Other Topics and Ocklawahaman Paul Nosca

(02.0) FIREARMS - The Legendary and Reliable Colt M1911 .45 ACP Autoloading Pistol

As American as Apple Pie

Born, Bred, and Built in the USA

The Legendary and Reliable

Colt M1911

Government Model

.45 ACP Autoloading Pistol

An Information, Opinion, Photos, & Sources Report

Compiled by Ocklawahaman Paul Nosca

Created: 11 February 2014

Moved to This Website: 25 June 2015

Last Revised: 27 September 2020

INTRODUCTION

FOR WELL OVER A 125 YEARS NOW, THERE SHOULD BE LITTLE DOUBT BY ANYONE that in the commonly accepted lexicon of the American English language, the word COLT has been--and still is--synonymous with the number 45 (FORTY-FIVE)!

NOTE -- IF NEEDED: Right-click-on individual photos then "Open image in new tab" to ENLARGE them!

A somewhat humorous example (above) of COLT and 45 in American English lexicon

Another somewhat humorous example (above) of COLT and 45 in American English lexicon

Colonel Samuel Colt (a native of Connecticut) is justifiably credited with making the mass production of the revolver (handgun) economically possible. He received his initial patent for producing a revolving gun in 1836. The famous muzzle-loaded percussion cap and ball Colt Army Model 1860 used by both sides during the War Between the States was a .44 caliber six-shot revolver.

A decade or so later, Colt's Patent Firearms Manufacturing Company developed the Peacemaker Model 1873 Single Action Army .45 Colt caliber six-shot metallic cartridge revolver. Officially adopted by the US Army as the M1873 and known historically as The Gun That Won the West this original Colt FORTY-FIVE--along with its famed stopping power--began the legend. Some twenty years later the US Army replaced the M1873 Colt .45 caliber single-action with the newer M1892 .38 Long Colt caliber double-action revolver. But during the Spanish-American (1898) and Philippine-American (1899-1902) wars this Colt .38 caliber handgun was thought to be lacking in stopping power. During both conflicts the Army retrieved many of its old, trusty M1873 Colt forty-fives out of storage and re-issued them to front-line troops for their close-range stopping power. Colonel Theodore Roosevelt's Rough Riders may have carried Colt .45 single-action revolvers with them in Cuba in 1898. Close combat against the fierce Moros in the Philippines, just a couple of years later, using the newer double-action .38's also brought-out a bunch of the old single-action .45's.

President Theodore Teddy Roosevelt selected Brigadier General William Crozier as the Chief of Army Ordnance in 1901. Under instructions from General Crozier, the US Army in 1904 conducted live-fire testing using handgun ammunition of various calibers at a Chicago, Illinois stockyard and slaughterhouse plus also at facilities of the New York University Medical Department in New York City as preparation for selecting a new sidearm with stopping power for the American military. Infantry Captain John T. Thompson (a Colonel later and co-inventor of the Thompson Sub-Machine Gun) and Medical Corps Major Louis Anatole LaGarde were in charge of these tests where live cattle, live and dead horses, plus (hanging) human cadavers were shot using different pistol and revolver makes, types, and ammo. Near the bottom of this webpage, you can read an accurate, spell-checked version (Word document) of the Thompson-LaGarde report. Results from these tests led Thompson and LaGarde to suggest that none of the rounds smaller in caliber than the .45 Colt had the close-range stopping power that the Army was going to require in a new handgun. The US Army then demanded that prototypes of new .45 caliber revolvers and/or auto-loading pistols should be developed by several manufacturers and be offered to the military for grueling field conditions testing.

Soon afterwards, firearms designer John Moses Browning (a native of Utah) was tasked by Colt's Patent Firearms Manufacturing Company to develop a new .45 caliber automatic (a.k.a. auto-loading or self-loading) pistol for the Army to test for reliability and quality. In March of 1911 the Army concluded its endurance testing of various makes and models of submitted handguns. John Browning's newly re-designed 1911 prototype Colt autoloading pistol (marked as Serial Number 1) using the .45 ACP (Automatic Colt Pistol) cartridge fired 6,000 rounds of ammunition during two days of testing without a single malfunction. This same test pistol also functioned without stoppage using purposely deformed ammo and after being submerged in acid or water and after being buried in mud or sand. Serial Number 1 still exists today and is on display at The Colt's Patent Firearms Manufacturing Company Factory Collection in theThe Museum of Connecticut History (Connecticut State Library and State Archives) in Hartford, CT.

