A Russian-, East German- or Bulgarian-made Pistolet Makarova. The 9X18MM Makarov. Built like a tank yet unbelievably "user friendly". Accurate. Eats any ammo you feed it, without a hiccup. Inexpensive but certainly not "cheap". I'd put a "Mak" up against any pistol made.
im kinda an xd fan myself but glocks are very worthy also.... cz 75b i like to. dont have one but shot one. now it will be my next purchase in the very near future.
It is tough to say. Any handgun can have issues. The 1911 has withstood the test of time, but since that is not an option and I don't carry one daily I will vote for Glock. I would also put the Beretta up there as well.
"Reliability: The U.S. Army "Mean Rounds Between Failure" (MRBF) requirement is 495 rounds for 9mm pistols. During testing of the CZ P-01, the average number of stoppages was only 7 per 15,000 rounds fired. This is a .05% failure rate or an MRBF of 2142!"
NATO testing of the CZ-P01-
Must be able to complete the following without failure:
4000 dry firings
3000 De-cockings
Operator level disassembly 1350 times with out ware or damage to components.
Complete disassembly 150 times, this is all the way down, pins, springs etc.
100% interchangability, any number of pistols randomly selected, disassembled, parts mixed and reassembled with no failures of any kind including loss of accuracy.
Safety requirements:
Drop test
1.5 meter (4.9”) drop test, this is done 54 times with the pistol loaded (blank) and the hammer cocked. Dropping the pistol on the butt, the muzzle, back of the slide, sides of the gun, top of the slide, in essence, any angle that you could drop the gun from. This is done on concrete and 0 failures are allowed! A failure is the gun firing.
3meter drop (9.8”) 5 times with the pistol loaded (blank) and the hammer cocked, This is done on concrete and 0 failures are allowed! A failure is the gun firing.
After these tests are complete the gun must fire without service.
The factory contracted an independent lab to do additional testing on guns that previously passed the drop tests. These pistol were dropped an additional 352 times without failure.
The pistol must also complete an environmental conditions test:
This means cold, heat, dust/sand and mud.
The pistol must fire after being frozen for 24 hours at –35C (-36F).
The pistol must fire after being heated for 24 hours at 70C (126F)
The pistol must fire after being submerged in mud, sand and combinations including being stripped of oil then completing the sand and mud tests again.
Service life:
The service life requirement from the Czech police was 15,000 rounds of +P ammo!
The pistol will exceed 30,000 rounds with ball 9mm.
IIRC there are a handful of pistols that passed the full NATO battery of tests. Glock 17, Sig P226, I'm sure there were others. Of course not every pistol gets submitted for the testing, only those seeking certain NATO contracts.
I hate to be a bandwagon jumper, but Glock definitely set the bar. But....I think my 'beater' P-series Rugers could give the Glocks a run for their money.