Now that the M17/M18 are the new-ish kids on the block, how will the M9 be remembered during it’s time in service? Going back almost thirty years, the remarks I’ve heard include the following:
The M9 is “just too damn big” for a 9mm. People with small hands can’t grip it comfortably.
The M9 is too sensitive to adverse environments.
The M9’s open top slide design can potentially let in too much foreign material.
The M9’s slide-mounted decocker is awkwardly located.
Don’t recall hearing a lot of complaints about overall accuracy. IIRC, there were issues with mags from one particular vendor that collected sand and grit internally, making the mags liable to jamming up. This was quite some time ago, though.
In total, were there more cons than pros to this design?
Had we taken it to war in Europe somewhere like we imagined things were gonna happen in the 80s, it would have ran 100% so long as checkmate mags weren’t used. Instead we fought a war in two deserts and it’s actually impressive our M4s all didn’t lock up hard.
The only other problem was female service members found it to be too big, everyone who came in from 1911s was just fine.
I also thing that SIG with the modular trigger group and accessory size frames will fail hard the first time we fight with it. The insides of those frames are gonna wear and sooner or later that trigger group is not going to seat correctly and it’s gonna malf harder than a Chauchat in the rain.
I was fine with my issued M9. Being I was a REMF and fair haired fobbit, it was fine for what it was.
What I wasn’t happy with was being issued one with a near cracked locking block and also the recoil spring was worn out.
It wasn’t properly maintained and it was embarrassing that I had to order my own locking blocks and recoil springs and find my own magazines when I was deployed with it.
I have two m9s. One is an officer issued G0 which I purchased from the retired army guy.
The other is a commercial one that I sent to get the NM package done to it.
I think most of it’s issues were maintenance related, especially magazines used well beyond service life. Heck, I recall in my day with a 1911, I had my girlfriends dad send me magazines while overseas. I gave my son a new load out of Pmags for his deployments once I saw his issued ones. It’s a common problem even with private entities, squeezing blood from a turnip. Detmongo can attest to this, we stomped on a few mags to get the armory to stop reissuing bad mags, meanwhile there’s boxes full looking pretty.
I agree also on the 320-hope they keep up with those small parts!
I did so many private purchase orders for factory and Mecgar mags shipped to APOs that year it wasn’t funny. For some reason nobody even had access to Mecs through official channels and when they found out they could get OEM 17 (might have been 18) round mags for like $12 it was a full on feeding frenzy.
I saw more than 1 broken trigger return spring in the Army, I blame poor maintenance. I shot expert the first time I fired an M9, but I still remember how weird the grip and DA trigger (and DA/SA transition) felt.
Andy
P.S. Not a hater, I own a 92G and just ordered a Trigger Job in a Bag for it.
Reliability problems due to bad mags, poor maintenance, and use of non Beretta replacement parts. New guns with new mags ran fine.
Beretta also developed and incorporated engineerng changes into the commercial guns they couldn’t incorporate into mil spec guns since the improvements deviated from mil spec. The USMC sand resistant mags are nice.
I believe the M9A1 was strictly a commercial product with no TDP or milspec drawings associated with it. So the USMC could get upgrades (such as the latest generation locking block, etc.) without going through several layers of approval and justification.
Did anyone ever actually get in a gun fight in an actual war with an M9…like ever? Seriously, any combatants against US forces actually get put down specifically by that in circumstances where it actually mattered who had what gun? Every actual combat use I’ve read or listened to involved Sig 226’s or G17s or 19s.
The only time I’ve read or heard of differences of pistols being notable was in the Philippines fighting against the Moros which demonstrated some weak .38 revolver caliber being insufficient thus creating the demand for the .45 and thus the 1911.
"WASHINGTON — At least seven U.S. troops were wounded Saturday when an Afghan soldier allegedly fired on them inside a military compound in northern Afghanistan, the second apparent insider attack in a week.
The incident occurred around 2 p.m. local time, during a training exercise at Camp Shaheen in Mazar-e Sharif. The attacker, a commando assigned to the Afghan army’s 209th corps, allegedly fired three rocket-propelled grenades at the Americans before continuing the attack with two M4 carbines, an Afghan defense officials told Military Times. The assailant was later shot dead by an American armed with a pistol, the Afghan official said.
There are no American fatalities, according to a statement from the NATO command headquartered in Kabul. The wounded were evacuated and the incident is under investigation, officials said."
I would say it matters to machine gunners. The MG stays in place and manned on a defensive position 24-7. The machine gunner might need to sleep, piss, or eat, so he gets the M9 to go with him.