The perfect pistol doesn't exist.
I can remember when the pre-eminent handgun in law enforcement was the Smith and Wesson Model 66, with the 4" barrel. I owned two, one with the 2.75 barrel and one with the 4" barrel. When I retired, the short barrel went back to the state (it was issued) and the long barrel stayed with me. For a while, as a supervisor, I carried a SW Model 60,
The 1986 Miami Shootout made everyone reconsider their armament. What I was always stuck by was the fact that the gunfight was finally ended by a wounded man who refused to quit and got close with the only gun he had left. A Smith revolver shooting .38 Special semi-wadcutters, Yet, there were other lessons to be learned from that fiasco and the entire law enforcement community started searching for answers.
Then came the wondernine revolution and many agencies went to Glocks. Nowadays, the market is split between Glock, Sig, and Smith. A few old dinosaurs like me carried a 1911 because, why not?
But, the linked article is right. The perfect pistol does not exist.
8 comments:
A person working minimum wage can earn enough money in two weeks to buy chisels that far exceed anything da Vinci or Michelangelo could have could have even dreamed of. The tool does not define the master.
Training to the point where your tools are seamless extensions of your mind are what make the master. It isn't the pistol. It is the seamless human-tool interface.
When your interface is seamless, you have enough extra cognitive-processing capability left over to see other assailants, to see if (perhaps) the main target is wearing a bullet-proof vest...stuff like that.
All of that being said, having different back-straps to make the weapon point more naturally and having 16 rounds in the magazine offers advantages in terms of reducing the cognitive loading created by things like reloading and fighting a poorly fitting grip.
Opinions are like belly-buttons. Nearly everybody has one.
Never has, never will, but the 1911 comes close ;-)
The 86 Miami gunfight had a lot of lessons. Unfortunately the FBI focused almost entirely on the wrong ones. Marksmanship and tactics matter way more than hardware. Also a violent experienced man with a rifle can take a fearsome toll.
The argument can be made that the FBI hasn’t done anything right in a gunfight since Dillinger. The argument can also be made that the FBI should investigate and the US Marshall’s should arrest.
Onto pistols. Technology changes. Also what is right for one person might not be right for another. Frame, lifestyle, risk factors, etc all come into play.
The perfect pistol may not exist, but IMHO, for revolvers, the M13 comes very close.
In full power .357 loads it is a handful, but doable. But with the .357 110 gr "Treasury" load, it is very controllable and powerful. With .38 +P it is a dream.
Just remember Col Jeff Cooper's motto: "Bullet placement is king, penetration is queen, everything else is a bonus."
I live in T-shirt (maybe a polo on special occasions) and shorts. Before that it was a 1911, but with that state of dress the 1911 just didn't work out. Ever since, everything has been a losing compromise.
I have a model 60 I keep in my coat pocket with 158gr 357 magnum hollow points! For sweat-pants days when I don't have a belt (which I need for the M&P).
The 686 stays in safe storage except for the range, I don't want to carry that big sucker on my hip!
Of course the perfect pistol exists and only I know what it is. Anyone who doesn't agree with me is not only wrong but evil. This can be heard throughout the interwebs every day.
I think it was Elmer Keith who said " Use the biggest damn caliber that you can shoot well with."
If that is a .22 LR, or anything larger, be accurate enough to get the job done. Practice.
John in Indy
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