Are the Colts reliable?

[The Sig Man]

one of my friends father is from Asia, and he served his millitary in an US Army base in his country. Since he was in an US Army base, he used a Colt 1911 .45 as his handgun. But, he reminished that 1911 had lots of jamming problems. He told me that he had so many experience of jamming from 1911. Now, he has a bettera, and he is happy and never had any trouble of jamming or part problems. Of course, he served the service in 70's. But, that links him to that American guns are not reliable all along. So I started to wonder that is that why US military changed their combat handguns from 1911 to beretta 92?

 

[Mike Spight]

SigMan:

Because 9mm P was NATO standard for pistols and SMGs and .45 ACP was not. The bottom line was to standardize as much equipment as possible so that allied/NATO forces could use as much of each other's logistic tail as possible.

Mike

 

[Jim V]

Also, the last real delivery of 1911A1's to the military was in something like 1945. I think that the military .45's were about at the end of their service life, even with rebuilds.

What I don't understand is, why was the Air Force that was in charge of the testing. They ain't ever fought a ground war yet. It would be like the Army deciding what jets the Air Force was going to fly.

------------------
Ne Conjuge Nobiscum
"If there be treachery, let there be jehad!"

 

[ONewman]

1911 was always a reliable pistol. In addition to the commonality of ammunition with other NATO coutries, I believe there were some other considerations. Chief among these was that it was easier to train individuals unfamiliar with firearms with the Beretta (the boom is not so loud). After all, higher range scores must mean better weapons. And even though I don't know if the Air Force was the deciding agency for selection of the Beretta, but it would explain why.....sorry, couldn't help it, prior Marine here . Additionally, it was always percieved as a safer weapon...not cocked and locked. True or not, my observations.