What Caliber should our Armed forces be carrying as their side arm?

1

1873Colt

New member
Im new to the site and would like to know your opinions on this matter. I personally will never be a fan of the 9mm for warfare. I cant even buy hanguns leagally but shoot them everyday before work and as much as i shoot my Xd40 and my browning 9mm i wonder why we arent giving our guys more stopping power.

Thanks for all of your answers and comment,

Trenten
 
If it were me having to pick a sidearm, I would take a 10mm, even if the chances of using it are slim. I would still probably keep my primary as the 5.56 however.
 
Pistols aren't about winning a war, they're about saving your bacon from a tight spot DURING a war.

My vote is for .40+ calber.
 
Pistols are inconsequential in winning battles in war
Click to expand...

How did you come to this conclusion?

If pistols are so inconsequential, then why issue them at all?

I have a feeling a lot of Vietnam vets and other war vets (My Grandfather for one) whose lives were saved by their sidearm, that would love to disagree with you on the need for a good sidearm in a war/battle.
 
IMHO... The .40Super/.45Super...

In my humble opine(as a active duty US military veteran who wore/used a issue M9 pistol, ;)), I'd choose a variation of the great .40Super, the .400Corbon and/or the little known .45Super.
A .40+ pistol round with a high(500+ft/lbs) KE level, fast muzzle vel(1200+ft/sec) and a low or managable CUP(copper units of pressure) level would work very well for a duty pistol.
The .40Super & .357SIG are noted for great feeding/cycle features and being able to have a solid bullet weight; 115-145gr.
The .45acp is big but slow. The 9mmNATO is fast but small. Many like the 10mm but full power rounds have high CUP levels which can tear up pistols after 1,000s of rounds. The .40S&W is okay but not as powerful or smooth functioning as the .357SIG.
Other "wildcats" are out there; 9x23 Winchester, .38Super, .356TSW(Team S&W), .41AE, etc but a new .40-.45 "super" caliber could offer top performance in a 15/18 shot sidearm.
 
While I would rather have a 45 as a side arm, I could not recommend it as a general side arm for all of the armed forces. When I go to qualify I run into "non shooters" all the time and would not want to see them shooting anything with even more kick like the 10mm. The armed forces does not spend money on there people on the range. Training them to be shooters is not a focal point anymore. They just put them out there to check a box in a training record, its sad but true.:(
 
Ditto with smee.

The army does not train pistoleros.

People on this forum (and this section of the subforum in particular) are adherents to pistolcraft. 9mm is small to us, .45acp and 10mm are not difficult to control, we have years of handgunning experience and have sent hundreds of times the number of rounds that the typical army recruit gets prior to being issued an M9.

The M9 is not a bad pistol. The 9mm is not a bad round.

It killed plenty of GI's when held by Germans in WWII, and to this day we have a very healthy respect for the Luger and Walther P38 pistols.

Insurgents in Iraq and A-stan have a healthy respect for the GI today who points a Beretta M9 at him.

When you need a pistol in a multi-attacker armed confrontation... you need a lot of rounds in it. Increasing diameter reduces rounds.

The 9 is fine.

Move on. Even the infantry rifle is not being seriously considered for replacement, let alone the infantry pistol.

Back when calibers were larger for our troops, our troops came from backgrounds where shooting was more common.

What we need now, is greater marksmanship. Not bigger bullets.

A miss with a 9mm or .223 would most likely be an even bigger miss with a .45 and a .308.
 
Giving full power 10mm to the average Soldier who really isnt a gun nut, and only shoots to qualify, and no other time...will not work any better than when they gave 10mm pistols to the armed accountants at the FBI.
What they have is fine, they just need to use 21st century ammo on non uniformed combatants/partizans/terrrorists......all folks that never signed the Hague convention papers (nor did we) FMJ is simply the least effective bullet style in any pistol caliber, and thats where the problem resides.
Whether soldiers or law enforcers...there are a lot more armed non shooter types in the ranks, than shooters....(in fact you get regarded as odd by the rest if you are a gun nut)
 
Last edited:
Another poster said "The .40S&W is okay but not as powerful or smooth functioning as the .357SIG." I cannot say I agree with the powerful part but I do agree that the 357 Sig would be an excellecnt choice for our armed forces. They do seem to feed reliably and the extra velocity has to give them more usable range.

I also think we should let the soldier's decide but maybe that is taking power away from the Washington Bureaucrats.

My 2 cents.
James
 
If I were the secretary of defense I would order up Smith & Wesson M&P's as the standard issue sidearm. I would also lean toward the .40S&W, due to its velocity, weight and energy on target.

I know that the 10mm would be a superior cartridge, but I think that the average soldier would have the same issues with the 10mm that kept the FBI from adopting the cartridge.
 
.50GI:D

seriously I would like to see at least a .45 but 10mm would be better especially in a glock 20. 2 more rounds of a more powerful caliber.
 
Issued caliber?

As a Member of the armed forces I have carried the M-9 and M-9A1 I am confident that my skills will overcome any minor shortcoming in the 9mm NATO issued cartridge. That being said I can go to any country, outside of the Warsaw Pact, and get plenty 9mm rounds. Also the USSR made a bunch, as well, to stick in our dead GI's mags. I personally carry an .45ACP. I would not mind going to the 40S&W or .357Sig if the rest of our friendlies did the same. I would love to see the 5.7FN as our secondary as well, I just wish that we could get a pistol that would break locking like it is going out of style!

FHP .357sig Tactical? I'm just sayin'
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top