By Robb Boswell

My first experience with a 1911 was back when I was a young kid, and my grandpa told me stories of his days in WWII with a trusty 1911 .45 ACP on his side–how he felt safe with such a sturdy, dependable piece of machinery. I remember him saying, “You could drop that gun in a mud puddle, kick it around, and still shoot a gnat’s ass at 20 ft with it.” Well, his words stuck with me, and I’ve dreamed about the day that I would own my own Colt 1911 .45 ACP style pistol. Two years ago, I went and applied for my Concealed Carry Deadly Weapons license, and I needed a good gun, light-weight, accurate, and with enough “knock-down” power, should I ever have to use it.

My first thought was towards one of those pocket rockets, like a derringer or small auto, .380, .32, .25, .38 Special, 9mm or even a .22 mag. But none of those performed by the numbers like what I was looking for. I looked in all the latest gun magazines searching for “my” perfect gun, within “my” price range of course. At least one that wouldn’t get me kicked out of the house, and into the dog house.

I was looking through a magazine called Shooting Times, and right there, on the inside back cover, was an advertisement for Colt’s new 90 Series Colt Defender. The Defender has a 3″ barrel, aluminum and stainless construction, Commander-style hammer, Combat Hogue Grips, competition snag-free sights, weighs 23 ounces, and holds 7 rounds–almost everything I was looking for in a CC gun. I knew as soon as I saw that beauty, I was going to do everything in my power to acquire one of them. I saved up a little, all the while, still looking for “my” perfect gun. I looked at Kimber, S&W, Wilson Combat, Para-Ordnance–all of them–but my thoughts kept going back to that Colt Defender.

I purchased that Defender 3 months later, and the first thing I noticed was the plastic trigger (arg!). I can only assume it was used to help lower the weight of the gun. Well, I know that these new polycarbonate guns are dependable, and hold up to some of the most toughest tests. I still didn’t like it, not on a 1911.

So I set my sights on looking around for anything that I could add-on or customize on the 1911. I found one website, http://www.colt380.com/defender.htm, that would anodize the aluminum frame, gnomekote the stainless steel, de-horn the gun better than it already was, add tritium night sights, bevel the magazine well, knurl the front grip strap, and put a high-grip beavertail on it. So I knew that what I was looking for could be done.

I ended up getting a skeletonized aluminum Wilson Combat, Competition Match grade trigger. I installed it myself, adjusted the pull to a VERY crisp action, which was very simple, and, with basic mechanical knowledge, anyone could do it.

I carry this Colt Defender every day. I have a Dillon Precision black leather “Master” series, high-ride holster with matching solo mag. pouch, which fits very comfortably on my belt, and hugs the gun closely to my lower back or side. The holster is “formed” to match the contours of the gun, and allows for a very fast draw. I have two other Master holsters by Dillon, 1 for a Beretta 9mm, and one for a Glock 21 .45 ACP. They are “the” best holsters I’ve ever owned.

I also purchased a belly-band specifically for the summer months, where I can put it under a t-shirt, or under the waist band in a pair of shorts. I don’t need a belt with this. This combination is surprisingly comfortable, even for a gun as large as the Defender. It’s a small gun for a .45 ACP, but it’s still large compared to some of the titanium revolvers and smaller caliber semi-autos out there.

The accuracy out of the box on my Defender is amazing for such a short barrel. I can’t wait till I save up enough for a full-size 1911. I’m never letting go of my Defender, though. It’s a keeper. My next adventure will be to put tritium night sights on it…then it will be “my” perfect gun.

 

By R. Fuzzy Fletcher

I have been a revolver shooter for many years, and I always had doubts on the reliability of one of those new fangled auto pistols. Their metallurgy was questionable for a few years, and the reliability was also a big question in my head.

With a revolver you could get 6 you could count on.

Then along came technology, new metals and research into galling of like metals and ways to prevent it. As a toolmaker, I have spent the last 27 years in machine shops, so I have a fairly good idea of the properties of metals and other machinable materials.

I trained hard with my wheel gun. I actually carried two, a S&W model 10 in .38 special and a snubby of Charter Arms manufacture, or more recently, a model 85 airweight from Taurus. I became an NRA pistol and personal protection instructor. I attended many classes at the Firearms Academy of Seattle (FAS), not just for Firearms but for knife-counter knife and OC spray and any other topic I could take from them. I had the privilege of helping teach and safety for a few classes before I stepped up and took a class from a nationally recognized trainer, Massad Ayoob. What a great class, and being offered at my favorite training center made it easy to take. After the 2nd class with Mas, and the 3rd class that I worked the line for, he asked me to teach the Revolver portion of the reloading section of his class, an honor indeed. My belief in “Stress-Fire” was alive and well.

At FAS, I was introduced to an instructor that was to become a life long friend and mentor, Mr. Jim Cirillo, NYPD, Stake-Out Unit, retired. He left NYPD and went on to work for U.S. Customs and designed their Firearms training facility and updated their firearms program.

I have taken many of Jim’s classes and spent many an hour listening and learning from a man that has been there, seen the “Elephant” and gone home to his family. This isn’t theory or arm chair BS; this is Life on the street.

He used a wheel gun, and every chance I had to train with him in a class or privately, we worked on my skills with a round gun. With a lot of practice and help from Jim, I finally fired a perfect qualifier and went on to finish 3rd in the state in a stock gun championship. Finally technology caught up with him. After researching many weapons Jim moved on to a Glock, he found it worked for him. Me? I didn’t take to the Glock too well. I bought three and sold three, in 3 years. Each time it was a new size and/or caliber that I had hoped would take me there.

Technology was to the point where I felt I could put my life on the line and that of my family. I insisted on 100% reliability and a good set of sights. I had this with a revolver but as age caught up with me so did my waistline and the daily packing of a couple of wheel guns was getting a bit too much for the pants. I dug my old 1911 style Government Model out of the case and dusted it off. It felt good in the hand as only the 1911 can feel. It was flat and held more rounds then my round gun, and with the right magazine it held as much as both my wheel guns together. (I still carry a back-up; it just got moved).

I was comfortable with it. I researched ammo designs and felt that .230 gr. Hardball was the way to go. I bought a bunch, to be reloaded later, and down to the range I went. I put about 300 of the factory rounds thru it and had no malfunctions, so I felt it would be reliable on the street.

Now the only thing left was to scratch an itch that most folks with .45 hardball don’t get – I wanted a round that would match the stats of the street proven .357 magnum. OK now, relax. All you folks that are ready to write me a letter to explain what an idiot I am because .45 hardball has been working for 90+ years and what the heck is my problem, please remember I’m a toolmaker, and toolmakers are tinkers by nature. Besides, the weapon was a Norinco, and if I ruined the barrel in my trials I could put a “Bar-Sto” in it and it would shoot better anyway.

Why did I pick a Norinco? Well, I had read that Bill Wilson would work on Colt’s, Springfield’s and Norinco’s and I could get one for about $200, so I went for it.

After much research and a little luck, I arrived at my caliber (See Historical Notes) and pistol of choice – a 1911 style pistol shooting a necked down .45 ACP case with a wadcutter .357 Golden Saber bullet. Why the Golden Saber? Because the FBI has had good luck with it, as have some of the police entities around where I live.

The ballistics are 1450 FPS out of my 5” barrel. I also use a 20 lb. main spring and a shock-buff. The advantages of this caliber and bullet style are that a flat nosed bullet has less of a chance of ricocheting off of another round object. It will penetrate car body metal at a greater oblique angle, and it opens up in to a rectangle due to the split that I put in the bullet (see accompanying photo). I arrived at the powder charge I’m at now, by working with many powders and weights of powders to try and get to 1500 FPS, while keeping the pressure down to what I knew the 1911 could handle. I used the 125 grain .357 HP bullet because that was the round that posted the stats I was trying to copy. I arrived at 1450 FPS and felt that would achieve the results that I wanted. I’m now beginning to experiment with a 90 grain bullet to achieve 1700+ FPS, because it is my understanding that at that speed a bullet will continue on its original trajectory, no matter the shape of the surface it might hit.

Another advantage of using a 1911 launching pad is that all my Government Model holsters and mags work just fine. If I went with a 38 super or a 9×29, I would have to change slides and mags.

To arrive at the ability to shoot the .357 bullet out of a .45 ACP weapon, one must buy a .38 super barrel and have it re-worked to hold the necked down cartridge in the chamber. I did this by building a reamer that matched the profile of my finished round and carefully reaming out the new, 3.8 Super barrel.

I got to go pack now. Cirillo is flying out, to FAS, for another class this year and I get to go do some more training with a friend.

I’d like to thank Jim Cirillo, Massad Ayoob and Marty Hayes of FAS for all the years of help, training and understanding as I took this journey.

Historical notes on the .38/.45 Safestop

My search for the best personal protection ammunition for me began with finding the historical notes below. These notes are taken from the 6th edition of Cartridges of the World.

First we have the 38-45 Auto aka. 45-38 Auto Pistol and the 45-38 Clerke.

The 38-45 Auto was designed by Bo Clerke of the Armory gun shop, Burbank, CA and was first announced publicly in the October, 1963 issue of Guns and Ammo magazine in an article by Howard French. The 45-38 Auto is based on a .45 ACP case necked down to accept standard .357 bullets. Super 38 ACP barrels are reamed out to the new caliber and used in the 45 Colt Auto pistol without any other changes.

One of the inherent faults of most semi-auto pistols is their inability to digest cast or swaged lead bullets. Much time and effort has been devoted to correcting this, and the individual hand loader can effect considerable improvement. The necked down design of the 45-38 eliminates any and all feed and chambering problems with light or standard loads. With a straight case, such things as bullet shape, seating, depth, hardness of alloy, etc. are highly critical. With the necked case this can be ignored. The idea behind the 45-38 was to produce a satisfactory target round that would function with any type bullet and any load sufficient to operate the mechanism. However, it should also be an excellent field cartridge because it will allow the use of hunting type bullets. There is a definite need for an improved auto pistol hunting cartridge. Case configuration is the same as the 38-45 Hard Head but the loading data is not interchangeable.

The 38-45 Hard Head is nothing more than the 45-38 Auto in a different dress. The 45-38 Auto is based on the .45 ACP necked down to 38 caliber. The 38-45 hard Head is the same thing but instead of using the standard 45 ACP case with it’s 19,900 CUP pressure limit, this one uses the 45 Winchester Magnum or the 451 Detonics case both of which are rated at 38,00 CUP. It allows the use of hotter loads without the danger of case failure.

