American Rifleman: Top 10 Handguns of All Time

Why not the 54 bore (.442 cal.) Adams-Beaumont revolver as a top ten pick? It was one of the most stylish guns of it's era - or any era, and was the first true double-action revolver in the world. It was adopted by the British Army in 1856 and served the Brits in that capacity until at least 1884. Some Union and Confederate officers carried Adams -Beaumonts during the American Civil War. The one pictured in the attached hyperlink is a percussion cap revolver although many of the percussion cap models were later converted to fire rimfire cartridges.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/34/Beaumont_Adams.JPG
 
OK, I'll bite: Why should the Ruger Mk I, etc., be on the top ten?

I like the gun, but would think that IF a Ruger belongs on the list it should be one of the investment-cast, single-action designs that kept quality plinking and hunting handguns affordable for the masses.

While getting Ruger his initial commercial success, ISTM that the MK I wasn't innovative, just nice looking and inexpensive. The company didn't make any other auto pistols until many years later.
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I'd agree with this. Why the Ruger Mk. I and not, say, the Colt Woodsman, which predates the Mk. I by over three decades?
 
I'd agree with this. Why the Ruger Mk. I and not, say, the Colt Woodsman, which predates the Mk. I by over three decades?
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Because the Ruger Mark I, II, and III are prolific and still around. The Colt Woodsman is a relic. The Ruger Standard, Mark I, II, and III have been manufactured since the mid '60's to the present. It was an inovative design fashioned after the Japanese Nambu.
 
The Ruger Mark also provides target quality accuracy in a very affordable package. It is, in essence, a representative of Ruger's innovative manufacturing techniques.

Plus, it is the preferred pistol for secret agents/assassins because it's barrel can be easily modified to accept a "silencer." :)
 
Well, seeing as I opened this can of worms, I thought I might toss in my comments. There are three handguns that I would not have put on the list. No. 5, the Volcanic Volitional repeater is a curiosity, but is rare in the extreme, and while it may have led to the Winchester rifles, this is a list of important pistols. I would also lose No. 8, the C96 Mauser "Broomhandle" Pistol, which was an interesting, but far less important than many other handguns. The last I would eliminate would be No,10, the Smith & Wesson Registered Magnum Revolver. As presented, it's just another Hand-Ejector.

What are my replacements?

Since there are no percussion revolvers on the list I would include the Patterson Revolver, as it was the first true fighting revolver. Just ask the Texas Rangers.

My second replacement would be the P08 Luger pistol as it was one of the great semi-automatic combat pistols of all time.

My third would be the Smith & Wesson Magnum Revolvers, including the .357 Magnum, .44 Magnum and .41 Magnum revolvers. Other makers would follow in the footsteps that S&W had made with the help of Elmer Keith and others.


D. Raoul Duke
Gonzo Forever
 
Because the Ruger Mark I, II, and III are prolific and still around. The Colt Woodsman is a relic.
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The Colt Woodsman was made for 62 years ending in 1977. The Ruger Mark I was made for 33 years, the Mark II for 23 years and neither of those are made anymore, either. The Mark III still has a couple to go to keep Ruger in the game for it's 62 years. That "relic" had some staying power in it's 3 series. I'd say it's no more relic than a 1911. In fact considering the prices it commands, I'd like to see Colt bring it back out.
And I have both a Mark I and a Mark II. I'd dearly love to have a Woodsman.
 
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I didn't read evey post, but I think they were picked for there time period ("At the time")

Mike Irwin wrote:

I didn't expect to see the C96 Mauser in there. Talk about a frigging dead end. I'd have gone Walther P38 or S&W 59.
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I agree with you that both, they are better guns, but those were not made in 1896, up to 1937.

I think because it was "one of the first Semi's", and "High caps", that's what wedged it in.

And from what I know from the Internet, it was in service from 1899 to 1961.

I know, you can't believe everything you read in the net, but that's all I got, true or not.
 
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American Rifleman: Top 10 Handguns of All Time

Lists like this do exactly what they are intended to and that is provoke thought and discussion. Since they are opinions of some, ususally writers, there will be very few people that will agree with the list. I thinkt that the 1911 probably belongs at the top but from there it is anyone's opinion. Very seldom do they give the criteria they used other than how they were feeling that day then they make up some useless title for the list. Top 10 handguns, in what sense?

