Happy birthday, 1911.

[USMCGrunt]

On this day in 1911, Saint John Moses Browning‘s patent 894,519 was approved by the US patent office and the gold standard in fighting handguns was born. . Who else here is a fan of “Old Slabsides”?

 

[svnmag]

Me.

I know hindsight is 20/20. He should've known to include the "enhanced beaver tail": The rest of the shit is academic.

That is all.

 

[svnmag]

 

[USMCGrunt]

My time in the Corps was during the transition time to the M9. Fired the 1911 in boot camp then went through the Marine Corps security forces school with the M9. Got to Naples, Italy for barracks duty and the first few months it was back to the old .45. It was a sad day when we came off post and handed in our old 1911s for the last time. Yeah, the old .45s were well worn (last government purchase was in 1945 and they were being rebuilt ever since), the sights weren’t fast to use and not being drop-safe, we had to carry them with an empty chamber. But, I always felt more comfortable with that big heavy piece of steel with those big fat .45 cartridges than I ever did with the Eurotrash M9 and it’s 9mm FMJ ammo.

 

[svnmag]

It used to piss off the other services; all the time, we carried our M-9's "hot". It's logically not different than a full cylinder revolver. We transitioned from the SW M15 Combat Masterpiece to the M9. When I say "hot": I mean "hot": Rd in the chamber--off "SAFE" "My" M9 at Minot was 1029799. Armory #74. Took it to Iraq.

That is all.

 

[USMCGrunt]

It used to piss off the other services; all the time, we carried our M-9's "hot". It's logically not different than a full cylinder revolver. We transitioned from the SW M15 Combat Masterpiece to the M9. When I say "hot": I mean "hot": Rd in the chamber--off "SAFE" "My" M9 at Minot was 1029799. Armory #74. Took it to Iraq.

That is all.

Yeah, the army has some strange carry conditions. My last gig was at the CATM shop at Ellsworth and we had some army (might have been guard) NBC troops borrow our range to qualify on the M9 for deployment. As I recall, they were still carrying the M9 with an empty chamber like we carried the 1911. Then again, in the Marines, we carried the M9 different as well. They gave you the “loading mag” at the clearing barrel, send the slide forward to chamber a round, hand that mag back, put in a full 15 round mag for a 15+1 load and the decocking lever was left in the decock position so you had to flip it back up during the draw.