The idea originated with Dean Grennell, of Gun World magazine fame, who was working on improving the performance of the 1911 Colt auto pistol for some years. The 38-45 Hard Head was fully reported in the November, 1987 issue of Gun World magazine.

Velocities of 1500fps were achieved with a 124-grain bullet from the 5” barrel of a modified 1911 type pistol.

General Comments: Attempts to upgrade the ballistics of cartridges fired in the 1911 Model Colt auto are fraught with frustration because of two limiting factors: the weakness of the partially supported case and the strength of the action. If you push the cartridge too far, it will fail, and if you put too much strain on the action, severe damage can result. The answer is a stronger case and stiffer recoil springs, something that Dean Grennell has used successfully on a number of occasions and has done so again here to upgrade the 38-45 Auto and develop sort of a super .38 Super auto. The 38-45 Hard Head was also tested in a T/C Contender with a 10” barrel and developed velocities of over 1700 fps with the 124-grain bullet. Bullets used in testing were .355-.356 inch diameter (9mm).

After getting permission from Jim Cirillo to use his wadcutter style bullets for my personal use, I started to wonder what I could do to push the .357 diameter bullet to the speed necessary to produce similar stopping effects that can be found with the .357 Magnum revolver round. I could just keep using my wheel gun but I wanted something that was flatter and held a little more ammo. So I went back to carrying my 1911 style .45 auto.

I could not stop thinking about the possibilities of pushing the .357 bullet out of a flat 1911. I then started researching the possibilities. The .38 super was the first cartridge to come up, that would work but I heard a few things about the cartridge that I did not like and it looked like I would still have trouble feeding Cirillo’s wadcutter bullets. I then checked out the .357 SIG. Same issue – it was available in a 1911 pistol but it would not reliably feed the wadcutter bullet I wanted to use. Another issue for me was that I wanted a true .357 diameter bullet not a .356 diameter (9mm). I know this is one small thousandth of an inch. The point was I wanted to push an actual .357 revolver bullet not a 9 mm.

So I started to try necking down the .45 ACP case. I did not then know of the others work, mentioned above, at that time. After many failures, I put the project on the back burner while I concentrated on making and selling the Cirillo style bullet, now known as the ”Safestop” bullet.

Just recently I saw an article in one of the gun magazines about the new .38 Casull, I have respected Mr. Casull’s work for a long time and was interested to see what he had come up with now. What I found was what I’d been looking for. A beefed-up and necked-down case to fire 9mm ammo (.356 dia.) from a 1911 type pistol. Dick had designed a new case and beefed-up John Browning’s designed 1911, lengthened the barrel to 6” and he was flying.

I took my project off the back burner and was ready to try again. I contacted Casull and found out that brass was available thru him or Starline brass. The first lot manufactured uses large pistol primers, and it is my understanding that the next batch of brass will be using small rifle primers.

After I got my brass and ordered a set of RCBS dies (from Mr. Casull) for the new Casull round, I started to experiment.

Many tries later I finally got my round perfected. A .357 diameter 125 grain bullet out of a bottlenecked .45 case. These rounds are traveling a little less than 1500 fps. The other nice part is that I can still use all my .45 mags and holsters. The only thing I changed was my re-bored barrel. While Casull uses 9 mm bullets, I use the .357 Speer Gold Dot (125 grain) and the Hornady XTP (90 grain). I have no velocity info on this round yet as I have just started to work on it. As we speak, I’m using powder from Western Powders. They have worked very hard to help me in this project and offer a great assortment of powders for those who need it.

Realizing that Cirillo patented his bullet in the 60’s and Bo Clerke had his design published in 1963, you could say this is a rebirth of an old design.

There are other articles out about Cirillo’s wadcutter design that I find so effective and I’ll tell you more about that elsewhere.

Thus the 38-45 Safestop is Born.

Questions? E-Mail Fuzzy at [email protected]

Over the summer the “rec.guns” newsgroup on the InterNet’s usenet had a series of message threads called “You just might be a gun nut”.

Many of them were worth keeping so a couple of gun nuts sat down and put most of them together as a single list. An attempt was made to group them by common interest. Some were changed to make them more universal to most gun owners. We did not keep the names and email addresses of the original posters to the group.

The list starts off with a note from the moderator of the “rec.guns” group whose user name really is MAGNUM.

[Lessee, the sun workstation I use on faculty is called “xring” (which lots of students think has something to do with networked windows systems…). My Gateway on the subnet is “emmagee”… we have both “smith” and “wesson” in my widget lab, with student machines “doubletap”, “highpower”, “crosshare” (used to have a rabbit motif) … the little mac over in the corner is registered as “smallbore” and we have “rimfire” hooked in right underneath the official Barney target. Yeah, I think we have another way someone might be a Gun Nut …. ]

And, with that out of the way…..

You Might Be A Gun Nut If…

MOVIES

~you can’t remember the plot of the last movie you saw, but you can name the model, caliber and finish of every firearm in the movie.

~you reflexively count the number of shots fired by every weapon in the film, then gripe to your friends when the actors exceed the magazine capacities.

~you watch old WWII movies and can identify and look at all the rifles and handguns but can’t remember who stared in the movie or what it was about..

~if, when you watch a WWII movie, you have to get out th’ old Garand and 1911 and help John Wayne shoot the Japs and Krauts. Even when he’s in the Navy.

~if, while helping John, you’ve ever actually shot the TV. (“Is this thing loaded?”)

~you see pictures of war on T.V. and all you can think about is that you want to be there so you can pick up the BRASS.

~it bothers you more when 007 runs out of ammo than when the BOND girl dies.

~you watch La Femme Nikita just to see the HK MP5s.

~your only criteria for renting a video is what guns it might have in it.

~while watching the movie “Terminator 2” you have to leave the room in tears and mornful sobs after Arnold Swartzenneger throws the CAR-16 off the moving tractor trailer and it goes bouncing away~.

~everytime you see the finale of the Sam Peckinpa movie “The Wild Bunch” you think to yourself “what a waste of brass!”.

~your friends refuse to see ANY films containing firearms with you.

WIFE/FAMILY

~when you met your wife’s parents for the 1st time you arrived at their house riding a motorcycle and wearing a S&W DA/Auto on your hip.

~you and your new father-in-law go to a gun show on your wedding day.

~your wife’s bridal registry was at the local gun shop.

~you have spent more on guns in the last 6 months than you did on your wifes engagement ring.

~your fiance didn’t want a ring, she wanted an M1 carbine. And, you bought her one.

~you use a lathe to turn a nice ring from the appropriate size case. You engrave it with a few hearts and then nickel plate it and add gold inlay. She’ll love you for having the “personal” touch, being careful with the family money, and from knowing you’ll be able to keep her guns in tiptop shape.

~have traded the wife’s wedding ring for a shotgun, and she let you.

~you take your wife on vacation to a gun show for your 10th Anniversary and she is as excited to go as you are.

~you let your wife go out and blow all kinds of money on junk she’ll never use just so she won’t gripe when you buy that latest piece you really need for your collection.

~your mother-in-law asks what new gun junk you want for Christmas this year.

~you remember important family dates based on when you purchased a firearm.

~you build a gun rack in your bedroom and it’s closer to you than your wife.

~your wife tells you that you can’t subscribe to any more gun magazines until you do something with all the old ones you’re keeping.

~you have Trijicon Night-lights in your bedroom.

~your teenage daughter’s next date is introduced to you while your sitting at the loading bench cleaning your M-1.

~if half the guests at your daughter’s wedding are shooters and their wives or husbands had fun talking.

~your wife says to buy a gun she would like you to sell one first.

~your wife wants to wear black leather so you buy her a carry holster.

~your gun safe cost more then your dining room set.

~you get rid of the microwave to make room for the brass tumbler.

~you or your wife do the wash, several spent casings fall out of your rolled-up sleves.

~it is very common in your household to step on BBs, spent and live primers, and the occassional .22 rimfire with bare feet.

~your wife often vacuums-up live primers you dropped in the carpert.

~you both enjoy the excitement when she does vacuum.

~you find some live primers laying in the driveway.

~when daughter was growing up hand her boyfriends a 45-70 round and tell them you have lots more where that came from.

~you introduce yourself to your daughter’s suitors as “a very good shot” and you have a copy of Guns And Ammo in one hand and are wearing your NRA Life Member hat. A holstered large pistol on your belt is optional.

~after being introduced to the new boyfriend you quote from “Clueless” by saying: “Young man, I own a .45 and a shovel…don’t make me have to use either one.”

~your wife/girlfriend starts using Hoppes No. 9 instead of perfume to get your attention.

~your wife/girlfrind thinks that aura of Hoppies #9 is your favorite after shave.

~you use Hoppes No. 9 as a room or carpet freshener.

~you are asked by a waitress what cologne you are wearing. You just got done cleaning your guns.

~you think a shotgun wedding is what happens when a fellow gets overly fond of his 12 gauge.

~you consider naming your unborn child Winchester.

~you name your first-born boy MAK90.

~you name your first-born girl LadySmith.

~your kid’s huggies come in camo battlepacks.

~your wife threatened to leave you after finding 400 muddy shotshells soaking in the bathtub for the tenth time.

~you find out that the dishwasher does a MUCH better job but your wife threatens to leave you because she is tired of fishing em out from under the heating elements.

~you go to a marriage counselor, he asks you which you like better, shooting or sex, and you think it’s the stupidest question you’ve ever heard.

GUN SHOP/GUN SHOW

~you buy a gun at a shop only to find out you used to own it a couple of years ago.

~the largest gun store in your area *calls* you if they need something they can’t get elsewhere.

~when buying a new gun, you plead with your gun shop to keep it until you have space for it.

~you’ve ever sent a scope (that was never dropped) back to Leupold for repair.

~factories ask *you* how well their guns hold up.

~Hornady’s largest midwestern distributor informs you that you’ve bought over half of all the Vector ammo they’ve ever had in stock.

~your standard Sunday-afternoon question to guys selling surplus ammo at gun shows is “How much for all of it, so you don’t have to lug it home?”

~you shoot enough Berdan-primed ammo that you are on a first-name basis with your local scrap metal dealer.

~you are on a first-name basis with every major tire shop owner within a 25-mile radius.

~upon seeing your 1978 wildcatting project (a .375 on a .50 Sharps 3 1/4″ case, 3340 FPS with a 300 Sierra boattail), Elmer Keith says “You’re nuts!”