Colt Model 1911 Automatic Pistol

Eight-shot, .45 caliber

Serial Number 1

Manufactured 1911...

The US Army chose the Browning-developed Colt .45 single-action auto-loading pistol as the winner of those rigorous tests and officially adopted it as the M1911 on March 28, 1911. Since thereafter in 1911 and on into at least the end of the 1980's, the Colt M1911 or M1911A1 .45 ACP Government Model single-action auto-loading pistol faithfully served the US Army and other branches of the US Armed Forces. Whenever my own duties in the Army required me to carry a pistol--up to as late as 1989 while serving my last year in the Republic of Korea--it was a Colt M1911A1 .45 ACP. To this day I still have never held a Beretta M9 9mm double-action auto-loading pistol in my hands or even seen one up close.

Military specification caliber .45 ACP M1911 BALL (a.k.a. hardball, metal case [MC], or full metal jacket [FMJ]) AMMUNITION propels a 230-grain (0.5257 ounce) bullet at a muzzle velocity of about 835 feet per second (ft/sec) with a muzzle energy of about 356 foot-pounds (ft-lbs).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._state_firearms

The official state firearm of UTAH is the Colt M1911 .45 ACP caliber auto-loading pistol designed by native son John M. Browning.

http://edition.cnn.com/2011/US/03/18/utah.state.firearm/index.html?hpt=T2

The official state firearm of ARIZONA is the Colt M1873 Single Action Army .45 (Long) Colt caliber single-action revolver.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/04/29/us-arizona-colt-idUSTRE73S05920110429

NOTE: Click-on individual photos to enlarge them!

Photocopied page/pages from an edition of US Army FM 23-35

Note: The re-assembly of a Series 80 Government Model requires that the plunger lever (in the receiver) must be in the DOWN position!

Photocopied page/pages from an edition of US Army FM 23-35

"G. I. Standby" article by Edmund McLaurin in July 1975 Florida Wildlife magazine

December 21, 1970: President Richard M. Nixon meets Elvis Presley

December 21, 1970:

Elvis Presley presented this Colt .45 ACP "World War II commemorative" pistol to President Richard M. Nixon

A 1960's-1970's-1980's circa U.S. Army M-1911A1 Colt .45 ACP autoloading pistol

COLT M1911 .45 ACP AUTOLOADING PISTOL

DEFCON (Defensive Carry Condition) LEVELS

NOTE: There may be some slight variations depending on the source of the information

DEFCON 0 (Zero) a.k.a. STRAC (STrategic Ready for Action Combat):

Pistol In-Hand

Hammer Cocked

Manual Safety Un-Locked (OFF)

Grip Safety Squeezed (OFF)

Loaded Chamber

Loaded Magazine Fully Inserted

DEFCON 1 (One) a.k.a. Cocked and Locked:

Pistol In or Out-of-Hand

Hammer Cocked

Manual Safety Locked (ON)

Grip Safety Squeezed (OFF)--If In-Hand

Grip Safety Un-Squeezed (ON)--If Out-of-Hand

Loaded Chamber

Loaded Magazine Fully Inserted

DEFCON 2 (Two):

Pistol In or Out-of-Hand

Hammer Un-Cocked (DOWN)

Manual Safety Un-Locked (OFF)

Grip Safety Squeezed (OFF)--If In-Hand

Grip Safety Un-Squeezed (ON)--If Out-of-Hand

Loaded Chamber

Loaded Magazine Fully Inserted

DEFCON 3 (Three) a.k.a. Israeli (Defense Forces) Carry:

Pistol In or Out-of-Hand

Hammer Un-Cocked (DOWN)

Manual Safety Un-Locked (OFF)

Grip Safety Squeezed (OFF)--If In-Hand

Grip Safety Un-Squeezed (ON)--If Out-of-Hand

Empty Chamber

Loaded Magazine Fully Inserted

DEFCON 4 (Four):

Pistol In or Out-of-Hand

Hammer Un-Cocked (DOWN)

Manual Safety Un-Locked (OFF)

Grip Safety Squeezed (OFF)--If In-Hand

Grip Safety Un-Squeezed (ON)--If Out-of-Hand

Empty Chamber

Empty Magazine (probably not inserted into the pistol)

