LAST EDITED ON Mar-14-16 AT 04:10 PM (EDT)
 
I agree that you also probably handled that about as well as could be expected, and just fine for (and here I may be guilty of regional stereotyping) rural Maine, where guns are not exactly an uncommon or unfamiliar thing.

re: the official name being some variant of the date of adoption - the most famous example of this that I know of being the classic/nigh-immortal Colt 1911.

And yes, I can see why soldiers (anyone, really, but them least of all) would not like fussy guns.