~Keith Francis (at JGS, the chambering reamer company), answers your phone calls “What have you dreamed up *this* time?”

~you own a firearm listed in the Guinness book.

OTHER

~you put a Hogue Grip on your car’s parking brake

~you have a magazine loader on your key ring.

~you use a .32-20 casing for a pen cap.

~your key-ring fob is a converted .50BMG cartridge.

~your collection of AR back issues, Gun digests and reloading manuals cost you a premium the last time you moved. (or maybe that is a sign that you are an OLD gun nut!)

~Peter Alan Kasler owes you a lunch because you caught him out on an obscure fine point of firearms law, you just might be …

~every time one of your friends goes to buy a new gun they check with you first, since you’ve probably had one already, and because they know you have ammo and gun parts sitting around for guns you no longer own.

~spend 3 days going through the SGN looking through ALL the ads to get the COMPLETE kit for a weapon and then order through the 30 or so mail order companies that are needed for this and then build it. Just because you can.

~you slip and almost fall out the second story bathroom window because of the Guns & Ammo you left in front of the throne.

~if you get a flat and realize that you’ve got 400 pounds of shot, a Hefty bag each of wads and empty hulls, and enough primers to re-open the main shaft of the Lost Dutchman on top of your spare tire.

~if the Bible you read every night before bed is the Shooter’s Bible.

~you take your guns out of the safe each night and handle them, just so you can wipe them off before putting them away.

~you keep a loaded gun hidden in every room in the house, including the bathroom and kitchen, “just in case”, and then keep one on you at all times just in case someone breaks in while you’re in the hallway.

~you named your pocket pistol “Little Guy” and your 12 guage “Big Jake.”

~you wash your hands BEFORE taking a dump so you can take a piece of your collection in with you and not get salty sweat on the blue.

~you make $15 per hour at work, but spend 30 minutes on your knees at the range looking for that last piece of 40 S&W brass.

~you have to decide the difference between a gun nut and a firearms enthusiast? Is it 1,000 rounds per day or week?

~you read that “Brady II” would outlaw possession of more than 1,000 rounds of ammunition and think “I have more than that rolling around loose in the trunk of my car!”, you just might be a gun nut.

~you could identify on sight all rifle bolt-faces as in – “that’s a Ruger, that’s a Savage, that’s a WInchester ..”

~you can identify gunshots from faraway as to caliber, whether from a rifle or pistol, brand of gun, grains of powder used, *what* powder and at what speed! Then you realize you can tell if it is blued or stainless.

~you work for the military and have more shooting experience then the guys in uniform you work with.

~when you go to the magazine rack, you check the Guns and Ammo cover to see if there are new guns as compared to checking the Playboy cover to see what it is offering.

~you have a callus on your shoulder.

~you’re in the army reserves, and they can’t figure out why every time they send you out to shoot the M60 with 100 rounds, you return with a shot-out barrel. It never dawns on them you’re bringing your own ammo.

~you spend more time choosing which guns to bring with you on a trip, as well as holsters, and belts, than it does to pick out the clothes you will wear.

~you approach total strangers and ask if they’re going to keep their brass, you just might be a gun nut.

~friends and family ask what you want for Christmas “Other than gun stuff.”

~you’ve ever run out of film photographing your guns for insurance purposes.

~you’ve ever photographed your entire gun collection, but “insurance purposes” never entered your mind.

~you try taking one big ‘family photo’ of your gun collection, but just can’t fit them all in one frame.

~you have Brownells on speed dial.

~you hand crafted a base pad for your Hogue monogrip out of a hockey puck.

~if you install a speed dialing device on your gun safe~.

~you own a BAYONET for a gun you haven’t bought yet.

~you buy some checkering tools, checker all your gunstocks, and then start in on the bedposts~

~you practiced on the bedposts first before you did the guns.

~the custom door lock pulls on your Jeep are .223 Rem cases and the gear shift knob is a .50 BMG.

~you have guns in your safe that you can’t for the life of you remember how you came by.

~you consider it a point of honor to only buy factory ammo if you need the brass.

~when you hear or see the numbers 221 you automatically think “fireball”, 257 you think “Roberts”, 218 “Bee”, 4570 “government” etc., etc. and can’t stop.

~your pickup is subject to search at any given time because, in your state, empty cartridge cases rolling around the floor are considered probable cause.

~years in history are inextricably linked to firearms development in your head. 1860… 1903… 1911… 1921… 1941… 1957… etc.

~your telephone number is: 223-2250 or 308-3006 or 303-3040 or some other combination of three + four digit calibers.

~you think there is some special significance when you glance at a clock and it shows 3:08, 3:57, 2:23, etc., no matter how many times you see it.

~when you hear “Winchester Catherdral”, you think of the “church of shooting”.

~you use a spot on the windshield as a targeting sight on that idiotic driver in front of you.

~you start wondering if you should spread out your ammo boxes to more evenly distribute the weight on the floor.

~you start eyeing the floor space around your gun vault wondering if you could fit another one there along side it.

~you even had the thought ” I wonder what scale that little kids Animal Crackers are, compared to Regulation shilouttes?”

~you buy a Remington 700 BDL Varmint in .308 just to get a supply of 308 cases to make brass for your .44 Auto Mag.

~you carry pictures of all your guns with you at all times in order to show off your “babies”.

~you spend more on ammo each month than on food.

~your guns are worth twice as much as your car.

~even one of your guns is worth more than your car.

~you list your local FFL dealer as a dependent on your tax return.

~a topless joint with free admission is half a mile away, and instead you drive 40 miles to the shooting range on a Saturday night.

~you alternate silvertips and hydra-shocks in your magazines because they look prettier that way.

~you guess range and windage whenever you look at road signs.

~your driver’s license says “must wear night-vision goggles”

~”Miller Time” means plinking at beer cans.

~the highlight of your week is discovering that 6 .40SW hollowpoints fit perfectly in a plastic 35mm film canister. (5 up/1 down in the middle).

~you retrofit a laser sight to your TV remote control.

~your favorite NBA team is the Boston KelTecs.

~your mailbox has a Weaver Rail on top.

~you can’t figure out why your non-shooting friends laugh when you say “Bushmaster”.

~you drive 300 miles just to ogle (and fire) HK-MP5s (and Stens, Uzis, BMGs and whatever else shows up at Knob Creek)

~you go to three different gun shows within a month and your excited every single time.

~you’re guns are cleaner than your house/apartment.

~you have 5 different guns being DROS’d at 3 different FFL dealers.

~4 local gun shops know you by name.

~you’re friends with 90%-100% of the employee’s at every one of those shops.

~when you stop in, the ask you questions like “how was work?”, “how’s the wife and kids”, “we’re gonna order some food, ya want in?”, etc.

~you can wallpaper your house with old issues of Shotgun News, Gun List, Guns & Ammo, etc…

~you’re a computer specialist and you have more issues of Shotgun News and Gun List than MacWeek and PCWeek.

~you bought 7 or more AK-47’s just so you could have different ones from different countries (Bulgarian, Romanian, Russian, Yugoslavian, Egyptian, Chinese, etc.)

~you’re phone number, license plate, extension at work, etc. relates to some kind of bullet caliber…ON PURPOSE.

~you have framed targets hanging in your bathroom, hallway, etc. with tight groups that you have shot.

~you can read the same issue of SGN/GL/etc. everyday until a new issues comes out.

~you own enough guns to arm everyone on your block.

~you own 4 AR-15’s configured EXACTLY the same but by different manufactures (Colt, Bushmaster, Olympic Arms, Armalite, etc.) just because you can.

~the last 5 guns you bought are never to be fired.

~you’d rather have a $10,000 PSG-1 and drive a $600 car rather than drive a $10,000 car and have a $600 gun.

~you preach how stupid gun laws/bans are at work when you work in a predominatly ANTI-gun company.

~you rather ban alcohol than hi-cap clips/mags.

~you actually consider buying the camo sexy underwear advertised for your sweetie in some gun catalogs.

~you learn that in the house your buying someone committed suicide using a firearm and all your interested in is the make, model, caliber and condition of the firearm that was used.

~your kids, once in said house, determine that the broken window was a result of that firearms slug after it left the skull cavity of the victim, and they understand why you bought the house.

~your brothers-in-law only come to visit so they can shoot your guns.

~your gun dealer owes you $500 bucks rather than the other way around.

~you consider concealed carry every time you shop for clothes.

~you take a dolly or hand truck with you to gun shows.

~you buy a gun safe much larger than you think you’ll ever need and still fill it up.

~you need yet another safe for all of the ammunition.

~you have to structurally reinforce your house due to this hobby.

~you buy a .25 Beretta to keep inside your Bible cover. Everybody needs a “hideout church gun”.

~your drive to work is filled with reverie about why Ed’s Red actually works.

~when you talk about the best piece you ever had, if you mean a pistol.

~you get real good at drywalling your gun room once a year.

~you spend more on the gun accessories than the gun.

~you know the cyclic rate of a 1928 over-stamp Thompson.

~you spent hours trying to design a device that hands you bullets the right side up.

~you identify the gun on the cover of Dillon’s “Blue Press” before you ever notice the girl.

~the first thing you notice is that she is actually holding the gun correctly.

~your license plate reads: “DBL TAP”

~your license plate reads: “GUN NUT” and the wife’s car had “GUN NUT2”.

~you have these plates and the Sheriff stops you to ask about finding a part or to sell you a used gun.

~you are Canadian and have the audacity to own a gun.

~you spend more than the cost of a new Glock to travel to the GSSF/Glock matches on the chance that you might win one as well as to shoot at someplace new and different.

~you never miss Monday Night Football because it is reloading night. That’s because you went through a whole week’s ammo the day before, while everyone else was home watching the regular Sunday games.

~you bought a barrel of Garand clips for the Garand your going to buy.

~you bought a mauser 98 barrel and are now looking for an action to which it can be fitted.

~you find a set of 8×57 dies and 3 boxes of brass for a good price and then spend $200 on a Persian Mauser and $99 on a Hakim to shoot the 8×57 reloads with.

~you carry a brush gun like a .35 Remington for close range shots and a .25/06 slung across your back for those long range shots when you have plenty of time.

~you have a Ruger M-77 in 7mm-08 because you had an excess 3X9 by 40 scope.

~you buy a used holster at a show for $5.00, and then spend a few hundred on a gun that fits it.

~you look in your dealer’s used gun case and most of them once belonged to you.

