JimConway
Instructor
The 1911 – A Century of Excellence – Triggernometry
by ADMINISTRATOR on NOVEMBER 29, 2011
by Jim Higginbotham
“This is the finest close quarters combat handgun ever designed.” Said my friend and fellow firearms instructor Ken Hackathorn holding up a 1911 .45 Pistol in front of a class he was teaching at RangeMaster back in the late 1990s. I could not have agreed more. Ken may have changed his mind since then, I do not know, but I haven’t changed mine.
According to 1911 authority William Goddard, the first lot of 1911s (other than test pistols and tool room samples) were assembled at the Colt plant on 28 December 1911 (barely making it into the year the pistol was christened). They were shipped the first week of January. The rest, as they say is history. The collecting of 1911s is a joy and a field all to itself. But after 100 years, the 1911 still soldiers on, and not for nothing.
My focus is on use of the 1911, not collecting, but I am a student of history and the history of the 1911 in use for what it was intended is one of sublime success. My intent here is to touch on that use as well as some personal shooting impressions. I intend to spend a good bit of time on the “real” 1911. That is to say, U.S. Military issue and Commercial Government Models made before 1924 when the transition was begun to the 1911a1. To be sure the 1911a1 has very few fleas on it, but it is a slightly different pistol in my estimation.
My first personal experience with a 1911 was not exactly an auspicious occasion. My father was an excellent shot, worked for the Army for most of his adult life and was a WW-II veteran. Like many former military men he had an abiding respect for the .45 Automatic. And so, other than an old double barreled shotgun that had belonged to his father, the only firearm that he owned was an ex military 1911 for which I believe he paid the munificent sum of $15.
At the age of five, I had my first encounter with this pistol. It did not bode well. My dad had to help me hold the gun up but I was the one to press….ah jerk…on the trigger. Ear plugs? Real men did not use earplugs in the early 1950s! So their little boys didn’t either. Eye protection you ask? Nobody thought about it.
When I touched that pistol off I thought the world had come to an end! There was noise, and recoil and I probably would have dropped the blamed thing if my Dad’s hands hadn’t been wrapped around mine. To add injury to insult the hot empty case dropped right down the neck of my shirt and stayed there!
My next one 10 years later, didn’t do anything to improve my assessment. My first centerfire handgun was not a 1911, it was a 1911a1. I saved up money from soft drink bottle deposits and at age 15 bought a surplus Remington Rand .45. I did not buy it because I wanted a .45 Automatic. I bought it because I wanted a center fire handgun and it was cheap. By accident of birth and circumstances I was able to purchase this gun legally, though the owner of the pawn shop insisted that my Mother vouch for me. Just two years later I could not even purchase ammo as the 1968 Gun Control Act started taking effect.
To try and keep a long story short, I could not shoot this gun accurately and it completely convinced me that the stories about “rattle trap” G.I. .45 autos were true. I probably would have labored under that delusion the rest of my life had I not a few years later, purchased a brand new Colt Mk. IV Series 70 in shiny nickel. Now this gun would shoot! I began to work with it. Factory ammo was accurate (you would not want me shooting at you at 200 yards with this gun!) and handloads were even more accurate (there weren’t near as many different loads available from the factory in those days). Mind you all old G.I. guns aren’t superbly accurate, there is some luck involved.
One day I dug out the old cheap Remington Rand that had lain around gathering dust for many years. To my utter shock this gun had “accurized” itself while lying in that drawer! It shot every bit as good as the Mk. IV. It even tuned in some 1.5” groups at 25 yards with the selected handloads; it shot about 2” with .45 Ball (Federal Match factory 230 JRN). I didn’t even consider the fact that maybe I just didn’t know how shoot it before…no not me. That was around 1972. 30 years later I used an identical unmodified gun to first qualify on the current (2002) Army rifle qualification course then a short time later qualify Sharpshooter on the same course. I use it today occasionally in demonstrations.
From that point on I started getting more involved in the practical use of firearms, competed a little (I have never been a real competitor, but used competition to gain some skill), continued in law enforcement off and on at first, and became a gunsmith – mostly out of self defense so I could afford custom guns. For the rest of my shooting career the 1911 was the gun I would turn to for most of my handgun needs. To be sure, for 30 years it was mostly a custom 1911. But today I have been going back the other direction more and more. Apparently John Browning knew a thing or two about pistols. I am a slow learner.
