Posted on 08/27/2008 4:05:36 AM PDT by sig226
It was adopted in 1911 and is probably the longest serving military weapon ever devised. Although the English Webley revolver lasted a few more years of continous service, the Colt 1911A1 was shelved, then returned to service.
Some folks just like the caliber, others love the pistol. It was adopted because.38 caliber revolvers failed to stop the Mauro Tribesmen in the Phillippine Insurrection. .30 caliber Krag - Jorgenson rifles also failed to stop the Mauros, most likely because they ate opium, but the United States decided to standardize a larger caliber.
They first took up the Colt Model 1911 designed by John Browning. They changed it to the 1911A1 in 1924, after reviewing complaints from soldiers in World War I. This photo shows the differences.
The trigger was one of the best found on a military sidearm due to the single action fire control. It was used in Bullseye matches and a small industry evolved to modify the pistol to make it more accurate. Over the years, plenty of gunsmiths earned a comfortable living doing just this.
Of course, it evolved into the highly modified 'race guns' used in IPSC matches; pistols that have almost no practical utility at all, but are a hoot to fire on a timed course.
After the United States switched to the Beretta M9 9mm pistol, plenty of gun people thought the 1911 was destined to die an ignominious death at the hands of the 'wonder nine.' But along came Bill Clinton, who took away the high capacity magazine and thus eliminated the advantage of the 16 shot 9mm over the 8 shot .45. If you have to carry a thin gun anyway, it might as well make a big hole . . .
You can get a new 1911 for around $500.00 for a Springfield 1911 GI (the plain Jane model) all the way up to $4,000.00 if you want the top of the line from makers like Nighthawk. Or you can get your Brownell's Catalog and make your own.
God did the hard part, all I did was add the elbow grease via wire brushes, picks and sanding to clean off the residue of His handiwork...
you can have one 'just' like it if you got 6-8 years to spare...8^P
FReegards...
I stand corrected. Thank you for pointing this out. I meant John Browning. John Browning used the hands of cadeavors to see how the joints, and underlying tissues were affected by holding the gun. He actually opened up the tissues of the hand to check.
I actually like he look, it reminds me of damascus steel. Hows the bore?
Colt Series 70 Gold Cup National Match
L
Yep, particularly when I drop in the .460 Rowland conversion kit. :)
I prolly should replace the whole innards,
but hey, JMB's design still works...maybe someday a kit will come along...
Or, if .460 Rowland is too big for you, here's a nice .400 Corbon conversion kit>
both of these conversion kits will fit any 5" 1911. You can read about them here.
"Sheriff hopes to solve the mystery of the woman on the gun"
http://www.star-telegram.com/804/story/869619.html
A couple of years back I was at one of a series of public forums on pressing social forums, when the topic of the evening was illegal immigration. After the speaker had finished with his presentation on how *reasonable* tax increases could pay for their medical care, kids' education, housing etc, one noice old gentleman in the back of the room stood up and said *Why don't we just throw the freeloading bums out...?*
The smug speaker said *There are more than 20 million of them already here. Just how would you do that?*
You guessed it: my one word answer was: Trebuchet!
The crowd cracked up, then applauded. The guy at the podium obviously had no idea what the word meant.
I’ll help build it.
Whatta gem!
Fusion 10mm Longslide for $1155. It is about the same price as many mass production guns. It is easy to shoot too. Recoil is only like 45ACP. I usually shoot 250 rounds at each range session. When I picked it up at the gun range that I had the FFL delivery shipped to, they said “We apoligize, we have all been fondling it!”
Nam Vet
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