I compare this to when at the end of baseball, football etc. season they vote on most VALUEABLE player and everyone takes it to mean most OUTSTANDING or HYPED player. Just think of the Heisman Trophy. There are no guidelines whatsoever for voting on that award. Top 10 handguns, don't get bent out of shape.

I agree that the Colt Python should be somewhere on that list and the Broomhandle, please.
 
If innovation is not the main criterium, then the Python deserves to be on the list. Colt took the revolver to its ultimate with the Python, its hand-fitting, deep blue finish, and its unique silhouette. S&W, despite its success with the K frame, had to enlarge the frame (L), and extend the barrel lug, giving the Model 586 revolver "a hint of Python". Colt must have been doing something better.

As with others, the Ruger MK I should be there also. It's design was/is innovative and enduring. It brought the semiautomatic plinker to the masses.

I own a Colt Woodsman Match Target, and a Mark III. They both have advantages, and I'm going to keep both of them.

The Registered Magnum, to me, was just a marketing misjudgement. S&W badly underestimated the popularity of the .357 Magnum, and discontinued the "Registered" version after only a few years. They tried to "niche" the market, and forgot their populist heritage in making handguns.

The solid-framed revolver was/is an evolution. The Remington 1858 revolver led the way there. Given that, it should also make the list.

Even with Schofield's latch improvement, the hinged frame and latch were the weak points in the S&W design. But that doesn't take away S&W's legacy in the bored-throught cylinder revolution.
 
The real problem with that top 10 list was that it mixed revolvers with semi-auto pistols. If they wanted to keep it to 10 guns, they should have done the top 6 semi-autos and the top 4 revolvers. Theres a little more variety among semi-autos so I skewed it a little.:D

If you're going to lump revolvers and semi-auto pistols together, why not just throw rifles and shotguns into the mix?
 
This little list of "smiles" over here on the right of my posting should have a new one added, a "yawn" face, so that we could reply to this sort of thread without alot of wasted typing.
 
On the criteria: First the list excluded any percussion revolvers and included only self contained metallic cartridges. This excluded the Walker and Patterson revolvers entirely (unless you added the Thueir conversions which would be a stretch and a cheat). Next they looked at lasting technological impact of a design, it's longevity, dispersal and lasting influence on other guns and on shooting. No priority was placed on the order of these things and there were a number of historians on the panel and S&W afficianados.

What was on the list that belonged on the list IMHO: 1911, Glocks, S&W No.1, Walther PP and PPK (not the PPK/S), the SAA.

What maybe didn't belong (questionable and open to debate IMHO): Mauser, Browning HP, Reg Magnum.

What didn't belong: SW hand ejectors, the Volcanic.

Colt's swing out cylinders led the way (once Rollin White's patent expired) and were the first to be adopted buy the military and law enforcement. This compelled S&W to drop it's love affair with the top break and get on the stick. S&W resisted the swing out cylinder Colt proved it a viable design. For the next 50 or so years Colt and S&W slugged it out as who would be the best wheelgun maker and it was neck and neck. But Colt led the way on the swing out cylinder. One of it's early guns should have made that list for that reason.

Nothing about the volcanic was important for handgun development except the people who came together to work on it. They coulda made the list but not the gun. The volcanic is an interesting piece of firearms history but was not itself influential.

tipoc
 
though NOT a complete weapon in itself (therefore not QUALIFIED to make the list) I would like to see some exposure about the mechanism that converted black powder ball-n-cap revolvers to metallic cartridge revolvers; this piece of engineering performed 2 very important tasks in my opinion...

1) spanned a wide gap between cap-n-ball single action revolvers and topstrap framed metallic cartridge revolvers that succeeded the older guns

2) permitted alot of people who owned the older guns the opportunity to upgrade their hardware to handle metallic cartridges (not everyone could afford or sought to get the newer guns)

if this is too far 'off topic' feel free to move it or delete it; either way I found the American Rifleman article both entertaining and informative (some designs I never knew about and viewpoints I hadn't before pondered concerning the wepaons on the list)
 
This little list of "smiles" over here on the right of my posting should have a new one added, a "yawn" face, so that we could reply to this sort of thread without alot of wasted typing.
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Here you go, this was always one of my favorites. It means bored:
th_tired.gif
 
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