A Historic Return For U.S. Marines To Colt Sidearms

The Hartford Courant ^ | August 19, 2012 | MATTHEW STURDEVANT

[zeestephen]

Thanks, Forty-Niner, I understand.

“Revolver” is correct, not “pistol.”

My goof.

I always assumed semi-auto handguns didn't show up until World War 2.

Maybe I watch too many war and cop movies?

[BCR #226]

Looked at the pics. I noticed a couple of things. Lateral damage to the frame along the rail is curious. That isn’t from firing the gun. It appears to be incidental damage due to something on the rail. That section of the frame is a zero load point. There is no load on that area during firing at all.

On the slide, I note several things. First is the location of the cracks. That tells me that first off, the recoil spring is underpowered for the round. Second, there is impact marks that correspond to overpressure loads on the recoil spring guide housing on the slide. Now, that can occur if the spring is severely underpowered for the round but it would take a lot more than 12,000 rounds for that to occur. I’m leaning towards hot loads with a standard weight spring to give us those results.

I’ll look into the specifics on this particular model gun to see what we’re looking at here. Something is really not adding up with the damage I’m seeing.

Just to give you an idea of why I find this interesting is that the .45 is a 23,000 PSI round. In the scheme of things, that is a very low pressure round. The 9mm in comparison is 35,000 PSI.

To be blunt about it, I’ve seen damage like this before. A gentleman put Triton .450 ammunition in a 1911. A gun not designed for the high pressure round of the .450. The damage to the recoil spring cap is very interesting. That is definitely due to impaction. Again, a sign that the gun was fired with non-standard ammunition.

Without examining samples of the pistol, I must go by just the pictures and the very limited amount of data available concerning the testing and pistols. Aluminum frame 1911’s have been around for a long time, this is not a new concept but the damage recorded is.

It wouldn’t surprise me if the military tested the guns with higher pressure rounds. Not the brightest idea in the world but it wouldn’t be the first time they’d done it.

I really want to get my mitts on one of those guns and do an in depth examination. It wouldn’t be hard to tell exactly what happened then.

[Forty-Niner]

Colts Goverment Model 1911 has been is US service for just over 100 years now. It is still the best combat pistol in the world although I suspect that I’ll get arguements from those that prefer the Euro stuff like Sig/Glock/Beretta etc. That the Marines are going back to the 1911 is proof of my statement is shared by those whose life may depend on their sidearms.

An interesting note is that the Marines have been rebuilding their old (most are over 60 yo) 1911’s at the armory in Quantico, and updating them with better sights, barrels, triggers, finishes, etc. and issued as the “SOC pistol” to various SOC (Special Operations Capable) formations in limited quanties.

The SOC pistol is very popular and that is probably the reason that they are turning towards purchasing newly manufactured pistols....to keep up with the demand in the field! The Colts 1911 is 100 years old and still a “State of the Art” sidearm!