The future of handguns: will we ever get any fundamental changes?

[CJS3]

Designers have spent the last 100 years trying to improve handgun design. The good designs are still with us, the bad are just footnotes.

http://rock-island-auction.ammoland.com/824.html

Until someone comes up with some sort of energy weapon that is more efficient than a 44Mag. The current kinetic energy weapons in use today will be with us for some time to come.

What you wanna bet that the 2111 Government model will be a hot seller.

[seeker_two]

With the exception of smaller lasers and/or holo-sights (think flip-up holo for easy holstering), I think the big innovations will be coming in ammo development. Improved powders giving more efficient burn and propulsion in shorter barrels....improved non-lead bullets exceeding current performance with less recoil....I'd even expect the end of the hollowpoint bullet for EMFJ/Critical Defense-type rounds by year 2100.

By the end of this century, I expect a 10"bbl P90 to have the same ballistic performance as a full-sized M16.....and a 9mm M9 pistol to have as much punch as a 7.62x39 FMJ fired from a shorty AK.....

[Pathfinder]

Why?

Let me thump the bible of JMB for a second   - The 1911 is 100 years old next year, older really in design. The handgun itself is reaching - or has reached - a plateau of near perfection. What we see today as others have put it above either a materials change in the handgun's manufacture or an accessories boomlet. But no real innovation, mostly experimentation to see what the market will go for.

The last real innovation IMHO - and it died quickly - was the gyro-jet handgun. And this is where the answer to Why? comes in - the next innovation will be where an innovation in the projectile drives innovation in the delivery system ala the gyrojet.

I can't recall the name of the outfit more recently, went out of business too IIRC, but they had a magnetic multi-projectile launcher, could shoot thousands of projectiles electrically fired. Something like that. Or not, that is the nature of innovation - you don't know what will come or from which direction.

Update - the company is Metal Storm and apparently they are still around. - http://www.metalstorm.com/component/option,com_frontpage/Itemid,79/

[twyacht]

Remington, just released the R1 1911, it is a clone except for flared ejection port, and better sights, than the one released for WWI,  90 years ago. The "market demographics" and demand dictate direction.

Look at the .380 bandwagon many manufacturers jumped on. (the S&W Bodyguard is more bad ass than the LCP) IMHO.

Either way, check the hesitancy of purchasing a "new" model from anyone. It will get better, it will evolve, and I don't know exactly where it's headed.

But, as posted, my M+P, my FN, G21, and good ol' 1911, will be handed down, and when the "blasters" come out, I hope my son let's me shoot his.

[Timothy]

I don't know if we need the handgun to change.  It's a tool, designed for a particular purpose and it performs that function when it's asked.  Because of our love of the sport and our curiosity of the design and function, we want things that are new and different to pique our interests.

We're human, we get bored or conditioned and somehow feel that if we don't have the latest and greatest "doo-dad" we'll be left behind.  Personally, though I appreciate good design, I don't feel the need to buy the latest and greatest but rather marvel at the simplicity of what works.

Certainly we will see radical changes in design, materials or optics but the tool itself is still just doing its job.  Expanding gases forcing a mass through a cylinder and propelling it in the desired direction.  

Polymer technology is the norm but it really came about out of a need to minimize cost while maximizing repeatability.  A great and easy way to make accurate parts in a cost effective manner.  Not exactly revolutionary but it served it's purpose.  Gaston and the boys were the first to the game but since, they've done nothing extraordinary.

Pardon me for rambling boys and girls.  I'm sittin' here sipping a 15 year old Single Malt and getting quite goofy...

[Sponsor]

[fightingquaker13]

Pardon me for rambling boys and girls.  I'm sittin' here sipping a 15 year old Single Malt and getting quite goofy...

I'd say profound, but it would go to your head (much like the single malt), so I'll stay with goofy as well. Still, you are right. What we have works. BUT...one of two things will happen.
Option one (The Bill Ruger/Gaston Glock option), someone will figure out how to make the platforms we have work better/cheaper/smarter.
Option two (the JMB option), smoeone will come up with either new mechanics or a new propulsion system that changes the game.
I'm like you, I like the old stuff. My favorite gun is a 20 gauge Parker SxS that my Great Granddad bought new in 1918. I spent way more than I could afford buying a 12 gauge Merkel to kill duccks with. I won't change either my basic hunting or SD battery. Still, I do like new toys and there are always three or four  spots in the stable for guns I'll buy, try and trade in, just to get to play with them. I'm hoping some innovation will make one of those an I wouldn't part with it on a bet gun.
FQ13   

[Rob10ring]

I just don't think an energy weapon would be as fun to shoot as a projectile weapon.

[Overload]

until we see a major change in ammo,we wn't see any major changes in hand guns. 

Hornady Superformance.  They're able to get 100+ fps out of the same rounds without excessive pressures.  I expect this to trickle down to handguns.  In fact, powder technology hasn't changed that much since smokeless powder was invented 100+ years ago.
  We have better ammo today, but there's the problem with older guns' metallurgy not being able to stand more powerful rounds, so they don't allow it to be made.  We'd need all new rounds (and guns)(like .40S&W and .45GAP) to harness higher pressures.

I expect to see smaller and lighter guns in the near future.  The concealed carry market will drive R&D.  We already have new service sized guns thanks to Big Army's aborted replacement of the M9.  We've seen the explosion of tiny .380acp guns, so expect to see a bunch of mouseguns in 9mm.  I think we'll see holster and accessory advancements tied to guns.  For example, how about optical sights (or lasers) that turn on when drawn from a holster, and off when re-holstered?  We have magazines with witness holes to show round count.  How about guns that show this too?  Speaking of lasers, expect to see these on guns whose sight picture is poor (small guns).  There haven't been many titanium handguns.  Why?  Further out, I expect to see recoil dealt with in new ways.  This might change the shape of guns.

[Timothy]

I think Overload just touched on the crux of new development.  

Most of the gun inovations over the last 150 years were driven by the War Dept or Pentagon.  We're not seeing that anymore and what's changed is private company development will stagnate due to a lack of funds.  Competition today is driven by a commercial market with limited dollars to spend.  It really boils down to who want's to take the most risk with no guarantee of return.

Most cartridge inovation is not in the auto loading guns but in the revolvers.  Nearly all of the autoloading cartridges are pushing the 100 year mark as already mentioned.  Bullet design can change the face of a particular cartridge but not neccessarily change the platform with which it's delivered.

[fullautovalmet76]

I throw this in for a little spice:

When I first saw his videos about 20 years ago, they really changed me and how I look at the world.

I wish I could find his video about paradigms. Barker tells the story about the 1968 watch convention, or something like that, where Swiss made watches where considered the best in the world. For those old enough to remember, including me, remember that watches used to be comprised of springs and gears and the best came from the Swiss. But a company at the show came up with a design that completely changed the game- Seiko introduced the first watch that was driven by a quartz motor. The conventional wisdom lampooned and dismissed this design, but as history has shown that type of watch took over and eclipsed Swiss made watches.

Side note: I think Michael Bane used to work with this guy or something but I could be wrong.