The Gospel According To John (Moses Browning) - Posted on behalf of SilverBullet

[Corné]

Even if you think and consider the 1911 design to be outdated and not the best choice, you have to admit that John Moses Browning did some groundbreaking work and made a excellent contribution to handguns.

[corriedewilde]

Even if you think and consider the 1911 design to be outdated and not the best choice, you have to admit that John Moses Browning did some groundbreaking work and made a excellent contribution to handguns.

I still own and used a 1911 for many thousands of rounds. But I am not a fan of tipping barrel designs.

In the period 1890 to 1920 the most interesting gun designs were thought out and it is the golden era for collectors. There were so many different (read interesting) designs. JMB were brilliant that is why 90% of new pistol designs use a version of his lockwork. Or is mordern designers just not clever enough to think up something beter?

What made the 1911 stand out at the time is the relative simple mechanism with few parts. This would be more reliable for a soldier who do not maintain his sidearm like an enthusiast, than say a luger P08 or Mauser C96. But the soft metal the A1 is made of and the tipping barrel design soon has loose slides and barrel bushings. Then the average A1 couldn't hit the proverbial side of a barn. But JMB himself modified most of these problems in the Browning Hi-power even if this is still a SA pistol. Of course with the updated versions and copies a lot of the problems have been addressed.

In my humble opinion the P08 is a nicer (pointable) pistol to shoot and the 1911 Steyr Hahn is a better pistol in every way but for the lack of a loose magazine. We are not starting the .45/9mm arguments again.