While a cottage industry built up around modifying the 1911, and I was certainly a beneficiary of that, I have to say, the original product as produced from 1911 to the 1960s should get a lot more credit than the pundits tend to give it. Indeed many of the criticisms of the 1911 platform you will see in various forms in books, magazines and on the Internet (some legitimate gripes) come from there being too many producers and too many versions. Our focus here will be on the real deal – the 1911 and 1911a1 U.S. Military issue and the Commercial Equivalent made from 1912 on up until the advent of the Mk. IV in.
Before we leave this area please allow me to recommend the excellent and recent book “The 1911, the First 100 Years” by my friend Patrick Sweeney. This book, available at most normal booksellers (I got mine off the shelf at Banes & Noble), covers the history and of the pistol as well as the modern interpretations. I also recommend both volumes 1&2 of the Gun Digest book of the 1911 by Patrick as good info on the pistols available today.
Naturally, any body of work by the late and great Jeff Cooper will make mention of the 1911.
Enough gab and background how do they shoot and how are they used and who has used them?
Well let’s first look at the originals I have fired Government Models that were made as early as June of 1912, but most of mine were made from 1916 to 1918 with one made in 1922. Occasionally I carry these guns for self defense purposes. I don’t feel the least bit apprehensive about it, though normally I do carry gun made a bit later. Two of my favorites are guns made in 1943 and 1957 respectively. See I “dig” new-fangled stuff!
The things that separate the originals from the run of the mill “rattle trap” G.I. guns is fit. Unless they have been arsenal rebuilt and refinished they are usually nearly as tight as the modern CNC machined guns. At least those made by Colt. I have only held and fired a couple of original Springfield Armory (not S.A. Inc the modern manufacturer but the actual U.S. Military Arsenal/Armory) or Remington UMC 1911s. They were indeed well made but I just have not seen many. 1911a1s, as a class tend to be a little “looser” and slightly less accurate.
Most folks know that the original versions had a long trigger and a wide spur hammer (there are actually several shapes and lengths to the hammer and grip safety up until around 1918). The most common combinations of wide hammer and grip safeties are noted to cause “hammer bite” to the web of all but the skinniest of hands. I have found that oddly enough the very early guns with the longest hammers and shortest grip safeties don’t do this to me but the typical 1917 or 1918 gun will. Naturally we don’t chop up good 1911s today since they are a piece of history but I have seen them cut up with abandon in the past.
The tiny “thumbnail” sights are also common. The profile of the rear sight is familiar, at least after 1914, but the notch is a tiny “U” and the front sight is small and rounded. It is pretty easy to miss in dim light and glares a bit in bright light. Never the less it is surprising how accurate these guns can be. They are in fact more accurate than all but the most accomplished shooters.
I have a used commercial Colt shipped in 1917 (early so it was probably made in late 1916). By some great good fortune our county coroner gave me a bag full of .45 ammo he thought was to old to be useful. It was all head stamped 1918! It dawned on me that if I shot that ammo in that gun I would know pretty much what a doughboy could expect from his sidearm. I went to the range in the back yard and after firing a magazine of modern ball ammo to see where the gun hit. It hit about 4” high at 25 yards which is fairly normal for the WW-I age guns – I backed off to 100, went prone and let fly two rounds at my little ½ size metal man silhouette. With a “ding” for each report I knew I hit the target, with a center chest hold. I waddled down to the target and there just left of center were two hits within two inches of each other. Now to be sure, some of that was luck. The gun and load are not capable of shooting an average of 2 m.o.a. (minutes of angle) as you will see with the shorter range groups with normal ammunition. Still it goes to prove a point, the original gun, as issued and unmodified (except for some file work someone did to the front strap to make it less slippery to grip) using contemporary ammunition is quite capable of standing up to the test out to 100 yards. No holdover, no nothing – the original “point and click interface!”
An interesting aside is that in interviews Winston Churchill’s body guard, Walter Thompson assures us that anyone who got within 100 yards of the “Bulldog” was easy pickings for him and his 1911! I have a friend from England who assures me that Winston purchased a 1911 at the earliest opportunity; he asserts that it was made in 1915. I have seen the gun but not handled it. It looks right for a 1915 gun.
