As seen on the internet:
The 1911 is the longest continuously produced firearm in history. Other designs might be older but they have been discontinued and brought back. The 1911 has been made by at least one manufacturer every year since its adoption in 1911. That is 108 years of continuous production.
It has served in every branch of our armed forces and on every continent that we have fought a war on since WWI. It is still in service with some special military units today.
It still dominates in competition, albeit with a variety of upgrades, and is made by more gun makers than any other model of firearms except for the AR-15.
There is a good reason for this. As most true gun aficionados know, the 1911 was created by John Moses Browning. What most people don’ t know is that he found the design inscribed on golden plates and transcribed the drawing onto drafting paper by reading out of a hat.
I have 3 1911s, tho I wouldnt mind bringing that Sig home… but my wife has an HK…
I would never have suspected you were a California politician… 😉
My 1911 (not 1911A1) is ensconced in the safe, my SIG resides in the bedroom. So in a way, I sleep with her.
I see your 1911 and raise a Mauser 98 😀
That’s an action thats been in production for 119 years.
And yes, continous production – there were several countries that produced the rifle when germany was not allowed to.
But I guess the 1911 surpassed the number of produced Mauser a few years ago.
Who is still producing Mauser 98s? Last I knew they stopped making those in the 1950s or 1960s. There are plenty still in use, but I was not aware they were still being produced. Obviously the “Mauser action” is still produced by many companies and used on numerous rifles, but that’s not the same as saying the Mauser 98 itself is still being made.
Obviously I may be wrong, and I would be interested to know if indeed the 98 has been in production all along. If is is, has it been in CONTINUOUS production, or did someone just start producing them again to meet high demand once the surplus dried up. Because you could get cheap 98K and variants as surplus for a couple hundred bucks right up until 20 years ago. I don’t understand why anyone would be building Mauser 98 clones in 1980 when there were millions of them kicking around for cheap, and there was no more military use for them. Unless someone was using the old tooling to build Mauser 98 “hunting rifles”.
I think the S&W K frame beats the 1911 by a few years since either S&W or a Romance language speaking imitator/licensee have been at it since 1899. Now if we limit it to semi-auto pistols as the rather funny meme appears to do then JMB wins.
The S&W Hand Ejector came out in 1899. It is the grandpappy to the K-frame. But it went through a few substantial internal changes. The 4th generation which became the M&P and the Model 10 wasn’t finished until after WWI.
But then on could argue how minor/major the changes have to be to be counted as “one” model.
Because the 1911 never was in continous production – the 1911A1 was.