Handguns Of The Century

Guns Magazine, Dec, 1999 by Charles E. Petty

From sixgun to wondernine, the 20th century has been one of amazing handgun innovation.

Let's consider the handguns of our century in this way: If Captain Kirk asked the Enterprise's computer to tell him about 20th century handguns what would it say?

My assignment is to tell you about the handguns that have had a major effect on shooting between 1900 and 1999. One of the rules is that they must be 20th century designs. That eliminates revolvers. Everybody knows that the famed Colt Single Action Army dates back to 1873, and other Colt revolvers go back much further, but Colt had a double action in 1876. Smith & Wesson had one in 1873.

We must remember that most of today's firearm technology really began in the waning years of the 19th century. In 1896 John Browning received patents that covered the three basic operating systems of automatic pistols. Those designs have evolved and directly influence almost every automatic pistol design available today.

Two of Browning's designs account for virtually every automatic pistol operating system made in the world today. They are direct blowback and short recoil locked breech. Gas operation -- also a Browning patent --- is used sparingly in handguns.

Straight blowback is found in the vast majority of pistols from .22 to .380 caliber. Those chambered for 9mm or larger cartridges generally use the locked breech design principle. Without a doubt the most well known example of that is the 1911 pistol that was standard in our military until 1985.

Another Browning design, the P-35 Hi-Power is equally important. The swinging barrel link lockup of the 1911 design is little used on guns other than the 1911, but the cam action lockup pioneered in the P-35 is used on almost every other locked breech design around today.

One exception to that principle -- and another very important gun -- is the Walther P-38. It was the first double-action military handgun to introduce us to a locking system that is, while not a Browning derivative, still used in the M-9 Beretta pistols. It was also a gun designed to be manufactured economically by the machine standards of the 1930s. Even during the worst years of the war, serviceable P-38 pistols were made.

Oldies And Goodies

By now I expect you're making your own list of great 20th century guns and wondering when I'm going to get around to mentioning your favorite. Some of the classics really don't qualify. Everybody loves the Luger and the Broomhandle Mauser, but neither really play an important part in the evolution of firearms in the 20th century.

One oldie -- the Walther PP family -- earns a place on my list, not because of huge sales but because of the double-action trigger mechanism first seen there. That is a key element of many current designs, and the present day double-action-only is obviously an evolutionary product.

If there is any single pistol that typifies the waning years of 20th century it is the wide-body class of 9mm pistols called wondernines. Maybe it's a sad commentary on our world and the quality of firearms decisions made by the military and law enforcement, but high-capacity double-action pistols -- first chambered in 9mm and more recently in .40 S&W -- have been a dominant influence in mass handgun manufacturing for the last quarter century.

It's really hard to explain how that came to pass. Browning started the staggered magazine designs with his P-35 Hi-Power before World War II, and in the late 1940s the U.S. tested some high capacity 9mm pistols such as the Colt T-4 and High Standard T-3 (which used the Browning magazine) before deciding to stick with the 1911 .45. Smith & Wesson's entry, then called X-100, went on to become the only commercially manufactured gun from those trials, the Model 39.

Its big brother, the Model 59, became the first pistol to truly fit the wondernine definition. It was a slow starter, for even though S&W began experimenting with a 14-shot design in 1964, commercial production did not begin until 1971.

Seemingly overnight firepower became law enforcement's cause celebre and the switch from revolvers to semi-automatic pistols swept the nation. Of course the civilian market followed law enforcement's lead and the high capacity 9mm pistol enjoyed popularity to a far higher level than it deserved.

Smaller And Lighter

At about the same time that the demand for more bullets reached frenzied proportions, Gaston Glock came along with something truly original that is probably the most significant handgun development of the last half of the 20th century. His "plastic pistol" revolutionized handgun design.

Then, our government decided we needed some more of their protection so those dreaded high-capacity magazines became sorta' illegal. In so doing, they created a whole new market.

The public reasoned, if you can't have lots of bullets, you should make the guns just big enough to fit the bullets you have, and "compact" became the marketing concept of the day.

We had witnessed a race to build higher capacity magazines and now the reverse is selling guns. There is active competition to have the smallest and lightest guns possible. The rush for more bullets was an attempt to find a mechanical solution to a "software problem." Tommy Cambell said it best: "Are you planning on missing a lot?"