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.