This one could be FUN!!
First off, can we agree that looking at the past with 21st century goggles distorts the true image? I think it does.
ok, here's my reaction to the various statements, and is no reflection on the authors in any way, only on what was stated.
..naturally what is "vintage" is subject to debate. One poster came up with some good criteria:
1. Nothing from a long vanished manufacturer with spare parts either extremely scarce or non-existent.
I can understand this, but I'd like to ask, what about models that have been discontinued by companies that are still in business? Does that make them "Vintage"??
2. Nothing made in Germany or German occupied countries 1942-1945.
I would consider pistols of that age "vintage" but why single out German and those specific years???
3. Nothing with poor ergonomics, say poor grip-frame angle-the Tokarev, e.g. , difficult to engage safety-the Mauser 1914/1934, the CZ-27, perhaps heel clip magazines.
Poor egronomics can be the result of poor design, or (and particularly with firearms) it can be the result of misunderstanding the fundamental design philosophies of the creators.
what you consider a flaw might make perfect sense and not be a flaw, to them. With things like safety and magazine release placement and type, American designers tend to do things one way, Europeans do it another.
(we can discuss this in detail, later on....)
4. Nothing exotic-Mauser Broomhandle. e.g.
Certainly Mauser Broomhandles are vintage, none has been made in a long time. And it would hardly be the most practical choice in the US today (or for a long time previously)
I am however left with the impression that "vintage" pistols are to be considered unsuitable because they are vintage pistols, and not because individual designs of certain pistols are suboptimal by modern standards.
Older gun with no parts available? Do you want to know real terror? At your moment of great need, you draw your little treasure (which you chose because some actor used it in some movie) and point it at the rapidly approaching bad guy and it goes click. click. click click.
I don't think I'd be in any more terror than the same situation with a pistol in current production with plenty of parts available that did the same thing.
If you can't find the moving parts in a split second, you've got the wrong gun.
I agree, but then, I am an American with American attitudes about such things. For most of the 20th Century European gun designers thought differently.
For a long time I could never figure out why they did such "dumb" things with safeties you couldn't easily reach, heel type magazine catches and holsters that were built like luggage with straps and actual buckles...
Then I met a German who explained those things from their point of view. (and their view of ours
)
Start with holsters, and to keep things a little simple, look only at police and military holster for now.
Americans prefer a holster that allows rapid draw and immediate use of the pistol. According to that German guy, this evolved from our wild west gunslinger days...fast draw, and all that.
The German viewpoint was that if you thought there was a possibility you needed your pistol then it should already be made ready, and in your hand.
There is (or was) also a wide spread school of thought that safeties were something to be operated by the non-shooting hand. Being able to operate the safety with the hand holding the gun and maintaining a firing grip was not a priority, and in some designs, not even a concern.
and as to heel clip magazine releases, the speed reload Americans (and many others today) demand was simple not something considered important.
The heel clip release is fully ambidextrous (equally inaccessible to either hand,
) and is very positive, and almost impossible to accidently release.
back in 80, I got a Browning BDA 45 (Sig P220) it had the heel clip release. Played a few local combat shoot games with it, and it taught me some things. I was always a bit slower on the reload than the guys running guns with the pushbutton release, and of course I was never happy about that.
Until I did some thinking about what might be the case in a real world (especially the classic survivalist disaster situation) in the long run, which would also apply to combat situations where there was no timely resupply.
The guys who trained to drop their mags to the ground and keep going, MIGHT not be able to go back after and pick them back up (or even find them). The poor smuck stuck with a heel type release would be a couple seconds slower on the reload, but then the empty mag is in his hand, and can be dropped into a pouch or pocket for reuse later, and not be lost.
Back closer to topic, there are some vintage pistols I would trust my life to, and some I would not. Individual guns, guns I own and have used and who have proven how well they work, or don't.
And, since this is in General Handguns, shouldn't we be discussing "vintage" revolvers as well??