Another nail in the coffin

Why can they carry a round in the chamber of the Glock and not in the Browning?

Think any of the Brownings will be sold off and made available to the collecting public?
 
AdrianM said:
Why can they carry a round in the chamber of the Glock and not in the Browning?
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I believe it has something to do with the Browning being Single Action, and the Glock being double action.

The Browning either needs to be carried cocked, loaded, and on safe or unloaded and empty. For safety sake, I guess the Poms chose the latter method.

The Glock can be carried loaded and decocked. When the need arises, rip it out and pull the trigger. The trigger pull of the first shot will be a bit heavier than those following as it is recocking the trigger.

I'm not a huge pistol guy, but I think I'm right - quite happy to be wrong.
 
You're close, but the Glock is not a DA/SA like you describe, it's a "safe action" striker. The Glock striker is 75% cocked by the movement of the pistol's slide. When the shooter engages the trigger, the first bit of travel on a Glock trigger fully cocks the striker, then the second portion releases it. This way the gun is as safe as a DA/SA, but has a consistent trigger pull, which as the Steyr M9 series shows us, can be much lighter than even the lightest DA pull.
 
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"More than 25,000 Austrian-made Glock pistols will finally replace the clunky Browning sidearm that squaddies and commandos have had to cope with for decades"

my emphasis.

Nobody wants to use a browning if they can choose something else.
 
Skaal-tel said:
"More than 25,000 Austrian-made Glock pistols will finally replace the clunky Browning sidearm that squaddies and commandos have had to cope with for decades"

my emphasis.

Nobody wants to use a browning if they can choose something else.
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Ya, until they try something else that is. I remember everyone hated the clunky, heavy, C1, but when the C7 came out, most guys I know wished for the C1 back.

The browning is a good gun if in a good state of repair with decent mags.
 
British troops in Afghanistan – and on future operations anywhere else – will be better able to defend themselves with the help of the first new standard pistol issued to the armed forces in more than 40 years.

Faced with the threat of attacks at close quarters – not least from members of the Afghan security forces turned by the Taliban or bearing individual grievances – the new weapons will enable them to shoot faster and more effectively, troops say.

More than 25,000 Austrian-made Glock pistols will finally replace the clunky Browning sidearm that squaddies and commandos have had to cope with for decades, the Ministry of Defence announced on Wednesday.

An £8.5m contract has been awarded to Glock after a tendering contest and trials stretching over two years. No British company competed; even the new pistol's holster is made abroad, in Italy.

The MoD recently urgently ordered a consignment of Swiss Sig Sauer pistols to enable British troops to protect themselves better in Afghanistan.

The new pistol, a variant of the Glock 17, will make it easier for British soldiers "to shoot back", said Colonel Peter Warden, head of the MoD defence equipment organisation's light weapons team.

The 9mm Glock is lighter and tougher than the Browning but above all much easier to fire – advantages that have already attracted US law enforcement agencies, including police forces, to the weapon. It can be removed from its holster and fired within a second. With the Browning it would take four seconds or more.

"If I'm getting it out in under a second, I'm going to win it," said Marine Sergeant Steve Long, who has been deployed twice to Afghanistan as well as to Iraq and Sierra Leone. He tested the Glock in the heat of Brunei.

Speaking at Woolwich Arsenal in south-east London, where journalists and officials were invited to test the pistol, he described the decision to equip British troops with the weapon as a "massive step forward". He explained that with the Browning, a soldier had to undo the holster flap, flick the safety catch and draw a bullet from the magazine before firing a shot.

The Glock has built-in safety catches, and the pistol can be kept fully loaded with a round in the chamber even when it is in the holster. Its magazine can hold 17 rounds, compared with 13 in the Browning. "Pistols are vital in close combat and are a key part of a soldier's armoury," said Warrant Officer Mark Anderson of the Royal Marines. Personal sidearms were described by soldiers on Wednesday as "lifesavers".

Warden said a Glock pistol would be available to every British soldier in Afghanistan later this year. Whether they will be issued with the new model will be up to their commanding officer.

The announcement was a significant moment in the long history of the ubiquitous Browning pistol – a personal weapon whichthat Saddam Hussein frequently had at his side. Libya's Colonel Gaddafi also had one – gold-plated, and with his image on its handle. Libyan rebels waved it in the air when he was captured during the 2011 revolution.
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"Clunky"?

"COPE WITH"?

