How the "Wondernine" DA/SA Pistol Rose, Ruled, and Fell to Glock

Before polymer and striker-fired pistols took over the holster world, there was the "Wondernine": a DA/SA, double-stack 9 mm that dominated cop shows, action movies and police duty belts for two decades. American Rifleman traces how that genre came to be, and why it still deserves respect.

Key points

• Walther started it: The piece credits Walther's PP series and the P38 with introducing the DA/SA hammer-drop safety that made carrying a chambered round practical.
• Smith & Wesson Americanized it: S&W's Model 39, later widened into the Model 59 with a Hi-Power-style double-stack magazine, set the template for high-capacity 9 mm service pistols.
• The military made it official: The XM9 trials of the early 1980s, aimed at replacing aging M1911A1s, pushed decocking safeties as a requirement, a competition Beretta won narrowly over SIG Sauer's P226.
• Hollywood cemented it: American Rifleman notes the Beretta 92 and SIG P226 became action-movie fixtures throughout the '80s and '90s.
• Glock ended it: The article argues that training complications with two different trigger pulls, plus the lower cost of polymer pistols from Austria, finished off the Wondernine's dominance.

Quick take

This is less a buying guide and more a reminder of where modern duty pistols came from. American Rifleman makes a fair case that DA/SA guns demanded more training than their replacements, but for shooters willing to put in the work, the author still argues there's something satisfying about running one well.

Read the full story: americanrifleman.org