We can go on and on about how well the 1911 can be used, but it should really need no introduction in that realm. Modified 1911s have dominated every sport from Bulls Eye to Bowling Pin Matches to Action and Practical Shooting sports. The first International Handgun Metallic Silhouette Championship Match (steel animal targets at 50 to 200 Meters) was won using a 1911 (I haven’t heard of a big IHMSA match won with one since however). Just behind the customized 1911s in performance you may be surprised to find that it is not some other sort of custom gun but an unmodified 1911! Sure competitors need their “edge” but the biggest edge is the design of the pistol itself. It starts you with a leg up!
Competition has a way of “stacking up” irrelevant aspects of shooting until they become important enough to make a difference. A big match with big name professional shooters will see the leaders separated by fractions of a second. Shooting sports are fine, I support them. The more people enjoy firearms the better I like it. But it is not just mistaken to use sports as a gauge of lethal performance it can cost you your life. Certainly not enough space to go into that here, but it needs to be said. There are over 5 dozen factors that can seriously affect the outcome of a gunfight! Only a fraction of those are under the control of the fellow defending himself. And it is extremely rare to find one that is settled by fractions of a second – that is because it takes entire seconds, and even minutes in some cases, for a bullet that hits the heart or lungs to take effect. Not always, there are absolutely no absolutes (to play on words), but it is a norm you must expect.
Some of the modern day pundits have some criticisms of the 1911 Platform. I will go so far as to say with so many companies out there making 1911s of varying quality there could be some validity to some of those. But I wish to keep this article to the real thing, as designed by Saint John Moses Browning (it is now the official State Gun of Utah BTW, how cool is that?!). But let’s briefly look at those in the light of real fighting not how they affect your ability to win a plaque at a match.
First is that it looks dangerous carried cocked and locked. So what? To this day the U.S. military puts firearms that are carried cocked and locked in the hands of people who were clerking in a grocery store or flipping hamburgers the week before and with very little training (not slam on folks in those jobs the point is they are not technical or very mechanical in nature). It is called an M-4.
by ADMINISTRATOR on NOVEMBER 29, 2011
by Jim Higginbotham
“This is the finest close quarters combat handgun ever designed.” Said my friend and fellow firearms instructor Ken Hackathorn holding up a 1911 .45 Pistol in front of a class he was teaching at RangeMaster back in the late 1990s. I could not have agreed more. Ken may have changed his mind since then, I do not know, but I haven’t changed mine.
According to 1911 authority William Goddard, the first lot of 1911s (other than test pistols and tool room samples) were assembled at the Colt plant on 28 December 1911 (barely making it into the year the pistol was christened). They were shipped the first week of January. The rest, as they say is history. The collecting of 1911s is a joy and a field all to itself. But after 100 years, the 1911 still soldiers on, and not for nothing.
My focus is on use of the 1911, not collecting, but I am a student of history and the history of the 1911 in use for what it was intended is one of sublime success. My intent here is to touch on that use as well as some personal shooting impressions. I intend to spend a good bit of time on the “real” 1911. That is to say, U.S. Military issue and Commercial Government Models made before 1924 when the transition was begun to the 1911a1. To be sure the 1911a1 has very few fleas on it, but it is a slightly different pistol in my estimation.
My first personal experience with a 1911 was not exactly an auspicious occasion. My father was an excellent shot, worked for the Army for most of his adult life and was a WW-II veteran. Like many former military men he had an abiding respect for the .45 Automatic. And so, other than an old double barreled shotgun that had belonged to his father, the only firearm that he owned was an ex military 1911 for which I believe he paid the munificent sum of $15.
At the age of five, I had my first encounter with this pistol. It did not bode well. My dad had to help me hold the gun up but I was the one to press….ah jerk…on the trigger. Ear plugs? Real men did not use earplugs in the early 1950s! So their little boys didn’t either. Eye protection you ask? Nobody thought about it.
When I touched that pistol off I thought the world had come to an end! There was noise, and recoil and I probably would have dropped the blamed thing if my Dad’s hands hadn’t been wrapped around mine. To add injury to insult the hot empty case dropped right down the neck of my shirt and stayed there!
