Howdy.
Long story short I love handguns. So damn much. The HK45C is my sweet tits good time pal but the glock 17 is the kinda gun that both insane gun nuts that are too far gone to care (howdy) or people that don't like or shoot guns much, like and enjoy.
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Holds a bunch of commie cures.
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Easy to shoot. (Low bore axis, easy and repeatable trigger pull, good sight pic, good grip).
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Dead stupid reliability.
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Mechanical simplicity.
What the fuck? I like the sig p320, shot a few but the glock is a better gat honestly.
Fucking thing is the best bedside table gun ever with a streamlight tlr-1 hl and a 21 rd mag.
So I'm long out of the Corps and was clearly never important enough to make decisions but I know two interesting things:
The slide cracking issue some Glocks have dealt with scared the military
The Sig team impressed with the modularity because not even the military can agree on which caliber is best.
Then I also know what really matters and is totally uninteresting:
Sig undercut Glocks price significantly
Sig has a (strange and confusing) agreement with Winchester over ammo and some other parts which means an American company gets in on the contract
The testing conditions were...odd and Glock called bullshit and made a bunch of people mad
Here is the GAO report if you are a nerd
http://www.gao.gov/assets/690/685461.pdf
Looks like $$$ was the biggest factor, the glocks came out to 45% more tendies.
Picking up the contact, even at or slightly below cost was a good move. They'll more than make it up with market share in the civilian market.
And long-term, too. Since they won the MHS program, they're basically locked in with the DoD for the next 20+ years. Fill the initial contract below cost, and fill all the subsequent contracts at a decent profit.
There are a number of police departments that issued the 92 because that's what the military used. They figured the military already did all the proof testing and if it was good enough for them. Others go with the "FBI uses Glock therefore..." as to why the Glock became as popular as it has. I look for a number of departments to pick the Sig P320/M17 line up as issued guns in the next decade for the same reasons.
TX DPS seems to issue 320's already, I've seen several holstered with the stendo mags loaded
Money is usually an enormous factor. Sig learned that lesson in 1985 when the P226 lost out to the Beretta 92 primarily because of price factor.
Let's be completelyhonest here. Glock 17s, Beretta 92 series, and the Sig P226/320 series are all spectacular guns. All three are high quality duty grade firearms. But at the end of the day, when the military is looking to buy guns by the thousands price difference gets expanded, and if they can get more units for the same price, they'll do that.