~and you start buying them back.

~take your gun parts to work to do your customizing even though it may get you in trouble.

~you’ve ever conducted dry-fire practice while riding the porcelain ponny.

~if your local dealer comes to your house to shoot rather than the local range.

~if you collect empty cartridges that you can’t use on the off hand chance that you might some day be able to trade them for something that you can use.

~you buy a set of grips for a pistol that you hope to get in the future.

~the dealer knows what you collect and calls you whenever he gets something new in (a Mk IV .455 Webley or anything Brittish).

~you call a friend long-distance just to discuss if a 3 gr. varience in cast bullets will effect accuracy.

~you were the only kid in the 8th grade who know how to field strip an MP40.

~you spend more time at the range on your knees in the bushes looking for corroded .25 ACP cases than shooting?

~you pick up even such useless items as .22 rimfire and steel Berdan primed military cases.

~you know they used those spent .22 cases for guilding material in swaged bullets during WWII.

~you stand next to shooters with semi-automatic firearms with a cardboard box, hoping to catch a few ejected empties.

~you concentrate more on where your .45 ACP cases are landing than on the target.

~you can concentrate on the target because your wife and/or kids chase the brass for you.

~you wander about in front of the firing line in search of that elusive 30/06 case even when others are firing.

~you make trips to the local range on cold, wet days just to search for a few old semi-crushed .38 Specials.

~you worry if you lose just ONE empty when shooting?

~you have cases in your pockets, car, bedroom, kitchen, office and garage at all times.

~your basement looks like an ammo dump.

~you scrounged brass before you ever owned a gun.

~your favorite euphemism for sex is “concealing the weapon,” you just might be a gun nut.

The Sydney Morning Herald, Wednesday, October 28, 1998

Crime involving the use of guns is on the rise despite tougher laws – but gun control lobbyists maintain Australia is becoming a safer place.

The number of robberies with guns jumped 39 per cent in 1997 to 2,183, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, while assaults involving guns rose 28 per cent to 806 and murders by 19 per cent to 75.

Almost half of firearm killings in the seven years to 1997 involved weapons which are now prohibited or restricted following the slaughter of 35 people at Port Arthur in 1996, according to Australian Institute of Criminology research.

But gun groups say the new controls have created a thriving black market.

“Before registration, there was no illegal market for long arms and semi-automatics,” the president of the Firearm Owners’ Association of Australia, Mr Ron Owen, said. “Now the black market of pistols has increased tenfold, and both criminals and non-criminals seek them. And the black market of machine-guns has at least tripled.” However, the national spokesman for the Coalition for Gun Control, Mr Roland Brown, described the $500 million gun buy-back scheme which has taken 640,000 weapons out of circulation as an “unqualified success”. “Australia is a safer place,” he said.

But the 1997 statistics were “next to useless” because the new national laws were not in force completely until July this year.

“Figures for 2000 or 2001 will be more useful,” he said.

“It can take five or 10 years for these laws to become fully effective and for the results to show. A good performance indicator is that there has been a change in the composition of arsenals of guns.

“No longer are most people able to own semi-automatics or pump action shotguns.

“Rapid-fire weapons are just about finished in Australia – and this has reduced the prospect of mass killings significantly.”

The gun control lobby also says crime statistics can be misleading. Latest research shows that a third of all firearm murders involve intimate partners and a fifth is followed by the suicide of the offender.

– AAP

By Syd

If you ask Colt auto fans which series is their favorite, many will say the Series 70. A case could be made that the pre-war commercial Colts are more elegant and finely rendered, but surviving examples of these are expensive collector items, often commanding several thousand dollars in like-new condition. The Series 70 Colts, while no longer in production, can still be found in excellent condition at reasonable prices. The Series 70 Colts were produced between 1970 and 1983 in Government Model and Commander sizes.

What is it?
To all outward appearances, the Series 70 is a gussied-up M1911A1. It has the frame, sights, and arched mainspring housing of the M1911A1. The roll stamping, seen at the right, makes clear it’s commercial intention. Inside, there are some refinements. It has been often noted that the G.I. M1911 and M1911A1 pistols were designed for reliability, not pinpoint accuracy. They were deliberately built with liberal tolerance so that they would continue to shoot if they were dirty, or dropped in the mud or sand.

On the issue of accuracy, Kuhnhausen says:

“Some hang up on the 50 yard target performance of the G.I. M1911A1 Pistols. Moderately loose G.I. Pistols typically printed 5” to 6” groups with G.I. ammo. Max. spec. (loose) pistols typically fired 8” to 10”+ groups. Keep in mind that personal defense range is typically less than half of 50 yards. Also consider that a 10”/50 yard group would correspondingly reduce to about 5” at 25 yards and to about 2”+ at 10 yards. This tells us that the accuracy of the average G.I. pistol was more than adequate for its intended purpose. From the ordnance development viewpoint, trying for match accuracy was counter productive – in fact, downright silly, in a combat pistol – it was better to opt for a pistol that would shoot, no matter what.

M1911A1 National Match Pistols, on the other hand, were toleranced differently (i.e., with maximum target accuracy in mind), which follows because National Match pistols were intended for use in competition and not in combat where overcoming dirt and grit was a necessity….As an old armorer friend used to say: ‘If the M1911 had been standardized as a match pistol, that’s how it would have been made… Even so, human nature being what it is, our main ambition now would be finding ways to loosen M1911’s to make them shoot better full of dirt.’”

The Collet Barrel Bushing

Human nature, being what it is, will always lead some to search for the best of all possible worlds – match accuracy and 100% combat reliability. It was this quest that led to the most distinctive innovation of the Series 70 pistols: the collet style barrel bushing and it’s accompanying barrel.

Prior to the advent of the Series 70, Colt auto shooters had two basic choices: the very tight, target-tuned National Match or the M1911A1, albeit repackaged and finished nicely. The Series 70 attempted to hit the middle ground between the National Match and the M1911A1 by delivering better accuracy than the M1911A1 and better service reliability than the National Match.

Accuracy in an autoloader comes from a consistent barrel lock-up when the gun cycles and reloads itself. If the front of the barrel is wobbling around, the lock-up will not be consistent. In the M1911A1 this means having a barrel bushing which is closely fitted. Colt engineers were faced with a choice: either they could hand-fit the bushings and thereby create a prohibitively expensive manufacturing process, or they could design a bushing which, in essence, fitted itself by its shape. They chose the latter and the collet bushing was born.

The Series 70 Barrel. The area above the red bracket is the raised part of the barrel which contacts the bushing

The collet barrel bushing has four “fingers” rather than the solid tube of the G.I. bushing. The “fingers” exert a sort of spring tension between the barrel and the slide to produce a better lock-up. The Series 70 barrel is raised slightly in the area where the bushing makes contact with it.

The collet bushing, like every other modification of the original Browning design has proven to be controversial. While it does deliver improved accuracy, its design made it prone to breakage. Also, it fits much more tightly than the M1911A1 bushing, making it harder to remove and many gunsmiths advise pulling the slide back about an inch or so to relieve pressure on the bushing before removing it.

The Series 70 pistols do not have the lawyer-safe firing pin block mechanism of the Series 80 Pistols.

Jerry Kuhnhausen on the Series 70 Collet Bushing

“From the beginning, it has been known that M1911 accuracy could be improved by uniformly controlling the closed and locked position of the barrel in the slide. Naturally, this control would start at the muzzle end, with closer bushing to slide and bushing to barrel tolerances. This costly hand work would make production pistols much too expensive. But, nonetheless, the buyer was demanding greater accuracy. This market requirement is probably what influenced Colt in the adoption of the collet type bushing which became standard with the Series 70 Models.”

From “Doc” O’Meara at Gun Tests on the Series 70 Collet Bushing

“Good support at the front and the rear of the barrel is essential to accuracy, but one doesn’t have to fit a match bushing and have the lugs welded and re-cut to do it. If your pistol is a Mark IV Series 70 Colt with a collet bushing, half the battle is won … The collet bushing has four flexible fingers that grip the bell shape of the forward end of the Series 70 barrel under mild spring tension. With continued use, it wears slight grooves into the barrel and, with time, accuracy actually improves rather than deteriorates, which you might not expect.”

Aesthetics
Many of the most eye-catching Colts are Series 70 pistols. These were built prior to the usage of stainless steel and they have rich nickel plate or blued finishes. I have heard nickel plated Colts with mother of pearl grips called “pimp guns” but the do have a way of standing out in a display rack. The blued finish is rich and deep. These guns have the “classic” look and are cherished by their owners.

MKIV/Series 70 Production Information
The Series 70 Government Model Colts were chambered in .45 ACP, .38 Super, 9mm Parabellum and 9mm Steyr (for overseas sales). The Government Model has a 5” barrel with checkered walnut grips adorned with the Colt medallion. They were produced in Blue and Nickel finishes. Series 70 models were manufactured from 1970 until 1983. They were serialized with “SM” prefixes (approximately 3,000), “70G” prefixes from 1970 through 1976, “70L” and “70S” prefixes, “G70” suffixes between 1976 and 1980, “B70” suffixes between 1979 and 1981, and “70B” prefixes between 1981 and 1983.

Variants

Series 70 Combat Government – .45 ACP bluish-black metal finish, features modifications for combat shooting and is the forerunner to the Combat Elite.

Series 70 Lightweight Commander – Chambered in .30 Luger, 9mm Parabellum, .38 Super, .45 ACP. This pistol has a 4.25” barrel, full size grips and is denoted by a “CLW” prefix on the serial number. These pistols were produced from 1970 until 1983. 500 Lightweight Commanders were manufactured in 7.65mm (.30 Luger) during 1971. Most were exported but 5 were sold in the U.S.

Series 70 Combat Commander – produced in bluish-black metal finish and satin nickel. The satin nickel models are very rare.

By Tim Chandler

“You’re not a S.E.A.L. ‘till you have eaten Italian steel…” Anonymous

Thus begins the sordid tale of the M9 that is oft repeated in gun shops and firearms related web-boards the nation over. Anyone who asks questions about the Beretta M9/92 pistol long enough will inevitably hear about how a bunch of S.E.A.L. team members were killed/maimed/deformed by the slides of the M9 pistol breaking in half and flying back at the shooter, decapitating many brave men . Or maybe you will hear about how the frames on the M9/92 pistols can shatter like plate glass if you shoot more than 1,000 rounds through them. I am sure there is somebody out there blaming the Titanic on a Beretta M9/92.

