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Photo by Department of National Defence

When a Canadian soldier is deployed to a war zone such as Afghanistan or Mali, they’re issued with whatever Browning Hi-Power is deemed to be least likely to give out. That’s why some have joked that if they’re ever forced to use their sidearm in combat, they’d be better off throwing it than shooting it.

“If you give me a choice of a sharp stick or a Browning, I’ll … sadly take the Browning but will look fondly at the stick,” Bob Kinch, a former competitive marksman with the Canadian Armed Forces, wrote in a September Quora post.

Like many times when the Canadian military tries to buy something, however, the quest to replace the Browning is now held up in a years-long procurement limbo. A 2016 statement by the Department of National Defence estimated that soldiers wouldn’t be able to get their hands on new pistols until at least 2026.

Canada’s Hi-Powers are so desperately obsolete, however, that the army has been forced to greenlight a stopgap program to buy up some working pistols in the meantime. Known as the “Army Interim Pistol Program,” it will buy about 7,000 sidearms to immediate plug what the army is calling its “current pistol capability gaps.”

Photo by Library and Archives Canada

“Due to the Browning 9mm advancing age, replacement of these pistols will be necessary in the future,” the Department of National Defence told the National Post in a statement.

When Canadians were still shooting Nazis and North Koreans, the Browning was a fine weapon. Designed in the 1920s, it ranked among the most reliable sidearms that a mid-century soldier could expect to carry into battle. It was one of the few weapons to carry the dubious distinction of being used by both sides. After German troops overran a French factory making Hi-Powers in 1940, they ordered the facility to continue cranking out the pistols for use by Axis forces.