EXCELLENT LINKS TO MUCH MORE INFORMATION ABOUT THE COLT M-1911 .45 ACP AUTOLOADING PISTOL

http://www.americancowboychronicles.com/2013/08/the-m1911a1-pistol-birth-of-legend.html

http://www.gunworld.com/buyers-guides/guns/the-first-100-years-of-the-1911-automatic-pistol-caliber-45-model-of-1911/

http://www.sightm1911.com/1911-History.htm

http://www.sightm1911.com/lib/history/background.htm

http://www.sightm1911.com/1911-Myth.htm

http://www.m1911.org/full_technic.htm

http://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/USA/ref/FM/PDFs/FM23-35.pdf

http://www.coltsmfg.com/Catalog/ColtPistols/Colt1991%C2%AESeries.aspx

http://www.coltsmfg.com/Catalog/ColtPistols/ColtSeries70%E2%84%A2.aspx

http://www.museumofcthistory.org/colt.asp

http://www.ballistics101.com/45_acp.php

http://www.sightm1911.com/lib/history/background.htm#cadaver

http://unblinkingeye.com/Guns/TLGR/tlgr.html

QUESTION: Why would a hiker in Alaska use a .45 auto-loading pistol to stop a grizzly bear from attacking his girlfriend?

ANSWER: Because that was the best defensive weapon with stopping power that he had available at the time!

http://www.nationalparkstraveler.com/2010/05/grizzly-bear-shot-and-killed-hikers-denali-national-park-and-preserve5943?page=3

http://www.nationalparkstraveler.com/2010/07/no-charges-forthcoming-shooting-grizzly-denali-national-park-and-preserve6320

http://www.examiner.com/article/no-charges-filed-denali-national-park-grizzly-shooting

http://www.adn.com/2010/07/30/1388526/man-who-killed-bear-in-denali.html

http://straightforwardinacrookedworld.blogspot.com/2011/05/45-acp-v-grizzly-bear.html

FIREARMS AMERICANA

A MUST READ (FREE $$$) IF FIREARMS INTEREST YOU!

"At the time of his tragic death in February 2013, former Navy SEAL Chris Kyle, the top sniper in U.S. military history, was finishing one of the most exciting missions of his life: a remarkable book that retells American history through the lens of a hand-selected list of firearms. Kyle masterfully shows how guns have played a fascinating, indispensable, and often underappreciated role in our national story.

"'Perhaps more than any other nation in the world,' Kyle writes, 'the history of the United States has been shaped by the gun. Firearms secured the first Europeans' hold on the continent, opened the frontier, helped win our independence, settled the West, kept law and order, and defeated tyranny across the world.'

"Drawing on his unmatched firearms knowledge and combat experience, Kyle carefully chose ten guns to help tell his story: the American long rifle, Spencer repeater, Colt .45 revolver, Winchester rifle, Springfield 1903 rifle, Thompson submachine gun, [Colt M]1911 pistol, Ml Garand, .38 Special police revolver, and the Ml 6 rifle platform Kyle himself used as a SEAL. Through them, he revisits thrilling turning points in American history, including the single sniper shot that turned the tide of the Revolutionary War, the firearms designs that proved decisive at Gettysburg, the 'gun that won the West,' and the weapons that gave U.S. soldiers an edge in the world wars and beyond. This is also the story of how firearms innovation, creativity, and industrial genius has constantly pushed American history -- and power -- forward."

Full text of

"American Gun - A History of the U.S. in Ten Firearms"

https://archive.org/stream/B-001-000-143/B-001-000-143_djvu.txt

Colt's Government Model 45 Automatic Caliber (stainless steel) Series 80

Front of brass belt buckle that came with a new Colt's Government Model Mark IV Series 70 .45 ACP (M1911A1-type) in Satin Nickel finish purchased circa 1980.

There are many similar variations of the following post-bellum original-author-unknown slogan:

Almighty God created all men

And Abraham Lincoln may have freed all men

BUT Samuel Colt made all men EQUAL.

Back of brass belt buckle that came with a new Colt's Government Model Mark IV Series 70 .45 ACP (M1911A1-type) in Satin Nickel finish purchased circa 1980.

A few lines of lyrics excerpted from "A Country Boy Can Survive" sung by Hank Williams, Jr.:

I'd love to spit some beechnut in that dudes eyes

And shoot him with my old 45

Cause a country boy can survive

Country folks can survive

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3cQNkIrg-Tk

A few lines of lyrics excerpted from "The Devil's Right Hand" sung by Waylon Jennings:

My very first pistol was a cap and ball Colt

Shoot as fast as lightnin' but it loads a mite slow

It loads a mite slow and soon I found out

It'll get you into trouble but it can't get you out

About a year later got a Colt 45