The four most influential handguns of the 20th century

[GermanExPara]

Don´t get me wrong, but there are so many guns, that it is so hard to pick up the top ten.....

The first striker- fired pistol on a Polymer- frame was not the Glock, it was the Heckler& Koch VP 70:



The Luger, P 38 are alright, but the first reliably working semi automatic pistol was the Borchardt C 93 dating back to 1893. Basically the great grandfather of all selfloaders and the father of the Luger.

Regarding the P 38:
I see the Walther PP as one of the breakthroughs. The P 38 was a kind of step back in the field of ergonomics ( seperate levers for disassembly, safety, slide release, magazine release at the bottom of the grip) where as the PP and PPK series were already decockable via the safety lever. And their mag release was on the side of the grip.


1911 of course and the HP......owned both of them.........too many guns to handle in this single thread.....

[MAC]

I never said the Glock was the first striker fired polymer pistol. Remember, I said the most influential pistols not the first at something. It would be hard to argue that the Glock isn't one of the most successful and thus influential pistols of the 20th century. It's feature set has been copied by most of the top selling handguns out there right now. It has set the bar for modern handgun design and most of the top pistol makers have borrowed heavily from its design principals.

The VP70 was a SMG sold as a pistol to civilians. It was a flop. It was 12 years before anyone else did anything notable with polymer frames after the failed VP70. The VP70 was also a blowback pistol (not influential) and it was a double action pistol. I don't know of any pistols the VP70 directly influenced.

The pistols I picked we're all from the 20th Century. Anything from the 19th century was purposely excluded.

I can see the PP being on the list, but chose the P38 because of its caliber, combined features and the fact Beretta copied the locking system almost verbatim in their extremely popular 92 series of pistols. The PP was a blowback sub-caliber pistol. It did directly influence other designs like the Makarov, P64, Cz82 and others although dimunative pocked sized service pistols slowly fell out of favor through the 20th century and most nations that once fielded them have gone on to 9mm pistols that are either double action or striker fired.

[GermanExPara]

My post was never intended as criticism, Mac. Just a supplemental.....no criticism at all from my side.
The VP 70 influenced the P 9 S vom H&K....

[MAC]

My post was never intended as criticism, Mac. Just a supplemental.....no criticism at all from my side.

I got that, brother.

If I didn't limit myself to 4 pistols, I would have included pistols like the PP or even the Luger and even perhaps the CZ75.

[Oddux]

If I didn't limit myself to 4 pistols, I would have included pistols like the PP or even the Luger and even perhaps the CZ75.

Since it's come up, what would be your expanded list and why?

[Jestik]

The VP70 was ugly as sin.

[The Anvil]

The VP70 was ugly as sin.

I think it's sweet looking, like a big (really big) PPK and it looks even better with the full auto stock. And Leon in the original Resident Evil used one. What more do you want?

You could say that many modern pistols copied feature sets from the Glock, but the Glock copied many of them from the VP70. The VP70 is the Glock's daddy.

[MAC]

The VP70 (came to market in 1970) wasn't all that revolutionary or influential and I doubt it played much of a role in the design of the Glock. Let's look at the features of the VP70.

The striker? Nothing new. The P08 Luger was striker fired. The heel release magazine? Glock didn't use it. Blowback operation? Nope, Glock went the Browning route. Push button cross-block safety? Nope... no one else thought that was a very good idea either. Double action 18lbs trigger? Nope, Glock went a different route there too. The VP70 wasn't really the first pistol to use polymer in the frame. The HK P9 came a year before the VP70 (went into production in 1969) and used polymer and steel in its construction.

The P9 and the later P9S was a bit clunky in that it used a roller locking system. However it used a more conventional double action/single action trigger system and found some commercial success, unlike the VP70.

P9S:

[GermanExPara]

The P9 S was one of the few pistols, which were certified in the 70ies , according to Federal Police Weapon standards hence the "P" signature.
Also one of the first pistols on the market with a polygonal barrel, which made it extremely precise. My father owned the original P 9, the P 9 S in 9mm and .45 and the Sport Set.

I enjoyed the guns a lot. Very soft recoil, reliable and precise, easy cleaning, nice finish and very nice for guys with big hands ( like me.... ) and the GSG 9 unit and the Navy Seals liked it, too....