Cream always rises to the top
Cortillaen sends us a Fox News article from his new station in Japan that trumpets the return of the M1911A1 .45 caliber pistol to arms rooms across the Marine Corps. Apparently, the Corps has placed a $22.5 million order for the iconic handguns;
Colt Defense, based in Hartford, Conn., will supply as many as 12,000 of the 200,000 U.S. Marines with semi-automatic, tan-colored M45 Close Quarter Battle Pistols, and they will include spare parts and logistical support. The gun has long been the weapon of choice for special operations agents, thanks to its reliability and the stopping power of its massive bullets.
I was disappointed with the Army when they bought the Beretta, it made no sense whatsoever, except to make us pantywaists like the Euro-wienies. I spent some time with the XVIIIth Airborne Corps pistol team in the late 70s and learned what an awesome weapon the old 1911 was.
I’ve always owned at least one except when I lived where handguns weren’t allowed and most everyone I know owns some variation. I have two; a government model in .45 and a Colt Double Eagle in 10mm.
At least the Marine Corps is smarter about the weapons their troops carry.
Category: Guns, Military issues
I saw a while back this was in the works, and then just last week I read that the Army abandoned its plans to find a replacement for the M2. Between the two of them, that’s about 192 years of reliable service with apparently no immediate end in sight. Seems that John Browning fella may have known a thing or two about designing firearms.
The truth is the the Marine Corps is smarter about a lot of things. I wholeheartedly agree with you about about the .45.
John Browning knew exactly what he was doing and his legacy endures. The .45 is highly dependable and it gives very effective stopping power.
Just curious, haven’t other special operations/forces organizations also buy .45s from other sources than Colt?
It’s great that the Corps is getting them for their special ops forces, would be nice if they’d also put them in the hands of Marines in the FMF as well.
HK 45 is utilized by Delta. Former Delta operator MSG ret. Larry Vickers worked with Heckler & Koch to develop .45 pistol for rigor of special operations. This pistol was also adopted by Naval Special Warfare Command.
My Father is a retired Force Recon Marine, and a contractor at HQMC who was slightly involved in this. The M1911 (now called the M45) is NOT, I repeat, NOT being fielded by the entire Corps of Marines, however it IS being fielded by the members of MARSOC and the MSOBs and direct action units that belong to them.
I have been trained on doing transition fire with the M4 and M9 for CQM. I really like the 1911 and would rather carry something with that reliability and stopping power. How would you have to alter your technique between the two pistols during drills and actual employment? With the M9, it’s safety off with the hammer down in double action mode prior to employment and then de-cock after firing and scanning and before re-holstering. I imagine that MARSOC is training transition fire with this weapon, and I am interested in how they are working it.
DDB, most modern technique of the 1911 series is that you carry with the pistol loaded, thumb safety on. Upon drawing, as the sights are aligned with the target, the thumb safety is swiped off. The nice thing about a 1911 vrs. an M9, is that if you are carrying with only a loaded magazine in the pistol (AKA retarded Big Army/Navy/USMC standards), it’s much easier to Israeli rack (slingshot) the 1911 with out the threat of engaging the slide mounted thumb safety found on the M9.
As far as increased “stopping power” (what a stupid term when applied to handguns), if they are still issuing FMJ ammo, some poor guy rolling with a 1911 is going to get killed when he center punches some smelly bearded SOB and finds out the hard way that all FMJ just sucks for shooting folks. Just as with the 9mm FMJ, we should be training our guys to shoot’m to the ground and not rely on the myth of the .45 being some sort of handheld death ray.
Some pencil dick decided that 2 more rounds in the M9 trumped the M1911A1. Except this person probably only fired on the short range and didn’t think there was any difference because both made about the same size hole in the paper he was shooting at…
I’d rather take the .45 that can knock a target off its feet than the 9mm that might tickle them a little.
WTF?
2 more rounds – uh, no 1911 = 7 rounds in the magazine, M9 = 15.
Obviously you’ve never shot any critters with a 1911 and ball ammo as it sucks. Simple Newton physics tells us that unless it knocks you down when you fire it, it ain’t knocking anybody down that gets shot with it.
Ever wonder why almost every state in the Union bans ball/FMJ ammo for hunting? That because ball/FMJ is a wounder, not a killer.
Shoot’em to the ground – ammo is cheap.
Is there anyone that makes a 1911-style .45, except with a grip that will hold a double-stack magazine to hold, say, 13 rounds? I know there are many pistols that do double-stack .45s, but none of them (as far as I’ve seen) are 1911s.
@10 – isn;t that how ParaOrdinance got their claim to fame – double stacked 1911s?
Welcome back .45! Like getting hit by a flying manhole cover!
I was less impressed when people started talking about how the tested Colts started showing slide cracks around the 12,000 round count.
Even my personal CCW 92FS lasts longer than that.