My next one 10 years later, didn’t do anything to improve my assessment. My first centerfire handgun was not a 1911, it was a 1911a1. I saved up money from soft drink bottle deposits and at age 15 bought a surplus Remington Rand .45. I did not buy it because I wanted a .45 Automatic. I bought it because I wanted a center fire handgun and it was cheap. By accident of birth and circumstances I was able to purchase this gun legally, though the owner of the pawn shop insisted that my Mother vouch for me. Just two years later I could not even purchase ammo as the 1968 Gun Control Act started taking effect.
To try and keep a long story short, I could not shoot this gun accurately and it completely convinced me that the stories about “rattle trap” G.I. .45 autos were true. I probably would have labored under that delusion the rest of my life had I not a few years later, purchased a brand new Colt Mk. IV Series 70 in shiny nickel. Now this gun would shoot! I began to work with it. Factory ammo was accurate (you would not want me shooting at you at 200 yards with this gun!) and handloads were even more accurate (there weren’t near as many different loads available from the factory in those days). Mind you all old G.I. guns aren’t superbly accurate, there is some luck involved.
One day I dug out the old cheap Remington Rand that had lain around gathering dust for many years. To my utter shock this gun had “accurized” itself while lying in that drawer! It shot every bit as good as the Mk. IV. It even tuned in some 1.5” groups at 25 yards with the selected handloads; it shot about 2” with .45 Ball (Federal Match factory 230 JRN). I didn’t even consider the fact that maybe I just didn’t know how shoot it before…no not me. That was around 1972. 30 years later I used an identical unmodified gun to first qualify on the current (2002) Army rifle qualification course then a short time later qualify Sharpshooter on the same course. I use it today occasionally in demonstrations.
From that point on I started getting more involved in the practical use of firearms, competed a little (I have never been a real competitor, but used competition to gain some skill), continued in law enforcement off and on at first, and became a gunsmith – mostly out of self defense so I could afford custom guns. For the rest of my shooting career the 1911 was the gun I would turn to for most of my handgun needs. To be sure, for 30 years it was mostly a custom 1911. But today I have been going back the other direction more and more. Apparently John Browning knew a thing or two about pistols. I am a slow learner.
While a cottage industry built up around modifying the 1911, and I was certainly a beneficiary of that, I have to say, the original product as produced from 1911 to the 1960s should get a lot more credit than the pundits tend to give it. Indeed many of the criticisms of the 1911 platform you will see in various forms in books, magazines and on the Internet (some legitimate gripes) come from there being too many producers and too many versions. Our focus here will be on the real deal – the 1911 and 1911a1 U.S. Military issue and the Commercial Equivalent made from 1912 on up until the advent of the Mk. IV in.
Before we leave this area please allow me to recommend the excellent and recent book “The 1911, the First 100 Years” by my friend Patrick Sweeney. This book, available at most normal booksellers (I got mine off the shelf at Banes & Noble), covers the history and of the pistol as well as the modern interpretations. I also recommend both volumes 1&2 of the Gun Digest book of the 1911 by Patrick as good info on the pistols available today.
Naturally, any body of work by the late and great Jeff Cooper will make mention of the 1911.
Enough gab and background how do they shoot and how are they used and who has used them?
Well let’s first look at the originals I have fired Government Models that were made as early as June of 1912, but most of mine were made from 1916 to 1918 with one made in 1922. Occasionally I carry these guns for self defense purposes. I don’t feel the least bit apprehensive about it, though normally I do carry gun made a bit later. Two of my favorites are guns made in 1943 and 1957 respectively. See I “dig” new-fangled stuff!
The things that separate the originals from the run of the mill “rattle trap” G.I. guns is fit. Unless they have been arsenal rebuilt and refinished they are usually nearly as tight as the modern CNC machined guns. At least those made by Colt. I have only held and fired a couple of original Springfield Armory (not S.A. Inc the modern manufacturer but the actual U.S. Military Arsenal/Armory) or Remington UMC 1911s. They were indeed well made but I just have not seen many. 1911a1s, as a class tend to be a little “looser” and slightly less accurate.
