RCMP sidearms

[copeland]

so much speculation, who knows...

 

[Boomer]

nothing wrong with the 5946. Been packing mine for over 7 yrs, always goes bang, always gets me in the 240's at annuals, decent trigger on mine. Sure, if it were up to me, I'd rather have a Sig or what have you but it is what it is and it won't be replaced any time soon. One thing you learn quickly as a member of the RCMP- no sense #####ing about things 'cause it won't change anything.

If you are mandated to carry a specific firearm, all you can do is work with it until to reach some level of comfort with it. Apparently you have triumphed over the 5946s short comings, but the fact that you would prefer a SIG tells me that you know there are better answers to the question. There was a gal up here a while back who put in for the air marshall program. I didn't have the opportunity to see her shoot, but I was assured that she would clean house against any of the other members at the detachment. Anyway, she was rejected from the program becasue she couldn't get her rounds off quickly enough. Had she been qualifiying with a SA pistol, she would be flying the friendly skies today.

When I asked why that particular pistol was chosen, I was told that it was becasue it would be the easiest firearm to transition to after the M-10. Really! I wonder how much trouble members had transitioning to automatic transmissions after being issued standards up until the 1960s. There's a fellow I know who when intending to make a purchase researches the item to death, then invariably makes the wrong decision . . . I just didn't know he worked for the RCMP.

This brings up another point though, in the early '70s RCMP recruits were taught to shoot the M-10 SA, cocking the hammer with the thumb of the support hand. I thought that was a pretty good technique for fast deliberate fire. Mandatory DA fire didn't come into effect until later. That suggests that the RCMP recognized that the choice of shooting SA or DA was a matter of technique, and when their guys carried a revolver, they impressed on them that they could get off their rounds quicker by firing DA. When this mindset was carried over to the pistol however, performance was reversed, in that shooting is both quicker and more accurate when you can fire SA.