As any experienced firearms enthusiast knows, rumors run WILD in the gun world. There are more silly fads and idiotic rumors in the gun culture than there are among pre-teen girls. Sometimes the bull flows so freely that a fellow needs hip waders and a lifejacket to keep from drowning in it. Some stories, however, are true or have at least SOME grain of truth to them. The trick is being able to wade through the baloney to find the truth. With this in mind, I decided to set out in search of actual proof of the M9/92 horror stories that so many recite so freely.

The Saga Begins:

In the early 1980’s the Military began looking for a new sidearm to replace the inventory of over 25 different pistols and revolvers then in service with the military, and the more than 100 different types of ammunition for those sidearms. Chief among the inventory of pistols to be replaced was the venerable old 1911 handgun that had been in service for 70 years. According to a Comptroller General’s report (PLRD-82-42) dated 3-8-82, the military had 417,448 .45 caliber pistols in inventory. The plan began to run into opposition when it was announced that the new sidearm would be chambered in the NATO standard 9mm cartridge. Many saw the move to a smaller caliber as a step in the wrong direction. Still others questioned the need for the adoption of a new pistol at all. According to PLRD-82-42, the General Accounting Office actually recommended purchasing more .38 caliber revolvers or converting the existing 1911 pistols to fire the 9mm round as a less expensive alternative to adopting a new weapon.

The Army eventually made headway and in November of 1983 placed a Formal Request for Test Samples (FRTS) to several commercial arms makers in the US and around the world. Eight makers submitted a sample lot of 30 pistols by the deadline of January of 1984, and by August of the same year the testing was completed. (NSIAD-88-46) Of the eight makers who submitted test samples, 4 were technically unacceptable and 2 removed themselves from competition. The two surviving companies were SACO (importing Sig-Sauer pistols at the time) and Beretta. (NSIAD-88-46) After a controversial bidding process (some allege Beretta was tipped off about SACO’s bid so they could lower the per unit cost on their candidate by $1.00 and win the contract) the Army signed a contract with Beretta for 315,930 pistols. This number was later increased to 321,260 pistols. The new pistols would bear the military name of M9. (NSIAD-88-46)

The Problems Arise:

The M9 pistol program ran into trouble when in September of 1987 the slide of a civilian model Beretta 92SB pistol fractured at the junction where the locking block mates into the slide. The broken half of the slide flew back at the shooter (A member of the Navy Special Warfare Group) injuring him. (NSIAD-88-213) In January and February of 1988 respectively, 2 more military model M9 handguns exhibited the same problem, injuring 2 more shooters from the Navy Special Warfare Group.

All three shooters suffered facial lacerations. One suffered a broken tooth and the other two required stitches. (NSIAD-88-213)

The Army was doing unrelated barrel testing on current production civilian model 92SB pistols and military model M9 pistols and ran into the same slide separation issue. They fired 3 M9 pistols 10,000 times and inspected the weapons with the MPI process for evidence of slide cracks. They discovered that one of the weapons had a cracked slide. The Army then decided to fire all of the weapons until the slides failed. Failure occurred at round number 23,310 on one weapon, 30,083 on another, and 30,545 on the last weapon. (NSIAD-88-213)

Examination of the NSWG slides and the Army slides showed a low metal toughness as the cause of the problems with slide separation. The Army then began to investigate the production process of the slides. (NSIAD-88-213) At the time the frames of the M9 pistols were produced in the US, while the slides were produced in Italy. There are reportedly documents from the Picatinny Arsenal that report a metallurgical study blaming the use of Tellurium in the manufacturing process for the low metal toughness of the Italian slides, but I have been unable to independently verify this information.

After April of 1988, however, all slides for the M9/92 pistols were produced in the US. (NSIAD-88-213) As a part of the contract requirements, the Beretta Corporation had to build a plant inside the United States to produce the M9. It naturally took some time for the US plant (located in Accokeek MD.) to get into full production swing, so the Italian plant made the slides for a time.

Several GAO reports and testimony from GAO staff before Congressional Sub-Committees (NSIAD-88-213, NSIAD-88-46, NSIAD-89-59 are a few…) report the total number of slide failures at 14. Three occurred in the field with the NSWG and the other 11 occurred in the test lab. Only 3 injuries resulted from the slide separation problem. The Beretta Corporation changed the design of the M9 pistol so that even if a slide fractured, the broken half could not come back and hit the shooter causing injury.

Of the 14 slide separations reported, only 4 took place at round counts under 10,000. (NSIAD-88-213) No further slide fractures were reported after the change to the US manufactured slides.

The Beretta Corporation initially blamed the slide failures on the use of ammunition. They questioned both the use of non-NATO ammunition and the use of M882 ammunition. They suspected that both types of ammunition caused excessive pressure buildup inside the weapon causing barrel ringing issues during the initial testing of the M9 weapon and the slide separations experienced by the military. The Army determined that both barrel ringing and slide separation were caused by low metal hardness and not by any specific pressure level in the ammunition used. (NSIAD-89-59)

I have obtained documentation from a reliable source that demonstrates that the M882 ammunition was not excessive in its chamber pressures. Thus the explanation of metallurgical problems on a limited number of M9 pistols remains the only defensible conclusion.

Frame-Up:

Another problem that cropped up with production of the M9 pistol was a problem with frame cracks. In December of 1987 and January of 1988 routine lot testing of the M9 production pistols revealed frame cracks occurring at the rear of the grip area of the frame just above where the trigger bar rides. The Army representatives determined that the cracks did not affect the safety, reliability, or function of the weapons and were merely “cosmetic in nature.” (NSIAD-88-213)

The cracks, however, did violate the terms of the M9 contract, so the lots were rejected. Beretta continued production into February and March of 1988 with the affected frames, stockpiling them in hopes of a retrofit. In April of 1988 an engineering change was approved by Berretta and Army representatives that resolved the frame crack issues. The previously rejected lots were retrofitted with the new frame design and retested. The new frames did not display the cracking problem or any other problem during the tests and were subsequently accepted by the military. (NSIAD-88-213) There were 24,000 affected handguns produced with the defective frame. ALL of them were rejected and then retrofitted and accepted by the Army. (NSIAD-88-213)

The Magazine Controversy

Recent reports from Afghanistan and Iraq have reported less than satisfactory reliability with the M9 pistols traceable to the magazines. Until very recently, the magazines for the M9 pistol were produced by Mec-Gar. The military decided to go with another vendor, Checkmate, to supply the magazines for the M9. By all reports I have heard from the field, the new magazines are not made as well and are extremely sensitive to dirt and sand. Considering that the troops are using the M9’s in an area of the world that is populated by little else but dirt and sand, this makes the use of such magazines a bad idea.

Many soldiers have “written home” to family and friends and have managed to obtain the original production magazines made by Beretta through back channels. (The original factory magazines are of superior quality to any others I have found.) Reports have been extremely positive with the use of the original style magazines. The military has enough knowledge to understand that magazines and ammunition are the most common causes of reliability problems, and so their purchase of magazines that are not as reliable as the original production magazines is puzzling. They should resolve this by going back to the Beretta production magazines, or at least back to the Mec-Gar produced ones as soon as possible.

The 9mm Controversy:

A great deal of the hostility aimed at the M9 pistol is the result of its use of the 9mm cartridge. The military stated that its goals in searching for a new standard sidearm were to improve effectiveness, reliability, safety, and operational suitability of the sidearm over the .45 caliber pistols and .38 caliber revolvers then in use. (NSIAD-89-59)

Effectiveness is measured by range and accuracy, volume of fire, inherent lethality and lethality against body armor. Somehow the military’s study on the subject of effectiveness produced a proclamation that the 9mm NATO round was more accurate, had longer range and greater lethality inherently AND against body armor than the .45 caliber bullet. (There are some who believe this, and some who do not.) The method used to actually achieve these results is a shadowy combination of numerical calculations rather than on good hardcore scientific data like gelatin tests. (PLRD-82-42) The range and accuracy “tests” also seem to have been rigged in favor of the 9mm round by doing the measurements at 50 meters instead of 25. (The .45 caliber pistol’s sights were only regulated out to 25 meters…) It is a well known and documented fact that there are many .45 caliber 1911 pattern automatics that are capable of shooting 3” groups at 50 meters, thus one wonders how the military got the crazy idea that the .45 caliber bullet was not as accurate at that range. The idea that the 9mm NATO ball round hits harder at 50 meters than the .45 caliber round is also laughable. Certainly a 9mm weapon that can hold 15 rounds in the magazine and one in the chamber has greater CAPACITY than the 7+1 round .45 caliber pistol, but whether or not that translates into greater “firepower” is a matter of debate. (Is it better to hit someone with 3 puny rounds, or 1 round that knocks them out of the fight?)

The other measures are equally debatable. Is the M9 more reliable than the .45 caliber pistol? Well considering that many of the .45 caliber pistols in inventory had been in use through WWII, Korea and Vietnam, and that over 100,000 of them were no longer serviceable according to the military’s numbers, I am sure that a brand new pistol that had not suffered all of that abuse might indeed be a tad more reliable. (The fact that the .45 survived three nasty wars and became the favorite weapon of so many military and civilian shooters is a testament to how good a weapon it is.)

Is the M9 safer than the .45 caliber pistol? The addition of a firing pin safety in the M9 pistol does add safety should the pistol be dropped. The long heavy double action trigger does make it harder to accidentally fire the weapon through negligence, but most will agree that relying on a long heavy trigger rather than proper training to keep accidents from occurring is a poor strategy for safety. One could also argue that the heavy DA trigger makes it harder to hit an intended target when you need to, increasing the odds of missing a threat in actual combat and thus making a soldier LESS safe than with the single action 1911 pistol. Not to mention that the weaker 9mm round would not be as effective at stopping the threat coming at you if you did manage to hit it.

Another possible reason mentioned for adoption of the 9mm pistol was to make it more shooter friendly for small stature and female soldiers. While the 9mm is easier to control than the recoil of the big .45 caliber pistol, the Beretta 92 platform is ergonomically less than ideal for those smaller shooters. The wide grip and long trigger reach are WORSE for smaller shooters than the 1911 pistol with its short trigger and narrow grip.

Conclusions

The Beretta M9/92 pistol has been in service with our military for almost 20 years now. After the production problems documented previously were addressed, the pistol proved to be mechanically sound and reliable, enduring hundreds of thousands of rounds with little trouble provided proper maintenance was supplied. A redesign in the locking block of the M9 pistol made changes to that important piece less frequent, causing the pistol to require even less time at the armorer’s bench.

