Last Of The Breed: Marine Corps M45A1

[Gary1911A1]

Anecdotal suggestions heard in a quite a few P&S Podcasts claim that Roland's unit (whatever that was) had STIs in 40 and an armorer deployed with them to keep them running. I have no direct knowledge, just what I gathered from the discussions; hopefully someone with closer ties could chime in.

Larry Vickers talked about that in a 1911 Build Class I took from him. As I recall he said someone in Delta was a competition shooter and convinced someone to adopt that pistol, but it didn't work out as well as their prior 1911s'.

[JAH 3rd]

I have a Gen 1 & 2 M&P full-size pistol in 45acp. Both have been 100% reliable. I realize these pistols were designed with a 10 round magazine from the start. When looking forward, who knows what legislation is coming down the road when it comes to magazine capacity. The 10 round limit was just some figure pulled out of the air. I am not aware of any science around that number......just politicians appearing to be doing something. Feel good legislation. So with an eye towards an even more restrictive magazine capacity, a 1911 with a 7 or 8 round magazine comes to mind. Something small like a S&W Shield or something along that line would be good. Throw in a revolver or two with appropriate speedloaders.

[Jeep]

[QUOTE=UniSol;900450]

And long hair is always better than a high and tight. I never really did any VBSS work, but I don't remember the platoons that did ever complaining about the 1911s in an amphib environment....but, different times, different expectations.

And yeah, Eglin swamps are NASTY. I remember spending the whole night doing "land nav" without ever touching ground. I think it had rained for a week prior.

A lot depends on your headgear. If you are wearing a helmet most of the time in jungle-like conditions, you can find lovely things like leeches and insects in that hair. (Did I mention that I hated leeches?). I had a platoon sergeant who had been a squad leader in the 4th ID during the fighting around Dak To in the Central Highlands in Vietnam. He was a black guy who always kept his hair short and told a hilarious story about one of his black troops who grew an Afro when those were the (non-regulation) fashion. The kid always kept his helmet on to hide the Afro. One day he took the helmet off because something was hurting and his fellow soldier found what amounted to a spider nest in his hair. The Afro suddenly went out of fashion in that company.

[Jeep]

I have a Gen 1 & 2 M&P full-size pistol in 45acp. Both have been 100% reliable. I realize these pistols were designed with a 10 round magazine from the start. When looking forward, who knows what legislation is coming down the road when it comes to magazine capacity. The 10 round limit was just some figure pulled out of the air. I am not aware of any science around that number......just politicians appearing to be doing something. Feel good legislation. So with an eye towards an even more restrictive magazine capacity, a 1911 with a 7 or 8 round magazine comes to mind. Something small like a S&W Shield or something along that line would be good. Throw in a revolver or two with appropriate speedloaders.

Governor Cuomo in NY passed a bill limiting pistols to 7 rounds; on finding that most had no 7 round magazines made for them, the bill was amended (or maybe it was just administrative guidance) saying you could own 10-round magazines but had to download them to 7 rounds. The federal judge hearing to case was very pro-gun control, but even he said that downloading to 7 was too stupid for words, and so threw out that requirement.

I think the 10-round limit comes from Josh Sugarman of the old Violence Policy Center. He is the one who pushed the left to be anti-'assault rifle" and I think he came up with the 10 round limit because there weren't many 10 round mags back then and the mag limit was intended as a back-door ban of the weapon. But whatever, it is now lefty dogma--they are in favor of banning mags with more than 10 rounds because everyone they know agrees with that.

[TGS]

I don’t think I’d go G19 if restricted to 10 rounds. Maybe things have improved, but my experience with neutered Glock mags haven’t been 100%. I know others on here have experienced the same. Not saying I’d go 1911 either.

That only applies to Glock single stack 10 round mags.

If you block a regular capacity double stack mag to 10 rounds it works fine.

/Red herring.

[45dotACP]

That only applies to Glock single stack 10 round mags.

If you block a regular capacity double stack mag to 10 rounds it works fine.

/Red herring.

I wasn't aware there were blocked mags available for Glocks.

Then again, there are 9mm Glocks with a standard capacity of ten rounds now so if Glock blows your skirt up and you live with stupid mag limits you will likely be fine as long as you don't have a dumb roster to deal with.

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[JSGlock34]

Just to note, the reason that the Marines bought Springfield Professionals, Kimber ICQBs, and Springfield Custom Carry pistols at various times was that PWS armorers couldn't produce enough M45 MEUSOC rebuilds as MARSOC stood up. The M45A1 was intended to reduce the armorer burden (with drop-in parts).

At a certain point, you have to consider whether the (debatable) merits of issuing a 1911 are worth the cost in man-hours. In my opinion, sidearms should demand a level of maintenance commensurate with their role on the battlefield.

In any case, here are two videos that show Force Reconnaissance and MARSOC training with their respective sidearms.

[45dotACP]

Off topic, but were those guys in the MARSOC vid shooting at Rogers Shooting School?

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[Dave Williams]

Off topic, but were those guys in the MARSOC vid shooting at Rogers Shooting School?

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Not Rogers Shooting School, but a Rogers Range somewhere.

[HCM]

Just to note, the reason that the Marines bought Springfield Professionals, Kimber ICQBs, and Springfield Custom Carry pistols at various times was that PWS armorers couldn't produce enough M45 MEUSOC rebuilds as MARSOC stood up. The M45A1 was intended to reduce the armorer burden (with drop-in parts).

At a certain point, you have to consider whether the (debatable) merits of issuing a 1911 are worth the cost in man-hours. In my opinion, sidearms should demand a level of maintenance commensurate with their role on the battlefield.

In any case, here are two videos that show Force Reconnaissance and MARSOC training with their respective sidearms.

In case anyone gets the wrong impression from the cool videos:

Make-A-Wish kid spends day as a Marine standing in line at the armory

https://www.duffelblog.com/2019/05/m...at-the-armory/

TWENTYNINE PALMS, California — When eight year-old Conrad Greeley found out his leukemia was terminal, his family immediately contacted the Make-A-Wish foundation since he always wanted to spend a day living out his childhood dream of joining the Marine Corps.

Luckily, Make-A-Wish came through, and on Tuesday, Conrad met up with 2nd Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment’s Easy Company at 0400 outside the armory. The company was drawing weapons to verify serial numbers for the third time that week.

I tried to teach him how to spin up a CASEVAC 9-line but he couldn’t figure it out,” Casey said. “At least his hair is in regs.”

At 0630, the armory gates opened and Marines flooded in. As the smallest and newest boot, Conrad dutifully assumed his place at the back of the line. At 1100, just as he was getting close to the window, the armorers cut for chow.

When they came back at 1300, Conrad was informed they couldn’t issue him a rifle because Gunny hadn’t signed his weapons cards. After standing by aimlessly until 1700 for his team leader to tell him what to do, it was time for Conrad to head home.