tark
Member
Well, C-96s and Lugers were both too expensive to make. They had very limited parts interchangeability without a lot of hand fitting and they weren't nearly as good a military pistol as the 1911 in the first place.Look at some of the other designs of that time; the Broomhandle, or even the Luger. The 1911 is the layout that has endured.
Moon
I think it was the latter. The arched mainspring housing came to be for a reason: It was an attempt to get the gun to shoot higher. Close your eyes and hold a 1911 ( not an A1 )at arm's length where it feels comfortable. Open your eyes and you might find find that the centerline of the bore is not parallel to the ground. It is probably pointing downward. Do the same thing with a Luger and you will find that the bore is probably more closely parallel to the ground. The arched housing was an attempt to solve this problem...that didn't really work.Either Browning really had the human hand figured out, or else we have been shooting the darn things so long that they simply feel great.
So who shoots with their eyes closed anyway???!!!