What's the most rugged handgun in the world?

If you lump autoloaders and DA revolvers together nothing has yet proven more rugged than a Glock.
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What a pant load.

Proven by whom?

Proven when?

Proven where?

Proven for which model? (They certainly aren't all equal).

My vote goes to the USGI 1911A1.

From the OP:

Ice: The Battle of the Aleutians, Battle of the Bulge, Korea. Several variants served the Norwegian Resistance too.

Sand: Pick a PTO amphib landing--any of them, D-Day, North Africa, still serving today too.

Water, dirt, mud: Western Front in WW1. Vietnam.

Physical trauma: Polymer is going to survive getting hit by shrapnel? I'll take the all steel pistol thanks.

No cleaning, no lubrication etc.: During the XM9 trials, the only pistols which passed the wet and dried mud tests with 100% scores were 1911A1 control models that were a minimum of 40 years old and reassembled time and again using mix mastered small parts.

That's the definition of "proven." Lab queen tests and YouTube videos cannot even begin to compare, but if you want to go there.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0_JuF23qazI

Glock 19. A thousand rounds fired in 14 minutes by several shooters. Five stoppages. Melts out the recoil rod.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q7wL2QuFTLQ

Para-Ord 1911 (lower quality one) 1000 rounds fired in about eleven minutes by just one shooter. No stoppages and nothing breaks.

Glock reliability is routinely overstated by its fans, who have fallen for sales rep hucksterism. The 1911A1 just goes on kicking ass for a century as the real deal.
 
TC Contender 30-30 cal would be an interesting choice.
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I was also thinking Contender or Encore. Pretty simple design there. Not much to get gunked up that can't be cleaned with a little water and lube.
 
Glock... It's the only gun that I have personally seen endure extreme abuse and continue to function flawlessly.
 
And you will NEVER get answer. Everyone has their OPINION on what's the best, and it will always be an OPINION.
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Actually I did give the answer. Everyone else gave an opinion. ;)
 
I'm not hugely knowledgeable about handguns, but given the OP's question, my first thought is "the pistol with the fewest moving parts." The more moving parts, the more room for error and part failure. So, rather than an automatic, I'd go with something single shot, probably a muzzleloader. There are literally thousands of surviving flintlocks and caplock muzzleloaders from the 18th and 19th centuries that are still in working order.

Of course, there aren't many spare parts or people who know how to work on them (by comparison, of course) as there are for 1911's, M9's, and other repeating pistols. And they're pretty slow to reload, but they work.
 
Revolver: Any Ruger.
Auto: P95 Ruger and M9.

BTW I'm a retired service member I came in with the .45 acp and went out with the 9mm and I'll take the M9 everytime, FWIW.
 
While Boats' post is fact based it is not exactly a real world test. Who in any real life situation is going to throw 1k rounds through their glock and melt the guide rod? Who is going to throw 1k rounds down the tube of any handgun in real life? Likely no one.

As far as running without oil, I own a 1911, so I am not in any way against them. I love mine, but for most reliable pistol in the world I just cant state that. Mine DOES NOT run well dry. Mine likes to be well oiled, granted it is still relatively new and a very tight pistol. Once shot more and the tolerances grow that may change.

My vote for a Full size Glock still remains my vote.
 
My Father in Law has an old Colt military issue 1911 that has been around for many years. It looks like it has been through the wars, and it likely has. He sprays it down with WD 40 from time to time. I have offered to take it down and clean it properly or have it professionally done, but he says that is not necessary. Over several years and hundreds of rounds, I have never seen this gun fail with either hardball or HP ammo. If I had to pick a pistol to drag through the mud, snow, etc. with no service, this would be it.
 
Just an old sailor's opinion, . . . but any of the 1911's we had in the Navy in the 60's would suffice.

I mean for crying out loud, . . . they survived us, . . . they gotta be tough.

I'm not going to live long enough to see it, . . . but give it another 30 years or so, . . . I'm just wondering when the polymer plastics will start breaking down. It's one of those dastardly little secrets that none of the manufacturers will own up to, . . . all, . . . ALL man made materials have a peaking point where they start to chemically break down, . . .

Steel doesn't do that.

May God bless,
Dwight
 
Glock models in 9mm, Beretta's M9/92fs, Ruger GP 100 and a few others, but you asked whats the MOST RUGGED HANDGUN, I really don't know.


One way to find out, buy those listed, buy 20k ammo for each, go play around in the dirt/sand and see which one stops firing first, using same testing results. :P
 
Hmmm...

I would go with any of the USP based Hk's, although I've seen some Berettas take some serious abuse and the 92/M9 would be my second choice.