The M9 is far from the perfect military sidearm. The 9mm ball ammunition that our troops must use in the M9 is a dismal man-stopper by most accounts. (Some disagree) The M9 itself is a large and heavy weapon for its job. (There are other 9mm pistols that hold more ammunition and weigh a fraction of what the M9 does.) The wide grip of the M9 is too big for many shooters, and the heavy double action trigger hinders accuracy. The Beretta M9’s competitor in the trials, the Sig-Sauer P226, suffers from the same hindrances of caliber, size and trigger pull. Many of the complaints against the M9 are the result of what it is: A 9mm double action pistol. Any 9mm DA pistol would get the same treatment.

After the initial bugs were worked out, the M9 pistol developed into a reliable combat proven weapon. Most current/former military personnel that I have been privileged to speak with while researching this article have stated a general satisfaction with the weapon’s reliability while citing the concerns about the size, weight and caliber that I have mentioned already. It has saved the lives of soldiers, law enforcement officers and civilians alike over the years. It remains today an accurate and reliable weapon suitable for personal defense. Few military sidearms have proven themselves to be as good a weapon as the M9 has turned out to be, despite the gun shop gossip to the contrary.

It remains worthy of our consideration when choosing a weapon.

 

---

 

DOCUMENTATION: All documentation cited in parenthesis is from Government Accounting Office documents. The strange number/letter combinations are the catalog numbers for these documents. You can obtain the very same documents through the GAO.

Many thanks to the numerous military personnel and others who helped me track down this information. It would have been impossible to do without your help!

Many thanks also go to the members of AR15.com, Berettaforums.net, and TacticalForums.com for their help in gathering information.

This article is used by permission of the author. All rights reserved.

 

 

 

by Jeff Lesemann

John Moses Browning (1855-1926) was born and raised with an arms making heritage. His father, Jonathan, had been born among the sparsely settled Tennessee hills, northeast of Nashville, in 1805. In those early days the flintlock rifles, fowling pieces, and pistols of the era were among the basic tools of daily life, necessary for self defense and hunting. Jonathan took a strong in­terest in guns at an early age, attracted by their mechanisms and construction, rather than by their utility. While he was still in his teens, he apprenticed himself to a blacksmith near his family’s homestead, in order that he might learn the gunsmith’s craft. Later, he made his way to Nashville, where he worked at the shop of an established gunmaker until his own skills were fully developed. In 1824, while he was still only nineteen years old, Jonathan completed his apprenticeship by making his own fine flintlock rifle. He then set up shop in Sumner County, Tennessee, married, and settled down to his life’s work and the raising of a family.

Jonathan Browning was not destined, however, to remain in Tennessee. In 1834 he loaded his family and their belongings onto wagons and set out on a four hundred mile trek to Quincy, Illinois, a new and fast growing town on the Mississippi River, squarely in the path of westward migration. It was here, during the next eight years, that two elements came together in Jonathan s life, with results that would shape the destiny of his yet unborn son, John M. Browning.

The first of these elements was a rifle which Jonathan invented and built in his Quincy shop. Percussion cap ignition had been invented just a few years earlier, and it quickly swept the flintlock aside. The cap was far more reliable than the flintlock, and it opened new possibilities for fur­ther developments, such as repeating arms. Jonathan exploited this potential by inventing a tru­ly elegant repeating rifle. It was a .45 caliber underhammer design, with a horizontal opening cut through the receiver. The magazine was a simple steel block, made to fit into the opening. It was bored with five or more chambers, which could be preloaded with powder and ball. At the base of each chamber, a snug nipple held the primer cap. The block was placed in the rifle, and each charge could be locked into position by means of a simple lever mounted on the side of the weapon. As each round was fired, the shooter would unlock the block and move it into position for the next shot. Although the rifle had flaws, such as poor horizontal balance, the possibility of losing the primer caps, and the necessity of handling the hot magazine manually, it was a remarkable gun for its time.

The second factor that was to shape the remainder of Jonathan Browning’s life was part of a much larger turn of events, over which he had little control. Joseph Smith had founded a new religious sect, called the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, otherwise known as Mor­mons. Their theology was based on a series of prophesies, which, according to Smith, had come to him in visions. The zeal of Smith’s followers was to intense that the Mormon Church was the fastest growing religious group in the United States, but there had also been serious pro­blems. Some of Smith’s teachings were viewed with scorn by more orthodox society, and the Mormons aggravated the uneasiness of outsiders by adopting a clannish and isolated lifestyle. This led to suspicions and to several incidents of persecution and violence against Smith and his Mormon followers.

In response to these difficulties, the Mormons embarked upon a mass migration, in search of a homeland where they could practice their beliefs freely. In 1839 they established a settle­ment in Illinois, a little more than forty miles north of Quincy. They named their new town Nauvoo, and it quickly became a model Mormon community, from which they reached out in search of still more converts. One of these converts was Jonathan Browning.

In 1842 Jonathan moved to Nauvoo, where he again set up his gunsmith’s shop. Just a few years later, however, he and his family were swept up in the great Mormon exodus. Joseph Smith 5 was set upon and killed by a mob in 1846, and Brigham Young, one of Smith’s more ardent followers, decided that he would lead the faithful westward, in search of a safe haven. In 1847 the Mormons moved to Kanesville, Iowa, which is now the city of Council Bluffs. There Jonathan once more set up shop, remaining for five years, while the main body of Mormons moved on to Salt Lake, Utah. It was Jonathan’s task to furnish as many of his rifles as possible for the Mormon settlers. Finally, in 1852, he joined the migration and settled in the town of Ogden, Utah. In 1854 Jonathan married the second of this three wives, polygamy being an accepted Mormon practice at the time. On January 23, 1855, John M. Browning, the first child of this second mar­riage, was born.

Jonathan did not continue to manufacture guns after the move to Utah, but he did continue his work as a gunsmith. At an early age John became a pupil and helper in the shop, to such an extent that he would later refer to the gunsmithing shop as his only real school. Although John Browning’s apprenticeship was just a natural part of growing up around his father’s shop, he learned so well that the career which followed caused him to be recognized, world-wide, as the most prolific and successful genius in the history of firearms.

In 1878, while Jonathan was still alive to see his son’s talent blossom, John invented his first gun, a sturdy, single-shot, falling breech rifle, which was to become the Winchester Model 1885. He then went on to invent the famous Winchester Model 1886 lever action rifle, and a host of other guns, including all of Winchester’s subsequent lever action and pump action rifles and shotguns. When Winchester balked at accepting John Browning’s design for a semi-automatic shotgun, he sold the weapon to Remington, and went right on inventing! He next turned his attention to the development of one of the first successful automatic machine guns, and it was from this work that his greatest legacy emerged, in the form of the modem self loading pistol. All of Colt’s automatic pistols have been based on John Browning’s patents, and, of these, the Colt “Government Model” .45 caliber pistol has become the most widely built and used, high power, auto loading pistol of all time.

John Browning became interested in automatic and self loading weapons when he realized that much of the energy produced by the detonation of a cartridge was wasted. His first experiments aimed at harnessing this energy were focused on the gas pressure which built up behind the bullet. By tapping the gas pressure near the muzzle, and using it to operate an actuating lever, Browning succeeded in developing the gas operated machine gun. His gun was built by Colt, and later, under license, by Marlin, as the Model 1895 Machine Gun. It won acceptance by both the Army and the Navy, as well as by several foreign customers. Although machine guns and pistols may not seem to have much in common, Browning’s self loading pistols were, in fact, direct results of his work on the machine gun. Browning added a simple spring loaded disconnector device to the trigger mechanism in order to achieve interrupted, or semi-automatic fire, and it was this device which made semi-automatic pistols, rifles and shotguns possible.

Parallel developments of a similar nature had been taking place in Europe, and the early auto loading pistols designed by such pioneers as Bayard, Bergmann, Borchardt, Mauser and Schwarzlose were at least functional, though terribly complicated and unwieldy. In contrast, Brown­ing’s first auto loading pistol was a gas operated, toggle action design which introduced the smooth and graceful lines that became common to all of his later models. The pistol made use of a detachable box magazine, housed in the grip frame, which also contained the firing mechanism. The mechanism was connected to the trigger by means of a cleverly designed link, which was wrapped neatly around the magazine. Compared to the early European pistols, Brown­ing’s prototype was simple, compact, and highly reliable.

Good as this first pistol was, however, it was never placed into production. John Browning had no sooner completed fabrication of the prototype when he surpassed it with two entirely different designs! The first was a small pistol, in .32 caliber, with a blowback action. It became the prototype for the FN Model 1900 and the Colt Model 1903 pistols. This was quickly followed by a recoil operated pistol in the same caliber (.38 Colt Automatic) as the gas operated prototype. (see fig. 3). It was to become the Colt Model 1900, and it was gradually improved and modified until the Model 1911 emerged in final form.

Browning concluded that a recoil operated pistol would provide the most satisfactory means of locking the breech during firing, without the necessity of providing complicated linking and actuating mechanisms. A locked breech was absolutely mandatory in order to safely use high power ammunition, and Browning’s method of accomplishing a secure lock was so simple and effective that it has been used almost universally ever since.

The major components of the Model 1900 pistol consisted of the barrel, the slide, the magazine and the frame. The barrel was attached to the frame by means of pins which passed through pivoting links, located beneath the muzzle and the breach. The slide was fitted into channels in the frame, and with the action closed it covered the barrel almost to the muzzle. Correspon­ding ridges and grooves were machined into the top of the barrel at the chamber, and on the inside of the slide. With the action closed, the grooves would interlock and the firing pin housing closed off the chamber, completing the lock-up.

Upon firing, recoil forced the slide and barrel to travel rearward together for a distance of about one quarter of an inch. The links caused the barrel to pivot downward at the same time, in an action similar to that of a draftsman’s parallel ruler, until the slide and barrel were freed from the locking grooves. The slide then continued rearward to full recoil, extracting and ejecting the spent cartridge case and cocking the hammer. With the slide at full travel and the recoil spring fully com­pressed, the spring then took over, pushing the slide closed again as it stripped a fresh cartridge from the magazine and loaded it into the chamber.

