The most reliable and durable handgun ever made: a service life in excess of 250,000 rounds going 10,000 jam-free rounds without a cleaning Tenifer finish that’s more rust-resistant than stainless steel continuing to function after being dropped out of a helicopter at an altitude of 400 feet working after being frozen in a solid block of ice, etc. With roughly 4,000 rounds through it, it’s been a fine shooter. I purchased my own 1967 vintage BHP as a birthday present to myself back in 2007. The “ Grande Puissance” spent several decades as the most widely used military, police, and counterterrorist pistol in the world, with its list of users including the elite British Special Air Service (SAS) and the FBI Hostage Rescue Team (HRT). high-capacity double-stack 9mm autoloaders indeed, the “Hi-Power” designation refers to the ammunition capacity and not the ballistic power of the caliber in which the pistol was chambered.īrowning Hi-Power. With its 13 + 1 standard ammo capacity, the BHP was the first of the “Wondernines,” i.e. Browning passed away in 1926 before this particular project was perfected, so the proverbial torch was passed on to Belgian gun designer Monsieur Dieudonné Saive, who saw the pistol through to completion in 1935, hence the P-35 designation. What’s more, two renowned firearms industry experts who are both known as hardcore M1911 aficionados, Ken Hackathorn and gunsmith Bill Wilson, have gone on record lavishing praise on the Beretta, with the former deeming it “the most reliable handgun I ever used” and the latter stating that “I shoot it just as well as the 1911.”įrom a personal standpoint, as I’ve written several times before, the Beretta 92 was the very first pistol I fell in love with – strictly platonically speaking of course – back at the tender age of 14.Īnother one of John Browning’s top three most enduring inventions (the third being the M2 “Ma Deuce”. In retrospect, that’s not surprising in light of the fact that Beretta is the world’s oldest industrial firm of any kind, dating back to 1526, so you gotta figure they know what they’re doing.īeretta 92FS. Sheriff’s Department as well as numerous other domestic law enforcement agencies. This pistol gained further credibility after being adopted by LAPD and the L.A. military, and in 1984 the Beretta 92F/M9 did precisely that, in turn fulfilling the role for 33 years - saw combat in Panama, Iraq, and Afghanistan along the way - before giving way to the SIG M17. And it’s one of my sentimental favorites as well my very first firearms purchase was a Springfield Armory M1911-A1, and I’m quite fond of both my Springfield Mil-Spec and my genuine WWI-vintage Colt.Īs previously indicated, this was the gun that had the daunting task that of succeeding the M1911 as the official sidearm of the U.S. It served faithfully in that role for nearly 75 years, and even though the M1911 was officially replaced in that role by the next gun on the list, it remains wildly popular with gun enthusiasts to this day, more than 100 years since its invention.
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