But what about a Main Battle Pistol? Now hear me out for a minute, and stop your mouth from spraying coffee at your monitor.
About 6 months ago I searched and found exactly two detailed references to a MBP - one from the Blue Press, and another from some supposedly retired armed forces dude making fun of the term. Add to that most gun gurus pontificating that the handgun is what you use to get to your rifle, and why do I bring it up?
It's the middle word, Battle. A battle is a prolonged engagement. Simply put, a long time during which equipment will be stressed and may fail, and logistics and supply can't be relied on. (So you are thinking o.k., but where is this bastard heading with this?)
Well, a crescendo of events all lead to the following realization: I need at least one pistol that will be simple, reliable, and easily serviced.
During a 3 gun match I drew from a sitting position behind a table, engaged T1 and T2, and then in what seemed like an eternity I cleared the gun of a case lodged in the chamber and continued on. (the stage director said it was the fastest clear he seen in a while, I could have sworn it took 10 seconds) The gun had a small failure, caused by my choice of ammo - Wolf. Later examination revealed a slightly chipped extractor which I believe was caused by the laquered case sticking to the chamber. I continued to use the gun in matches and it functioned fine untill that one match over a year or two ago. Another jam this time with WWB ammo. 1/3 of the extractor was gone, the gun could still function but could not be trusted as the go to gun. At this point I have had the gun for over 10 years and it has been dead nuts reliable without any malfuncions, except for the two mentioned failures due to me. The gun is a S&W 5906TSW, a beauty of reliability, and engineering, with slighly sucky egronomics. To put is short: I frigging love that gun, and love to shoot it. (Articles professing my love to all things S&W will follow at a later date) But as much as I love that gun and S&W, the fact remains that to service them requires the factory to get involved. No one services them locally, and my only remedy would be to send it to the factory and essentially spend 1/2 the value of the gun for the extractor to get replaced. (Can't send the slide only, factory rep insisted the gun has to be test fired.)
Well right about now I had the itch for a new gun anyway so I started to make a list of features which essentially turned into: simple, reliable and easily serviced. No safety levers (like the 5906), proven reliability (no ZDA or Colt&CZ unholy alliances), easily serviced (no HK, S&W, etc.) Yeah in essence it came down to the Glock.
Now I am no Glock fan boy. I shot a Glock several times and still stuck with S&W and resisted Gaston's unholy creation.
But the numbers don't lie.
In the end, what sold me on the Glock was the ability to buy cheap mags, the fact that I could buy service parts without going to the factory, and at home smith-ability.
I scoped out some sites and within a month located a Glock certificate that someone was willing to sell for almost 100 bucks below retail cost of a new gun. Once the certificate arrived, I pontificated on which model to choose. It had to be 9mm, and night sights would be added no matter what. In the end the clasic model 17 won, over the 19 or the 17's long slide bretheren. The 19's grip was just too short for my paws, and this would not be a concealed weapon - so why give up the 2 rounds? The long slide was very tempting, but that hole in the slide just bugs, really really bugs. The last choice was to get the Trijicon nighsights over the Glock night sights, the exact reason escapes me now.
A serpa CQB holster was choosen as I did not want a friction fit on the trigger guard that is common in the kydex holsters. Not to mention I wanted dead sure retention and easy draw for 3 gun use. (Some folks have reported jamed guns in holsters due to debris falling in the mechanis, this choice will need to be rethought.)
So my one MBP is the Glock 17. Commonality, availability of parts, simplicity, reliability. What more can you ask for in a MBP. While the gun has things I don't like about it, I am trying to fiugure out how to pay for a duplicate setup.
Mr. C
Note2: Your caliber choice may vary, but that is not the point of this post.
Note3: My scores went from between the mid and bottom thrird, to the top 5-10 percent. The former gun was a DAO, alloy framed 45ACP running WWB 230 grainers. Not a really fair comparison. (See, I told you I loved S&W, but more on that later.)
