Posted on 05/26/2022 9:44:40 PM PDT by max americana
I just remembered my grampy's M1911 while watching this. Simon's right: Browning is one of the greatest inventors of all time.
CHAPTER 1: JOHN MOSES BROWNING childhood to the Philippine American War (goodbye Schofield)
CHAPTER 2: 6:30 ENGINEERING FOR WARWARE : from revolver to semi auto
CHAPTER 3: 11:50 AN ELEGANT WEAPON or how Browning won the US military contract 1910
CHAPTER 4: 13:54 START OF A LEGENED (How American troops kicked ass with the 1911 in WW1 to WW2 to Kuwait)
CHAPTER 5: MODERN WEAPON 17:33 to history
Thanks. Big 1911 fans here.
L
The development of the 1911 is neither as ‘clean’ nor as ‘cut and dried’ as the guy in the video makes it sound. It’s not like the Army approached Colt with the request and JMB promptly squatted an pooped out a perfectly-formed 1911. It was well a more incremental and evolutionary process than that.
The ‘Alpha’ of the 1911 was Colt’s Model of 1900, a swinging link design chambered in .38 Auto. Not .380 Auto (that hadn’t been invented yet), Browning’s own semi-rimless (and now obsolete) .38 Auto.
Browning “evolved” the Model of 1900 through the Model of 1902 (which was being groomed for the military market) and the 1903 Pocket Hammer and 1903 Pocket Hammerless, which were for the civilian market.
In 1904 came the Thompson-LaGarde tests, as a result of which Thompson and LaGarde recommended to the Army that its new service pistol should fire a bullet of a minimum of .41 caliber and preferably .45 cal. Then-colonel John Thompson was thick as thieves with the crew at Colt and it was he who put the bug in JMB’s ear that the new request for submissions from the government was going to be asking for guns firing a .45-caliber bullet.
Browning got ahead of the game by creating Colt’s Model of 1905, which he chambered for the new .45 Automatic Pistol cartridge he also had just created.
Colt sent the new cartridge design to all the usual ammunition manufacturers with details of what they required in the way of a submission if that company wanted to enter into the competition to be the Army’s official manufacturer. The winner from all the submissions was the Union Metallic Cartridge company.
When producing their version of Browning’s design, UMC took it on themselves to use the headstamp “.45 ACP” on their cartridge casings, the superfluous “C” standing for “Colt,” a tip of the hat (or maybe just sucking up) to the gun company. And that’s how the round came to be known as the .45 ACP, despite the fact that that wasn’t what Browning himself had named it.
The Army’s first evaluation tests were in 1907 and Colt submitted the Model of 1905 for the occasion. Its top competitors were the Savage Model 1907 (scaled up from the original .32 ACP to .45 ACP) and a PO8 Luger chambered in .45 ACP.
The Colt came out on top in the tests and the Luger came second. Army Ordinance wanted to give the top two competitors opportunity to re-work their submissions for further evaluation so they requested 200 ‘improved’ samples for the next round of what would be more extensive field trials. Colt agreed but DWM declined because they had other projects they thought potentially more profitable, so the second entry by default went to Savage, which was happy to gin up another 200 examples of their rotating-barrel design.
Colt submitted the Model of 1907 to the second round of trials, which was identical to the 1905 Model (including its swinging link design) except for — at the Army’s request — the addition of the grip safety.
Based on the Army evaluation of the 1907, Browning designed the Model of 1909, which dropped the swinging link in favor of the single-link tilting barrel, which remains a key feature of 1911s to this day.
Browning followed up the Model of 1909 with the 1910, by which time the evaluation tests were becoming more rigorous. The 1910 experienced numerous failures in a 6000-round field trial, some of them catastrophic. JMB made adjustments to the 1910, most of which were either changes to heat treatment processes or small machining details. The result was Colt’s Model of 1911, which ran through the same 6000-round testing with nary a hiccup.
The Savage submission had still been tagging along all this time but without making the constant improvement the Colt had. The 1911 proved the stake through the Savage’s heart because while the 1911 was running flawlessly, it was still having malfunctions and component failures.
So truth be told, the 1911 wasn’t born in a manger and JMB made a lot of missteps along the way. And he had a lot of help before he arrived at what would become the lusty Colt, the trusty Colt, the weapon democratic, whose vicious might makes men one height, the Army automatic.
lotta time
NEVER sell a gun , I’ve sold 3 in my lifetime and regret it every day . A Smolt / Smython , A Paris Theodore ASP 9mm and a SW Model 13 ((FBI) revolver that was magnaported ...... The norinco 1911’s are gold. Never failed me either Bub.
Stay Safe
Thanks for the detailed information. Back in the day, it was who got the better results ON THE FIELD when dealing with US ARMY contracts. Unlike nowadays it’s who you suck up with.
He has good writers. Entertaining guy though.
I have more regrets about ones I didn’t buy than ones I sold. Of course my buddies said I was capable of turning a Holland and Holland Royal into a Mossberg 500 in 4 trades.
Good seeing you here buddy.
“...Ooops! That was a Colt 1905, damned fat fingers.” [muir_redwoods, post 22 added to added to post 13]
Disassembly of the slide from the frame for Colt’s M1905 is the same as that for M1900, M1902 Sporting & Military, and M1903 Pocket Hammer.
With the slide all the way forward, push backwards on the recoil spring retainer at the muzzle. When it is sufficiently depressed, the slide retaining key (flat piece at bottom edge of slide, about 1/2 inch back from muzzle) if freed and may be pressed out from right to left. This frees the slide and it may be removed backwards off the frame rails.
The barrel remains pinned to the frame and the recoil spring remains captive in its frame tunnel. Further disassembly isn’t required for cleaning, and is pretty much impossible anyway, without tools.
2nd line, 2nd paragraph, 2nd word : “if” should read “is.” Fat fingers.
No matter how many proof readings are accomplished, typos have about a 1 in 2 chance of slipping through regardless.
Yes Sir, you as well ...... Still kicking butt at the Edgewood shootouts ?:o) Guns that were very unique such as the SW 19 that was turned into a custom made Smolt with a 6 inch python barrel and a 2-12X LER BURRIS scope that was a Javelina punching tool for me....... Chuck Neely built it for me. Think he’s still in Edgewood .......
Stay Safe
That was a good video.
Thank you.
< sniff sniff watery eyes >
I still remember the Ser# of that Ruger P-85 MK-ll. 301-30851.
< /sniff sniff watery eyes >
Which the .45 Norinco or 9mm Ruger MK-ll ?
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