What are the most common pistols in the Western World?

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ace_himself

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I was thinking what do you think are the most prominent and common semi-automatic pistols overall whether it be use in a particular military, police, or civilian use mainly in North America or Europe? If you had to pick 4 or 5 which would you say? I think that the 1911, Glock, and Beretta 92 and varients are shoo ins. But what other ones? Sig, USP, Hi-Power, CZ maybe?
 
According to an IALFI memebr I know, the Glock in form or another accounts for 65% of the US LE market and is clearly the most used pistol in Canada for LE. Further to that, Glock got the contract to arm the new Iraq police, 150,000 pistols.
 
Beretta has sold more than 2 million of 92FS pistols over the years…

1911 (along with .45acp) have a lot of fans in North America, but it's not nearly as popular anywhere else. Plus, so many gun makers make them in so many models to me 1911 is more of a design/style than a model... If you count tham all, 1911 is probably one of the most common guns. Glock is also one of the top on the most common list.
 
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In North America, Glock, 1911, as well as various S&W revolvers. If you count the U.S. military, Beretta is also up there.

In Europe, the civilian market is negligible and as far as law enforcement and military markets are concerned, I would guess that HK and SIG are the top sellers, followed by Beretta, Glock and Walther. In Russia and much of Eastern Europe, Pistolet Makarova is still the most popular police/military gun.
 
I'd hazard a guess and say 1911, Glock and Beretta for semi-auto and Smith & Wesson revolvers make up the majority of what's out there in the western world.
 
Beretta 92 (and the various copies, such as the ones made by MAS, Llama, Taurus, Vektor and FAMAE) is probably the most common in the western world, especially if you include South America. The Americans have bought so many I'd be surprised if it hasn't trumped the Hi-Power by now, which definitely comes in at least second.

Third place... hmm... tough to know. Lot of Glocks being used, almost certainly in the top five. I'm not so sure about the 1911 though, I know it's very popular commercially in the US but the military and the police don't use it in large numbers anymore. Depends on how far you widen the definition of "1911". Ditto for the CZ-75, which is very widely copied but not used in big numbers by anyone, except the Czechs themselves and the Israelis.

I'd say the SIG-Sauer P220-series is in the top five, the P225 is pretty common as a police pistol in addition to the P220 and the P226, which are moderately popular for military use. The SIG Pro is coming on very strong, it got the French contract which is the biggest contract since WW2 for pistols, give it a few years and it will be in the top five I reckon.

Frankly given that the handgun market in the US is bigger than the rest of the world, I wouldn't be surprised if the Raven .25 or the Bryco .380 or some POS like that is in the top five semi-auto pistols in terms of numbers.
 
Bear in mind that the USA made MILLIONS of 1911's in WW1 and WW2 and the South Americans made around a million more on Colt tooling.

Those guns aren't just gone once they leave service - people generally own them. ;)

I have to think S&W Model 10's and 686's have to be very high on the list if you include revolvers.
 
No one has mentioned the TT-30 or 33 yet. How many million of them are running around out there, every where the soviet infuence was ever felt. They can be found from South Africa to Sibera, Vietnam and now imported here! Bet they are in the top three, (ok , not for asthetics, but you can't beat em for durability)
 
Claven2 said:
Bear in mind that the USA made MILLIONS of 1911's in WW1 and WW2 and the South Americans made around a million more on Colt tooling.

Those guns aren't just gone once they leave service - people generally own them. ;)
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Do they? I know the US sold off a lot of .45s via the DCM program prior to 1968 but the bulk of them they held onto until it was replaced in the 1980s and they were never sold. Were they scrapped?

You could say the same thing about the P38 but huge numbers of those were scrapped over the years.

Ditto for South America, I know the Brazilians still use some 9mm 1911s, but the Argentinians and others went to the Hi-Power ages ago. The 1911 hasn't been in front-line service for decades.
 
Glock, it works well nearly all the time and also pocesses the all-importnat 'cool factor'. People who are 'with it' have Glocks, old guys have 1911's and poor guys have Norinco
 
I think this question can ONLY be directed to North America, ie. Canada and U.S. because, really, what other part of the world allow their citizen to freely own firearms, albeit with all the restrictions? If then, I would say Glock and HP, in the hands of Military and LE, would rank in top 5. Others would include 92F and Sigs, certainly
 
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imagine_74714 said:
I think this question can ONLY be directed to North America, ie. Canada and U.S. because, really, what other part of the world allow their citizen to freely own firearms, albeit with all the restrictions? If then, I would say Glock and HP, in the hands of Military and LE, would rank in top 5. Others would include 92F and Sigs, certainly
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The question didn't say "owned by private individuals", it said: "western world". And Canada doesn't allow people to freely own firearms, last time I checked. :p
 
cybershooters said:
And Canada doesn't allow people to freely own firearms, last time I checked. :p
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Too true, Switzerland has much better laws, don't know what happened to Belgium but their's were among the freest anywhere (pre EU)
 
cybershooters said:
Do they? I know the US sold off a lot of .45s via the DCM program prior to 1968 but the bulk of them they held onto until it was replaced in the 1980s and they were never sold. Were they scrapped?

Some were. but it appears that the ones the govt' still has in stock are being overhauled and sent to the sandbox to fight another war.

when you are talking FMJ, bigger is better.;)
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