The Model 1900 pistol worked quite well, and it was soon placed into commercial production. A small number of pistols were also sent to the Army for trials, but initial reaction to this new weapon was negative. The Infantry, Artillery and Cavalry all had their own ideas about the desired qualities of a side arm, and all three branches shared a deep-rooted preference for revolvers. Among the more valid objections raised by the first trials of the Model 1900 pistol were complaints about unreliable operation, the necessity for two hand operation during loading and cocking, and the lack of safety features. These problems would be corrected, one by one, as Colt and Browning worked together to refine the pistol.

In 1902 Browning added a slide stop to the pistol, so that the action would be held open after the last cartridge had been fired. Other changes included deletion of the early safety, a lengthened grip frame, with a corresponding increase in magazine capacity from seven to eight rounds, and the addition of a lanyard ring. A number of cosmetic changes were made to the pistol during its production life, including changes in the location and configuration of the slide serrations, and several variations in the hammer. The 1902 Military Model came closer to meeting the Army’s needs, and it was produced commercially until 1927, but it still was not the final answer.

Part of the problem, as seen by the Army, was the small caliber of the pistol. The .38 ACP round was hardly a pipsqueak, with velocity and energy levels that were superior to .38 Special. Nonetheless, the Army had determined that nothing smaller than a .45 caliber handgun round would deliver sufficient power for a sure knockdown. It is ironic to note that the thinking on military handguns has now gone full circle. The newly adopted Beretta, in 9 millimeter, returns to ballistics very similar to the numbers that were rejected back in 1902.

In 1905, Browning and the Colt factory made another step toward meeting the Army’s re­quirements with the development of the .45 ACP round. The Model 1905 pistol, made for this new round, was a scaled up version of the Model 1902. When the Army tested this basic design in 1905 and 1907, the results of these tests were finally encouraging enough to generate real interest in a .45 caliber automatic pistol. A formal competition was scheduled, with the promise of a rich contract for the winner.

The formal competition drew several other entries, including serious challenges from Luger and Savage Arms. Browning, in turn, continued to introduce refinements to the Colt pistol. A grip safety was added in 1908, followed by a major development in 1909, which brought the pistol to the brink of final success. The two-link system relied upon the slide block key to hold the entire pistol together. If this block should happen to fail, or if a careless shooter should happen to fire the weapon while the block was not in place, the slide could blow off, right into the shooter’s face! To solve this potentially deadly hazard Browning devised the single link recoil system. The new configuration replaced the front link with the barrel bushing, which encircled the barrel. The bushing was locked into the front of the slide, and it was held in place by the recoil spring plug. This system resulted in much greater safety and reliability, and the competitive pistols soon fell by the wayside, unable to match the performance of the Colt.

In 1910 the final prototype for the Model 1911 pistol, incorporating the addition of the manual safety lever, was put through an exhaustive test regimen. At one point, six thousand rounds were fired through a single pistol without a single jam or failure. On May 5, 1911 the Colt pistol was officially accepted as the “Automatic Pistol, Calibre .45, Model of 1911.”Following its adoption by the Army, the M1911 was also accepted by the Navy and the Marines. It was also adopted by Norway, for use by their armed forces. Supplemental production capacity was set up at Springfield Armory, in order to meet the heavy demand for the pistol. When the United States entered World War I, demand for the pistol was so great that contracts were let out to several other manufacturers. Only Remington/U.M.C. actually went into production, however, before the war ended, resulting in the abrupt cancellation of all outstanding contracts.

In service, the pistol was widely used as a side arm by officers and non-coms, as well as by such specialized units as the Military Police. It won a reputation for ruggedness, reliability and effectiveness, but a few more improvements were still to follow.

It was found that the pistol was somewhat difficult to control, especially in situations which required rapid fire. John Browning collaborated with the engineers at Colt, in what was to be one of the last projects of his lifetime, and the resulting modifications brought about significant improvement, without altering the basic design. In fact, all but one of the modifications involved components which were interchangeable with parts from earlier pistols.

The modifications made to the M1911 are described as follows. The main spring housing was arched and checkered, in order to fit the hand better, with a more secure grip. The grip safety tang was extended, in order to reduce the “bite” of recoil. Beveled cuts were machined into the frame, behind the trigger, in order to provide a more comfortable fit, and the trigger, itself, was cut back and its face was checkered. Finally, the front and rear sights were widened, in order to provide for a clearer sight picture. These changes were all adopted in 1924, and the designation of the pistol was changed to “Model 1911A1.”

Because all of the modifications, except for the cuts in the frame, involved component parts or sub-assemblies, the years between the two World Wars saw the use of surplus M1911 slides, mated to M1911A1 frames. The resulting “Transition Model,” as it is known to collectors, is a highly prized item, indeed. Of somewhat less interest, though no less authentic, are those M1911 pistols which were returned to depots or arsenals during their service and modified, using M1911A1 parts.

Following its adoption by the military, the pistol was also placed into commercial production. In addition to the .45 caliber pistols, it has also been produced in .38 Super and in .22 LR caliber. Other variations have been developed, including the lightweight “Commander” versions and the “National Match” pistol, with greatly improved accuracy and target sights. Colt has produced well over 3,000,000 pistols, and during World War 11 it was built under license by Remington Rand, Ithaca Gun, Union Switch and Signal Co., and in very small numbers by Singer Sewing Machine Co. Argentina also built both licensed and unlicensed versions of the pistol. In Spain, it has been copied by Star and Llama, and copies have also been produced in Poland and the Soviet Union. The original patents have long since expired, and in recent years Essex Arms, Arcadia Machine Tool Co. (A.MT), Randall Arms, Auto Ordnance, M.S. Safari Arms, Arminex, Springfield Armory (the private company), and others have all built their versions of the pistol. The compact and sophisticated Detonics pistol is a descendant of the original design, and the end of the line for the M1911 and its offspring is nowhere in sight.

Modifications to the pistol are also possible, and many of them can be accomplished by the home gunsmith. Such modifications can produce an “accurized” target weapon or a highly customized weapon for various forms of competitive shooting. Indeed, the shooter can literally design his own pistol in order to suit almost any preference.

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTES
For those who wish to learn more about the pistol or its history, we recommend the following sources:

Colt Automatic Pistols, by Donald B. Bady; Borden Pub. Co.

John M. Browning American Gunmaker, by John Browning and Curt Gentry; Doubleday & Co. Handguns of the World, by Edward C. Ezell; Stackpole Books

Know Your Colt .45 Auto Pistols, by Hoffschmidt Blacksmith Co.

Syd Weedon, The Sight M1911, History of the M1911 Pistol

John Caradimas, M1911 Web Site, http://www.m1911.org

Sam Lisker, The Colt Auto Web Site, http://www.coltautos.com

Dave Arnold, “The Colt 1911/1911A1,” Guns & Ammo: The Big Book of Surplus Firearms, 1998.

Oliver de Gravelle, Model 1911.com WWII production of 1911A1’s by Colt, Remington, Ithaca, and Union Switch.

The nemesis of Bonnie and Clyde packed an M1911 but it was a .38 Super

By Rick Cartledge

After some discussion with fellow Thompson book writer Rick Mattix and the helpful Dee Cordry, we voted that the following might be of interest to the knowledgeable OklahombreS readers. Writers have churned out much on Frank Hamer’s skill with guns, not enough about his ability as a detective, and almost nothing about his thorough knowledge of firearms. Most of this article springs from research for an article on Bonnie and Clyde which will appear in the July issue of Machine Gun News and will be subsequently included in the new Thompson book edited by Tracie Hill. Some of this drops from a fortunate experiment done by a friend of mine in 1939. Finally, a small part of this comes from having spent the last 23 years in the good company of State Troopers, those most adaptable of lawmen.

Rangers Hamer and Gualt patrolled on horses before they got cars. History records numerous examples of Ranger adaptability with the most famous being called Patterson and Walker. When Lee Simmons and Ma Ferguson put Frank Hamer on the trail of Bonnie and Clyde, the Ranger not only changed his car but his guns. The legendary lawman always carried a rifle and a .44 Triple Lock Smith and a C engraved single action .45 Colt called “Old Lucky”. Frank Hamer believed justifiably that he could hit any target and had proved on numerous occasions that he could kill any target that was shooting at him. Given that Hamer had supreme confidence in his ability to equal anyone in a gunfight, the formidable lawman would not have changed the guns he was comfortable with without a very good reason.

Since he kept “Old Lucky” and changed the other two guns, I believe that he had a very good reason and that reason was penetration. I believe that the savvy Ranger knew that Clyde’s thick bodied V8 Ford was, to all but high powered guns, an extremely fast and bullet-proof car. Hamer may have suspected body armor. Hamer chose guns comfortable to him that would pierce the body of the V8 Ford and the bulletproof vests sometimes worn by lawmen and outlaws of the day. The two guns Hamer bought were both semi-automatic. Given his mission and the level from which it was launched, Capt. Hamer could have had any weapon he wanted. He selected for his rifle a Remington Model 8 in .35 caliber. For his pistol Hamer chose what has often been described as a .45 Colt automatic. This writer has never believed that the Colt was a .45, but more about that later.

Frank Hamer had owned an engraved Remington Model 8 in .30 caliber for years and knew well the excellent qualities of the weapon. He opted for a larger caliber to deliver more punch to the target. He ordered the standard .35 from Jake Petmeckey’s store in Austin, Texas and was shipped serial number 10045. Hamer also contacted the Peace Officer Equipment Company in St. Joseph, Missouri for it’s “police only” 20 round magazine for the Remington rifle. Some years ago Frank Hamer Jr., a distinguished lawman in his own right, gave a filmed interview in which he showed the nimble .35 that his father had bought especially to go after Bonnie and Clyde. As to the rifle’s ability to tear holes in a V8 Ford, Frank Hamer had an unimpeachable source – Clyde Barrow. Though Clyde and Bonnie escaped the Sowers ambush by Dallas County authorities in November of 1933, Clyde ditched his shot up car near the Ft. Worth Pike and commandeered a less damaged car to make good their flight to freedom. The abandoned V8 spoke volumes to the able lawmen of Dallas County and to the Rangers. Ted Hinton had hit the car 17 out of 30 shots with his Thompson submachine gun and hadn’t penetrated the car body. Veteran Deputy Bob Alcorn had chugged away with his hefty Browning Automatic Rifle and ripped some respectable holes all the way through the car. Hinton called his Congressman, got a BAR from the government and a back seat full of ammunition, and learned how to shoot the roaring automatic rifle.