Regarding polymers "breaking down", Im sure they are UV stabilized and will be around for several generations. What percentage of steel pistols produced since 1900 are still around?
 
While Boats' post is fact based it is not exactly a real world test.
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LOL! What, pray tell, is more "real" than the real world?

Your personal 1911A1 is not as loosely built as a USGI one was spec'd out to be. You think the military didn't envision a lack of proper cleaning supplies for their small arms?

Besides, if you want to really talk about the real world, if 1000 rounds down range in under a quarter of an hour without new lube applied or any cleaning breaks isn't "real," then neither is staking durability and overall reliability claims on NOT NEEDING lube at all. A USGI 1911A1 could be cleaned in gasoline, diesel, kerosene, acetone, paint thinner, whatever solvent was at hand, it's not like it was going to melt. You could lube one with lard if you needed to.

"Modern" shooters seem to think that if you don't have CLP, dry film lube or some other wonder lube around that you don't have cleaning supplies and lube. Those USGI pistols could be cleaned in avgas and lubed with waste oil--and oftentimes were on remote islands all over the South Pacific.

Again, point out something more "real world" than having served with distinction for a country on a total war footing globally while performing at the end of some of the most distant (and iffy) logistical efforts yet seen.
 
I'm not going to live long enough to see it, . . . but give it another 30 years or so, . . . I'm just wondering when the polymer plastics will start breaking down. It's one of those dastardly little secrets that none of the manufacturers will own up to, . . . all, . . . ALL man made materials have a peaking point where they start to chemically break down, . . .

Steel doesn't do that.
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Dwight I'm in agreement with you on the military 1911, based on the requirements of the OP. With that said my plastic SR9c is my weapon of choice. With an occasional cleaning and minimal care I expect it will last far more than thirty years. Left in the mud the steel will go long before the polymer...
 
I don't claim to be a military expert, and I wasn't around as an adult in the 1911 days of the military. But I have been told by several people that towards the end of its lifetime, many of those military 1911s were pieces of crap that jammed and broke all the time.

I like 1911s. I have owned many and still have a very nice one. But, the mention of them is like "magic" to some people. That's not always the case
 
Agree

I would classify 1911s as nogstalgic. It seems like the world of personal defense has moved on to light weight, high capacity, small caliber, higher velocity, striker based side arms. They are cheaper and less labor intensive to produce. Time marches on.
 
Shipwreck you are right on the money. My dad and many of my friends dads were WWII or korean war vets. Every one loved the M1 Garand, some loved the M1 carbine. My Dad prefered the Garand or a BAR.

Pretty much all of them were in agreement that the 45 was a hard kicking POS that couldn't hit the broad side of a barn.

Now Keep in mind these were old well worn guns and its unlikely any of these men had more than a days training with the 1911. Add to that the poor sights that came on every 1911 except the Gold cup prior to the 1980s and the modern versions of the gun.

My dad could not understand why I bought a Colt commander to work UC in the 80s and was stunned when I showed him my qualification scores. But although both are colt 1911s they really aren't the same gun. Its almost like comparing a used 1950 cadillac to a new one.

Me, I think there are a lot of great guns out there and I carry a Glock by choice. But if I knew I could only have one gun that would last me a lifetime, I might have to go with the Colt Combat Elite or maybe a S&W 66. The Glock is everything I like in a pistol, but as previously posted no one really knows how long that polymer is going to hold up. They've only been around since the mid 80s and that goes for all polymer guns not just the Glock.
 
If the 1911A1 is all about "nostalgia," (despite STILL serving at the tip of the spear in both civilian and military service), I would classify polymer pistols as consumerist driven garbage. In a world too cheap to any longer produce a machined steel pistol except for the remaining discerning buyers, of course its wannabe "postmodern" (read plastic zip gun) successors, filled to the gills with stampings and MIM, are built to meet a price point rather a combat reference standard.

Just look at how it went. The 1911A1 was "officially retired" in 1985. There are still rebuilt USGI 1911A1s in service today. The newest of these would have frames produced in 1945 and the oldest in service would date back to around 1924.

A Glock can't even go from Generations 1-4 without wholesale turn ins from cops and others. They simply don't have to build a service track record approaching the 1911A1s or the BHP's of yesteryear because they are built to be disposable and are treated as such by their end users. A straight or safety razor may be "nostalgic" to the shaver using a Bic, but that's just because he doesn't know what a "real" razor is all about. He's into being cheap and modern and all.

The case for polymer's longevity in service is built entirely upon baseless speculation because it certainly isn't built on being the sidearm workhorse continuously in service to an actual fighting force for decades.
 
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