Most folks know that the original versions had a long trigger and a wide spur hammer (there are actually several shapes and lengths to the hammer and grip safety up until around 1918). The most common combinations of wide hammer and grip safeties are noted to cause “hammer bite” to the web of all but the skinniest of hands. I have found that oddly enough the very early guns with the longest hammers and shortest grip safeties don’t do this to me but the typical 1917 or 1918 gun will. Naturally we don’t chop up good 1911s today since they are a piece of history but I have seen them cut up with abandon in the past.
The tiny “thumbnail” sights are also common. The profile of the rear sight is familiar, at least after 1914, but the notch is a tiny “U” and the front sight is small and rounded. It is pretty easy to miss in dim light and glares a bit in bright light. Never the less it is surprising how accurate these guns can be. They are in fact more accurate than all but the most accomplished shooters.
I have a used commercial Colt shipped in 1917 (early so it was probably made in late 1916). By some great good fortune our county coroner gave me a bag full of .45 ammo he thought was to old to be useful. It was all head stamped 1918! It dawned on me that if I shot that ammo in that gun I would know pretty much what a doughboy could expect from his sidearm. I went to the range in the back yard and after firing a magazine of modern ball ammo to see where the gun hit. It hit about 4” high at 25 yards which is fairly normal for the WW-I age guns – I backed off to 100, went prone and let fly two rounds at my little ½ size metal man silhouette. With a “ding” for each report I knew I hit the target, with a center chest hold. I waddled down to the target and there just left of center were two hits within two inches of each other. Now to be sure, some of that was luck. The gun and load are not capable of shooting an average of 2 m.o.a. (minutes of angle) as you will see with the shorter range groups with normal ammunition. Still it goes to prove a point, the original gun, as issued and unmodified (except for some file work someone did to the front strap to make it less slippery to grip) using contemporary ammunition is quite capable of standing up to the test out to 100 yards. No holdover, no nothing – the original “point and click interface!”
An interesting aside is that in interviews Winston Churchill’s body guard, Walter Thompson assures us that anyone who got within 100 yards of the “Bulldog” was easy pickings for him and his 1911! I have a friend from England who assures me that Winston purchased a 1911 at the earliest opportunity; he asserts that it was made in 1915. I have seen the gun but not handled it. It looks right for a 1915 gun.
We can go on and on about how well the 1911 can be used, but it should really need no introduction in that realm. Modified 1911s have dominated every sport from Bulls Eye to Bowling Pin Matches to Action and Practical Shooting sports. The first International Handgun Metallic Silhouette Championship Match (steel animal targets at 50 to 200 Meters) was won using a 1911 (I haven’t heard of a big IHMSA match won with one since however). Just behind the customized 1911s in performance you may be surprised to find that it is not some other sort of custom gun but an unmodified 1911! Sure competitors need their “edge” but the biggest edge is the design of the pistol itself. It starts you with a leg up!
Competition has a way of “stacking up” irrelevant aspects of shooting until they become important enough to make a difference. A big match with big name professional shooters will see the leaders separated by fractions of a second. Shooting sports are fine, I support them. The more people enjoy firearms the better I like it. But it is not just mistaken to use sports as a gauge of lethal performance it can cost you your life. Certainly not enough space to go into that here, but it needs to be said. There are over 5 dozen factors that can seriously affect the outcome of a gunfight! Only a fraction of those are under the control of the fellow defending himself. And it is extremely rare to find one that is settled by fractions of a second – that is because it takes entire seconds, and even minutes in some cases, for a bullet that hits the heart or lungs to take effect. Not always, there are absolutely no absolutes (to play on words), but it is a norm you must expect.
Some of the modern day pundits have some criticisms of the 1911 Platform. I will go so far as to say with so many companies out there making 1911s of varying quality there could be some validity to some of those. But I wish to keep this article to the real thing, as designed by Saint John Moses Browning (it is now the official State Gun of Utah BTW, how cool is that?!). But let’s briefly look at those in the light of real fighting not how they affect your ability to win a plaque at a match.
First is that it looks dangerous carried cocked and locked. So what? To this day the U.S. military puts firearms that are carried cocked and locked in the hands of people who were clerking in a grocery store or flipping hamburgers the week before and with very little training (not slam on folks in those jobs the point is they are not technical or very mechanical in nature). It is called an M-4.
