5 most important handguns

Why do they always have to throw brass on the ground to be significant?

Anyway, my vote for 5 significants:

1) Colt 1858 .36 Navy: The Patterson and others may have preceded it, but the Navy combines effectiveness and size.

2) S&W Number One or the Colt SAA: The S&W combined the bored-through cylinder and the self-contained metallic cartridge. The Colt was more enduring.

3) S&W M&P .38 Special: It wasn't the first swing-out DA revolver, but it became the de-facto standard sidearm for law enforcement for the better part of a century.

4) Colt 1911 .45 ACP: It's tough to pick the first point of the automatic pistol, as this could go to the P-08 Luger as well. While there were successful autoloading handguns before, the 1911 established the recoil operating principle that is still in use today, largely unchanged. The Luger is a neat marvel of engineering and gave us the most common semi-auto cartridge going, the 9mm Luger.

5) Glock 17: Love it or hate it, the Glock took the market by storm and effectively pushed the direction of today's polymer framed, striker-fired, trigger-cocking pistols. It doesn't hurt that it broke the perception of the semi-auto pistol as being unreliable and finicky out-of-the-box.

Just my thoughts. A case could be made for any of at least another half dozen I can think of now, but I think these are significant. Not necessarily for being the firstest or bestest, rather as examples of setting expectations for future designs to follow.
 
The Smith and Wesson 38/44 H.D.
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Interesting point. I was going to mention that the Hand Ejector (particularly the M&P) was one of the most important designs of the (pretty much) 20th century.

How do we define "important?" Number in circulation? Influential designs?

Those weird Austrian striker-fired polymer guns deserve a mention. They weren't the first to do anything, but they did change the landscape.

The 1911 deserves its spot, but under some criteria, so does the S&W 1917, given the number carried by GI's.
 
My pick for 5 most important handgund would have to be in this order;

1. Brownings design of the "Colt" 1911 - Any and all variations!

2. Glock 17 - 1st. Successfull polimer service pistol - 9mm w./ 17 rd. Capacity.

3. Glock 19 - 1st. Successfull compact polimer pistol - 9mm w./ 15 rd capacity.

4. Glock 26 - 1st. Successfull sub-compact polimer pistol - 9mm w./ 10 rd capacity.

5. Glock 22 - 1st. Successfull .40 S&W caliber pistol and 1st. polimer pistol in .40 caliber - 15 rd capacity - Beat S&W to market with S&W's own caliber! :p


Ha, ha, ha! I've had the Cool-Aid!!
 
The Glock contributed nothing new to the shooting world except annoying fans. Imho

Its NOT the first polymer pistol. Its NOT the first high capacity pistol. Its not the most accurate nor is it the most reliable by a long shot.

The only thing Glock needs any recognition for is probably that they managed to get good product placement with rappers and thugs in movies so every teenager would want one. Now that they own one, they want to tell me its the best gun in the world after firing off one magazine full which resulted in 3 stove pipes.

I own 3 Glocks, there is nothing special about them
 
The Glock contributed nothing new to the shooting world except annoying fans. Imho

Its NOT the first polymer pistol. Its NOT the first high capacity pistol. Its not the most accurate nor is it the most reliable by a long shot.

The only thing Glock needs any recognition for is probably that they managed to get good product placement with rappers and thugs in movies so every teenager would want one. Now that they own one, they want to tell me its the best gun in the world after firing off one magazine full which resulted in 3 stove pipes.
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Man, I can feel the hate. You must have been pounding that poor keyboard to death spewing those sentences out.:rolleyes:


I own 3 Glocks, there is nothing special about them
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And you ended with this. That was funny.:p
 
Hi-Power?

Browning Hi-Power should be up there. It's only called the Hi-Power cause for it's time a double stack magazine w/13 shots was....High power lol
 
One of the top five should definitely be the 54 bore (.442 cal.) Beaumont-Adams revolver that was the pre-Webley British military pistol. (Crimean War thru Zulu Wars). It was the result of a patented 1856 improvement of the Adams revolver. The Beaumont-Adams was the gun that took the revolver market from Colt in the British Empire. Before the invention of the Beaumont-Adams, all revolvers had to be manually thumb-cocked before firing. The Beaumont-Adams could be fired either by manually thumb-cocking the hammer for aimed fire or by simply pulling the trigger for rapid fire (ie., it was the first double action revolver). This gave the Beaumont-Adams a tremendous firepower advantage over other revolvers, which coupled with its man-stopper 54 bore cartridge made it a very useful weapon. Some privately purchased B/A's were used by Union and Confederate officers in the US Civil War and about 1,200 made in .36 cal. were government-purchased and used by the Union. For whatever reason, possibly cost, the gun never achieved the kind of success it deserved in the US.
 
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By important I mean gave something to the gunworld, the legacy it left. (like, a popular claiber, operating system, etc.)
 
If only for the fact that the ballistics of the 9mm mars was pretty damn close to the 357 magnum, the gun itself was a failure, but I can't help but think it was an inspiration for the 357.
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I always understood they wanted a cartridge to surpass colt's 38 super.
 
I believe I'd have to find a way to work in the Gyro Jet somehow.

Dismal failure - but - at the very least it was something unique.
 
1) Colt 1858 .36 Navy: The Patterson and others may have preceded it, but the Navy combines effectiveness and size.
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Are you sure you don't mean either the 1851 Colt navy or the 1858 Remington in navy caliber (.36)?
 
Mars 9 mm came out in 1899
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And the 38 super came out in 1929 and the 357 S&W magnum came out in 1935. So what do you think inspired S&W, a hot new powerful Colt 1911 chambering or a heavy loaded, massive, failed design Webley-Mars auto pistol that was never even placed in full production? If anything, the webley mars pistol's legacy was teaching people how not to design an automatic hand gun. I mean its cool and all, but it doesn't exactly belong in this thread. Its obvious that this and chambering gun played very little, if any roll in the concept of the 357 magnum.
 
And the 38 super came out in 1929 and the 357 S&W magnum came out in 1935. So what do you think inspired S&W, a hot new powerful Colt 1911 chambering or a heavy loaded, massive, failed design Webley-Mars auto pistol that was never even placed in full production? If anything, the webley mars pistol's legacy was teaching people how not to design an automatic hand gun. I mean its cool and all, but it doesn't exactly belong in this thread. Its obvious that this and chambering gun played very little, if any roll in the concept of the 357 magnum.
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The round (although yes the arm was described as unwieldy) was ahead of its time........156 gr at 1400 ft per second in 1899.

The round was also known and written about, see "Textbook of automatic pistols" published in 1934. And like I said, I cant help but feel it had an influence, the ballistics were unheard of then. It was before the 38 super, the 9mm parabellum, before the 38 special even. And yes Im aware of the story of the 357 stemming from the 38 super and a need for a stronger round then it.

Plenty enough to be impressive and it should be mentioned, and I couldn't care less is you dont think it deserves to be mentioned. :rolleyes:
 
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