What is a “race gun”, Johnny?
Does every soldier carry a sidearm, or just officers?
I don’t know about the Army, but an M9 is a flyer’s primary duty weapon. I had to carry it everywhere I went when deployed in Afghanistan.
Possibly it’s black? Or he’s confusing it with the Colt 45 malt liquor commercials and drawing some parallel? I dunno. Confused the hell out of me too.
It really doesn’t have to be so accurate on the battlefield that you can put a shot through someone’s eye at 50 yards. You’re making a nearly half inch hole in them no matter where it hits.
The second one stepped out of a scifi movie.
I like my Beretta because I have personally put thousands of rounds through it, from amateur handloads to factory hi-performance loads, military hardball to Black Talon hyper expanding bullet styles and it has never failed to feed or fire. Absolute, dead-nuts reliability goes a long way with me, because I have other semi-autos that are more finicky. I used it in a 50ft. centerfire pistol league against shooters using everything from snub nosed .38s to fully 'smithed Colt Pythons and Thompson Center single shots and handloads. I finished in the top 50% out of 40-50 shooters, using an off the shelf combat pistol and cheapo Winchester military ball ammo. So…it’s accurate enough for my needs. 15+1 rounds plus I have Beretta factory 20 round mags, so plenty of firepower on tap. I would love to have a Colt style 1911 and may yet but would not trade my Beretta for one.
US Army - only the officers generally are issued the M9; perhaps some enlisted in the medical areas as well. In my experience in Afghanistan; the units I supported had the officers including the CO carrying an M4 carbine when out on operations.
From what my buddy told me, everyone has a weapon, but it’s dependent on what your job is- the conversation came about while we were talking about him carrying a gun while deployed in Iraq, and he said something to the effect of being thankful that since he was in the HHC of the CID battalion for Iraq, he carried a SIG P228(M11), and that it was a lot easier to deal with in the chow hall than the poor grunts carrying things like M249s.
Neither of us knows why the CID people carried SIG pistols instead of the M9s though.
They are more concealable, so they are the standard issue weapon for CID. That way they can go around in civilian clothes carrying their concealed M11. Since that is what the unit has available, that is what they will carry around when deployed as well.
Combat medics carry M4s. Officers will usually have an M9 as a sidearm in addition to their M4.
Machine gunners (M240B) also carried a M9, since it is faster to use in a close up emergency.
Personally, I didn’t like the 9mm and even the .45cal was too small. I carried a 40mm as my sidearm.
Various security/law enforcement/SOF branch units get the SIG in the different services, for the reasons stated above.
I notice with the various military auto pistols and SMGs of the 20th Century, the US was an outlier on the heavy-punching side with their use of .45cal. Heck, elsewhere the 9mm Parabellum was considered a relatively high powered round for much of that time, what with a lot of Europe going through the century packing light-load 9mm (or even .32cal/7.65mm). (I suppose the Europeans simply did not expect the sidearm to be a one-hit man-stopper).
This is true. That gunny was a poor marksman if he couldn’t put 100 out of 100 in a human sized target at 50 yards and any farther than that you want a rifle. That’s a lot of reloading compared to the 9 though.
I, uh, I… what?
I always wondered, could you load one of those with buckshot? 
Handguns, I have only shot recreationally (rifles, I have mostly shot for purposes of training and qualification). I don’t mind the Sigs, I find the Beretta to be too light for how big it is, and I like the heft of the M1911. Evidently, my hands shake a bit (possibly due to the fact that I have a slight caffeine addiction), and I find that the heft of the M1911 helps stabilize me a bit when I shoot.
As far as rifles go, I’m still undecided on M4 vs M16. M4 is definitely less of a pain to carry around, which mind prove decisive since I work a desk job. I would rather carry M9 when deployed if I had the choice, of course. A friend points out that handguns have a much shorter engagement distance, but if a bad guy kicks in the door to my office, the effective engagement range on a point target for any firearm will be about 10 feet anyways.
I guess in that scenario, I might as well throw a stapler at him. Should throw him off balance while I drag the rifle out from under the desk.
The M320:
http://i46.tinypic.com/3534mx5.jpg
To me, a sawed-off shotgun is better than any pistol-you can be reasonably sure that whatever you hit will be dead.
And its not a lot heavier than a .45.
Except that it is illegal…
Only if it has a stock.
I always liked the .45. I have (had: long story) the one my dad brought home from WWII. My brother took off the original grips and put on Packmayr grips, which makes it a much more fun gun to shoot. Along the way, I replaced the barrel, bushing and spring, but the top and bottom are still original. If I ever get it back from where it’s been sitting for the last 20 years, I’ll try to find out when it was made.