I should be so lucky to have to "cope" with a BHP...
 
geologist said:
I have a G17 and I have not noticed a difference in the trigger pull between the first and subsequent shots.
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Learn to use the trigger reset. After the first pull slowly let out the trigger until you here it "click". The trigger won't go out as far and the next trigger pull will be shorter.

Many people don't control thr trigger properly. Just let their finger out completely. Wasted movement.
 
I like my inglis BHP :) it's in much better shape then the one they issue me for the range ;) and she has a sister sitting in my vault, but the sister was from Belgium and passed around by the german army in WW2.
 
My son carried a HP for nine months in Afghanistan. He had a chance to shoot a Glock that was issued to Dutch troops (if I remember correctly) I do remember him saying he preferred the HP. Mind you his trade was in a support role at Kandahar and he was seldom outside the wire. My understanding is that pistols were normally carried unloaded on the base and soldier was issued two mags which were carried on the opposite side of the shoulder holster.
He doesn't have a lot of pistol shooting experience outside of the military except for a M39 Smith I had for awhile.
 
I've owned several BHPs and loved them all. While in the army I was issued and fired the High Power. Lots of rounds down range and never had a problem. There is no doubt that there are better weapons but I am a believer in, "If it aint broke, don't fix it."
The side arm is not your primary weapon for the most part. I always felt while in the army that if I was down to using a pistol I was F*#ked anyway.
 
I'm Milsurp Guy as well, love the classic HP, fired them, but have to say the HP has reached it's life cycle and the Glock is easier to train on initially, lighter to carry extensively, totally safe in the holster round chambered so always ready when needed and as reliable as was ever drawn from a Holster when in need.. They are a great platform for those who shoot little, train little, but carry alot, and if they do have to shoot, it may be for their very life. When your butt goes real tight there's No manual safety to fumble or forget, no de-cocker, no grip safety to get right, no slide hold open to ride inadverently, no extremely heavy first round on DA before going to SA, and the list goes on and on. Any platform is great at the range for pleasure. But to arm and train the masses with the least output in rangetime and ammo to produce an exceptable result in proficiency,.. I'd go Glock hands down.

It would be great to see the CDN HP's sold to us in a Canadian CMP program:onCrack::onCrack: when they are finally replaced, but I'm holding my breath.
 
My initial gut reaction to this article was to dismiss it as needless, and while I just don't see the glock as a robust combat pistol, now that I have sat with it for a while I'm beginning to see the merit in the concept. I don't think that it was a necessity, but if their pistols were reaching the end of their life-cycle anyway, then it's not a horrible move. You can't fault a government for taking actions in attempt to listen to the troops and try to help rather than simply keeping 60 year old pistols running with replacement parts "just because." (and let us keep in mind, that their L9A1 brownings were procured in the 60s and have been updated with user-friendly mods like ambi safeties unlike our Inglis brownings which have been faitfully serving the CF in original trim since the end of WW2)

RememberTheSomme said:
I'm Milsurp Guy as well, love the classic HP, fired them, but have to say the HP has reached it's life cycle and the Glock is easier to train on initially, lighter to carry extensively, totally safe in the holster round chambered so always ready when needed and as reliable as was ever drawn from a Holster when in need.. They are a great platform for those who shoot little, train little, but carry alot, and if they do have to shoot, it may be for their very life. When your butt goes real tight there's No manual safety to fumble or forget, no de-cocker, no grip safety to get right, no slide hold open to ride inadverently, no extremely heavy first round on DA before going to SA, and the list goes on and on. Any platform is great at the range for pleasure. But to arm and train the masses with the least output in rangetime and ammo to produce an exceptable result in proficiency,.. I'd go Glock hands down.
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Well put. While I don't feel that the BHP is the huge hindrance that it is made out to be in the article, It comes down to simplicity of use I suppose. If it's user friendly enough for leagues of law-enforcement officers, then it should do the same job for the average troop. While I love my BHPs (both the T series at work, and my personal CH series), I would rather carry my Sig if given the choice.

fernleaf said:
The Browning either needs to be carried cocked, loaded, and on safe or unloaded and empty.
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The BHP is usually carried on half-#### with a round in the chamber. When needed, yes there is that extra second it takes to #### the hammer the rest of the way as opposed to the glock being trigger ready on-demand.

points said:
I always felt while in the army that if I was down to using a pistol I was F*#ked anyway.
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I used to feel this way, but with the recent increase in "green-on-blue" attacks and our larger training roles where we are kitting down to just pistols, it is coming down to making milliseconds count in what is essentially a quick draw.
 
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