  It doesn’t over-penetrate.  And it doesn’t need to expand to do its job.  The draw-back is that all that lead is heavy to carry.  There are literally millions of people who prefer the .45 ACP over the 9 mm.

Now let’s talk about the guns.  I have to disagree with the writer of the quote that the Browning Hi-Power is obsolete.  It works fine, and we have lots of never-used pistols still packed in their original grease that were made during World War II.  If the gun is no good, there is a new replacement for it.  Send the bad one back for overhaul.  The weakness of the Browning, as for all the pistols, is in the magazine.  The mag has to feed the round properly or the pistol jams.

The cheapest and the fastest solution to the pistol problem is to get new mags for them.  Surely somewhere in the $17 Billion in new material expenditures for the CF there is $50,000 in paper clips that can be diverted to having a metal working shop fab up some new mags.  At five bucks apiece, that would be 10,000 new mags for the pistols in Afghanistan.  They could be had in a couple of months.  And put white-out on the sights.

The Sig Sauer is the new pistol in the CF inventory.  Our police carry them.  Everything I’ve heard about the Sig is good.  It is accurate.  It is mechanically very sound.  I’m not a fan of the double action/single action trigger mechanism with its variable trigger pull, but people are getting used to it.   The Sig would be a good replacement for the Browning, but not in the 4 inch barrel length.  It’s got to be 5 inch.  A military pistol has to look right, and a 4 inch barrel doesn’t look right on an auto pistol.

The Glock is another very well made pistol with a high reputation.  Many police forces in Canada have adopted it as the standard issue pistol.  Like the Sig, it combines German engineering and functionality with that German sense of style.  It’s very practical, but you don’t carry it for the looks.

The Para-Ordinance M1911 would be my choice.  It’s made in Canada, and it holds up to fourteen rounds of .45 ACP.  You can’t knock it for lack of ammunition carrying capacity.  And it just looks right.  It’s what a military pistol should look like.  And work like.  The M1911 design is still the most popular among IPSC shooters, and all the Spec Ops folks in the US, from military through the FBI, all use customized variants of the M1911 design.  If the CF were issued M1911s, we could probably trade them for Abrams tanks.  The Yanks would be that jealous.

                                                            -XXX-