One of the Better Colts
Back around 1975 I bought a Colt Government Series 80 .45 pistol for off duty.
It was a piece of crap and I got rid of it.
Fast forward thirty some odd years and I was again looking for a mod 1911 and was in Gander Mountain browsing their wares. I espied a stainless Colt .45; right next to it was a stainless Kimber Custom. I placed the two side by side and was amazed at the difference. Whoever did the finish work on the Colt had to be intoxicated. It was a mess. The Kimber was flawless and the action nice and tight.
They were the same price.
I bought the Kimber. Still enjoy shooting it.
So it is not without an "I was waiting for this" attitude that I read this today.
The American firm with the iconic name of Colt has declared bankruptcy. As Tiffany Kary of Bloomberg reports:It's not that I hated Colts, I really liked their revolvers. I always regretted never owning a Python.
… the 179-year-old gunmaker that supplies M4 carbines and M16 rifles for the U.S. and foreign militaries, filed for bankruptcy amid delayed government sales and declining demand. The West Hartford, Connecticut-based firearms maker listed assets of as much as $500 million and debt of as much as $500 million in a Chapter 11 filing late Sunday in bankruptcy court in Wilmington, Delaware. Wilmington Trust Company is listed as the biggest unsecured creditor with a $261 million claim.
When I joined the department I was issued a Colt Trooper Mk. III. I liked the gun and shot extremely well with it but we had too many problems with the Colts. My wing-man was attacked by a steel pipe wielding idiot and drew down on him. All he got was a *click* out of the Trooper. So he beat the guy over the head with the Colt. It worked fine then.
I didn't care much for this handgun. I still shot well, I did not like the trigger pull.
In the early 90's we finally went to a semiautomatic handgun, the S&W 4506 in 45 caliber. It wasn't bad, but I just don't care for S&W semiautomatics.
5 comments:
Wow...
Nice post
Morris
When I was active duty U.S. Army, I would on occasion get issued a 1911 unit, .45 Colt. At the time, I really didn't care about such things, as long as they worked. The .45s we used rattled like a drawer full of silverware when you shook them.
The tolerances were awful, and the thing just reeked of shoddy worksmanship. That, or the arms we were issued were from World War I, and were on the verge of falling apart from age and heavy use.
In any event, on the firing range, those .45s were no good at hitting anything with any consistency over maybe 20 meters, tops. If that.
Yes, I agree with you Sig: the Colt .45 semi automatic pistol is a complete piece o' shit.
Why thank you Morris, glad you enjoyed it.
Fredd - I can understand why a military piece needs a sloppy action; you should still be able to fire it when dropped in the mud or whatever ground environment a GI is stuck in.
My Colt Gov't just was ... crap. It was also defective - safety tang did not engage all the time.
I recently bought a S&W .22 semi - the base plate on the mag was cracked and the pistol won't shoot as a result. I wrote to them and they sent me 3 free base plates but still. You expect a working firearm from a major manufacturer.
I bought a Springfield Armory XDM in .40 cal. I've fired it many times at the range. It is very accurate and has never failed to perform a single function. Very easy to take apart and clean. Simple. No tiny little items to lose in the process either.
I love the safety mechanism. There is a slide on the back of the grip that presses in when you grip it and a small lever in front of the trigger. It's not going to fire if you drop it and it IS going to fire once you pick it up and grip it normally without having to deal with some lever mechanism. Made in Croatia. Pay about 490.
Lots of choices with Springfield too.
Nothing wrong with Kimber of course. Latest popular choice of spec ops guys.
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