Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Handguns Are metal framed legacy handguns doomed

I'm old enough to have purchased a new S&W 5906 back in the day, and recently found and purchased an California Parks Dept 4006 for nostalgia. I'm also an person who likes Sig P series and have a couple P220, P226, and a P239. I also have been picking up some older vintage revolvers but that's another subject.

Anyway, the S&W gen 3 metal framed handguns are no longer with us and that's old news, but Sig has been dramatically reducing the classic P series line of their legacy pistols. Already the P227 is gone along with the P239. There's no SAS and other versions being catalogued either. I'm wondering if it's a soon to be reality that they'll cut out the P220, 226, and 229?

Everyone else has ditched the metal framed pistols so why wouldn't Sig continue to axe their line?

Currently we're in a time of the $600+ poly framed handgun. They've convinced everyone that a lightweight pistol is the only handgun that works and have prices on them that are insane. It's almost like there's getting to be no choice anymore. We have a flood of poly guns, a bunch of 1911 choices, and then hardly any metal framed handguns of other designs.

I don't hate the current poly framed pistols but I'm fed up with the high prices of some of them and like having the option of having a classic Sig or S&W (which I do) and would like to have support for them in the future, but it's looking uncertain.

There's some real amazing old designs out there that sadly are now gone. When I think of my old Beretta 950 25acp and my S&W 3913 Ladysmith I am grateful to have come across them and own them. It also make me sick that they're swept into the dust bin of history.

Old Rangers looked back with fondness on the Colt's Model P revolvers. Army Sergeants looked back on their 1911's with tears in their eyes when the Beretta came to town. Old Troopers swore by their 357 magnums, and I wouldn't care today to stick my 1076 in my waistband, but nothing stays the same. I spent the majority of my LE career with a Glock in my holster. It looks like that trend will continue with the generation (or two) who came after me. There will be another innovation, who knows what it will be, and when it does, the men and women who came of age when the Glock ruled the roost will lament its' passing. Just the nature of things.

They are things of the past, when it comes to semi-autos designed for serious purposes. Technology has made them an anachronism.

Nothing wrong with collecting, shooting, and liking those guns, made in the heyday of that class of weapon. You can carry them, too, and train with them, but they are no longer state of the art.

Oh really?

Plastic is cheaper. That's pretty much it.

And lighter, and less prone to corrosion.

Well I'm stuck in the past. Last pistol I bought was a SIG 238. Only reason I did was it a small 1911 platform and metal. No interest at all in a polymer pistol or (WHAT) revolver.

I've got the P238, too. Cool little guns. Mine's been 100% reliable.

you can't hit someone over the head with a polymer framed pistola with the same effect as the old 1911.

There isn't a single thing a metal framed gun does that a comparable polymer gun doesn't do better. Like my Smith wheelguns I love so much...they are neat to look at, but their time in the sun has passed.

Yep. And I bet a lot of old Colt SAA and S&W Triple Locks were used to give bad guys an attitude adjustment with a little rap on the noggin.

Best friend has his Great GrandDad’s old S&W Tripple Lock .44. He was an old time Sherriff in Waco TX. Killed 2 bad guys with it and brought down a fleeing bank robber by shooting him in the ass with it.
If you look down the barrel, you can see a very slight bend. He said that happened when he “rapped a niqqer gal upside the head for sassing him”.

I am getting into 1911's now...

Guess I'm ass backwards

As far as the less corrosion argument, I guess my usage doesnt warrant that level of lack of care. Granted I don't want a blued gun, but a good stainless probably wont corride while it's under my care..... maybe if I was operating in a jungle for days or weeks on a mission but between my car, house, etc., I just don't frequent areas where ultra corrosion resistance would be an issue.... It doesn't take me but a few minutes to wipe one down and clean one up.....

YMMV

Both plastic and metal "work"

Well the sun still shines on the metal ones in my neck of the woods. Wonder what would happen if one left a polymer pistol out in the desert sun...

You're probably right. I'm sure there are hundreds of holsters full of polymer goo all over the southern border.

Would not be anything quick, but anything made of rubber, plastic or their derivatives does not seem over time to last long. Metal will still be the same.

If you just want to talk about pocket pistols, say so. If you're going to leave it open, "handguns" is very broad.

Show me a plastic gun that will handle anything but piss ant cartridges. Show me one that will handle .44 magnum, high pressure .45 Colt, or .454 Casull cartridges. Show me one that'll handle the .460 or .500 S&W. I'm waiting.

Tom

There are a lot of Glocks still running around that have 30+ years of hard road behind them. They are fine..

Use whatever silly arguments you want to convince yourself that polymer is a fad....they don't get any less ridiculous. The die has been cast, they are proven.

Yeah ..there's your Red Herring.

Well I'm glad I have the choice. Seems you have made yours as well. I'll pick one that is not polymer/plastic.