Two months later, Frank Hamer opted for the Remington .35 as his hole puncher and he picked an interesting pistol to go with his quick-pointing rifle. To front for “Old Lucky”, Capt. Hamer stuffed a blue steel Colt commercial automatic in his belt and it is this gun that is most interesting to this writer. I had long suspected that this Colt was not a .45 but one of the then new .38 Supers and I had three reasons for believing this. First, gangsters (Dillinger, Nelson, etc.) as well as lawmen had caught on to bullet proof vests and their resistance to .45 caliber penetration. Second, gangster use of the .38 Super to telling effect was known and thugs had even hammered the .38 Super into the extremely deadly machine pistol configuration. Two of these 22 round magazine equipped death machines were confiscated in a raid on John Dillinger’s apartment in St. Paul in April of 1933. These Supers belonged to Nelson and were assembled from kits made by the Monarch Gun Company of Hollywood, California by underworld gunsmith H. S. Lebman of Texas. Nelson killed Federal Agent Baum at Little Bohemia with a .38 Super machine pistol. The third reason springs from a fortunate experiment done by a friend of mine in 1939 on a dare. Joseph Pinkston in his excellent book, with Robert Cromie, “Dillinger, A Short and Violent Life” writes of the apprehension of Dillinger gang member Leslie Homer and of his advice given to Racine officers in November of 1933. Since Capt. Hamer was known to have followed the Dillinger case as a matter of professional curiosity, he may well have been familiar with Homer’s published remarks which were “If you want to give your coppers an even break with present-day gangsters, you want to equip them with the new Super .38 caliber. A gun of that type will shoot a hole right through any bulletproof vest ever made.”

A friend of this author who sold Thompson submachine guns in the 1930’s and 1940’s proved Leslie Homer’s assertion in 1939 although he had never heard of Leslie Homer or his assertion. After an afternoon of shooting with another associate and a local policeman, my friend and the other man were dared to shoot the policeman in his bulletproof vest. The other man, armed with a .38 pistol, shot the policeman and knocked him to the ground but did not otherwise injure him. My friend was equipped with a .38 Super, and, more sense than the other two. He told the policeman that be would shoot the vest if he put it on a post, which the policeman did. My friend said the .38 Super cut a hole in the vest as neatly as a drill press. Had the policeman been wearing the vest he would have been killed instantly.

This story teaches two lessons. First, a contemporary gun using contemporary ammunition blew a hole in a gangster era bulletproof vest. Second, my friend was knowledgeable of guns in the 1930’s. So was Frank Hamer. Several months ago, this author was discussing this story with friend Mike Thacker. Thacker said he had something tucked away in his files that might help. Two days later, Mike handed over a copy of Guns and Ammo’s “Handguns for Sport and Defense” magazine. In this March 1992 issue, Jim Wilson tells of an interview with Frank Hamer Jr. in which Mr. Hamer confirms that his father’s Colt was indeed a .38 Super. Mr. Hamer’s comment that his father did not particularly like automatics seems to hammer home the thought that the Ranger picked the gun for a reason. Finally, at about 9:15 in the morning of May 23, 1934 while the rifle smoke still hung in the air, the gun Frank Hamer held in his hand as he approached the bullet riddled 1934 Ford V8 was the .38 Super. Should either of the murderous pair still have breath in their bodies and strive to fire one more defiant round, the legendary lawman was packing iron that would go right through the car body. Most printed lists of the death car’s armament list a number of .45 automatics. Ted Hinton, in his book “Ambush”, declares that two of the colt automatics were .38 Supers. On the subject of penetration it seems that Clyde may also have known. It’s for damn sure that Frank Hamer did.

THE END

 

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SOURCES:

 

Girardin, G. Russel and William J. Helmer. “Dillinger – The Untold Story”

Helmer, William J. “The Gun That Made The Twenties Roar”

Hinton, Ted. “Ambush”

Jenkins, John and H. Gordon Frost. “I’m Frank Hamer”

Jones, W. D. “Riding With Bonnie and Clyde”, Playboy magazine 1968

Pinkston, Joseph and Robert Cromie. “Dillinger – A Short and Violent Life”

Quimby, Myron J. “The Devil’s Emmissaries”

Toland, John. “The Dillinger Days”

Treherne, John. “The Strange History of Bonnie and Clyde”

also, Rick Mattix, Bussey, Iowa; Janice A. Reece, Waco, Texas; Bob Weesner, Dexter, Iowa; Joyce Hick, Stuart, Iowa; Larry Joyner, Arcadia, Louisiana; James Ballou, Salisbury, MA; Tracie Hill, Newark, OH; Jim Foster, Dallas, TX; and Vida Ford, Hot Springs, AR .

 

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This article was originally published on the Oklahombres site. Since that site has gone down it is impossible to provide a source link for this material.

 

Other links on Hamer and Bonnie & Clyde:

The Posse

Bonnie & Clyde: Romeo and Juliet in a Getaway Car Final Miles

Bonnie and Clyde Revisited

Frank Hamer Bio

The Remington Model 8 Autoloading Rifle

By David L. Velleux

Table of Contents

I Basic Statistics
II Development History
III The Thompson-LaGarde Cadaver Tests of 1904
IV Service History
V Pistol Picture
VI Conflict Use

 

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I – Basic Statistics

Statistics

 

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II – Development History

The United States Pistol, Caliber .45, M1911and the United States Pistol, Caliber .45, M1911A1 were developed based on two key factors:

• Replacing all .38 caliber revolvers in then-current military inventories.
• Replacing the revolver with a pistol.

During the early 1890s, George Borchardt, a German-born, naturalized American working for a German arms maker, designed and developed a semi-automatic pistol using a toggle-bolt action, which sold in very modest numbers in Europe.1 A few years later, Georg Luger, another German-born, naturalized American working for the German arms firm Deutsche Waffen und Munitionfabrik (DWM), refined Borchardt’s design and marketed this pistol, which was chambered for a bottlenecked 7.65mm(.30 caliber) round developed by Luger, to the militaries of many countries.2

On the other side of the Atlantic Ocean, John M. Browning was designing pistols in his Utah workshop. When he tried selling his designs to his main purchaser, the Winchester Repeating Arms Company of New Haven, Connecticut, Winchester turned him down, preferring to concentrate on producing his rifle designs. Browning then approached the Colt’s Patent Firearms Manufacturing Company of Hartford, Connecticut, who immediately purchased the rights to his large caliber pistol designs. Colt desired a military contract and needed large caliber pistols to meet military requirements. Fabrique Nationale d’Arms de Guerre of Herstal-lèz-Liége, Belgium, bought the rights to Browning’s small caliber pistol designs.3 Patented in 1897, the first of Browning’s large caliber Colt-built designs, the Model 1900, was little more than an experimental pistol firing the Browning-developed .38 Automatic Colt Pistol (ACP) round from a seven-round detachable magazine. It met with only moderate commercial success, but some samples were purchased by the American military.4

In 1901, the U.S. Army bought about 1000 Luger pistols for troop trials, where they were immediately put to use in field tests. However, the standard .38 Long Colt-chambered M1889 series revolvers of that period were not acquitting themselves well enough for the troops’ liking during campaigns like the Philippine Insurrection and the feeling carried over to the 7.65mm Lugers.5 But in Germany, the Wehrmacht (Armed Forces) liked the Luger pistol, but not the caliber. Military ordnance officers asked for a more powerful round, so in 1902, Luger changed the bottlenecked case to a tapered straight wall design and substituted a larger 9mm-diameter bullet into the new case, creating the 9mm Parabellum round.6 Across the Atlantic the same year, Colt marketed a variation of the Model 1900, the Model 1902 Military, which used a slightly shortened firing pin. The new firing pin acted like a safety, to prevent accidental firing since the pin itself was shorter than the channel it rested in was. Only a solid strike by the pistol’s hammer overcame the inertia of the firing pin to fire a round. While the U.S. Army purchased just a few evaluation samples, the Model 1902 sold very well on the civilian market until production ended in 1929.7

In April 1903, the U.S. Army asked to trade fifty (50) 7.65mm Luger pistols for fifty (50) of the new 9mm version (Georg Luger himself brought the new samples into the U.S the next month) and troop trials began again.8 In 1904, the Swiss military and the German Kriegsmarine (Navy) adopted the new 9mm Luger. Four years later, the German Heer (Army) adopted it as the Pistole-08, or P-08, which went on to become one of the most produced and copied handguns in military history.9

III. The Thompson-LaGarde Cadaver Tests of 1904

(Author’s Note: The following footnoted paragraphs are based on the article, The Holes in Stopping Power Theory, written by Leon Day. The 1904 live animal and medical cadaver testing may give concern to those who think it was, according to today’s standards, both “barbaric” and highly unscientific. But in the interest of furthering the study of military arms, the testing results are basically presented as Mister Day previously wrote them. Some may find these paragraphs objectionable, but the full story must be told without embellishment and without withholding any pertinent data, no matter how gruesome it may be…)

In 1901, President Theodore Roosevelt appointed Brigadier General William Crozier as Chief of Army Ordnance. In 1904, Crozier assigned two individuals, Captain John T. Thompson of the Infantry and Major Louis Anatole LaGarde of the Medical Corps, to investigate and recommend which caliber should be used in any new service handgun. At the Nelson Morris Company Union Stockyards in Chicago, Illinois, they tested several types of handguns, calibers and bullet styles against both live cattle and medical cadavers.10 Before continuing, some definitions about the types of animals and the bullet types used in the testing are needed:

Animal Terms and Definitions

 

 

Bullet Terms and Definitions

Term	Abbrv	Definition
Grains	Grs.	A measure of weight where 7000 grains equals 1 pound.
Feet Per Second	FPS	A measure of velocity in feet per second.
Foot-pounds	FPE	A measure of power of a fired bullet.
Lead Round Nose	LRN	Lead bullet with a rounded nose profile.
Full Metal Jacket	FMJ	Lead bullet almost completely covered in copper.
Flat Point	FP	Bullet having a blunt nose.
Hollow Point	HP	Bullet with a cavity in front for rapid expansion on impact.

The first day of live animal testing involved shooting eight head of cattle with rounds fired at selected target areas while timing the events. The time scale in the tables below is shown in minutes and seconds. The testing went as follows:

No.	Caliber	Animal	Time(mm:ss)/Results
1	.476 Eley Weight: 288 grs. Style: LRN Velocity: 729 FPS Energy: 340 FPE	Stag Weight: 1200 – 1300 lbs.	00:00 – Two shots into lungs; rounds impacted 4″ apart. 04:00 – Animal still on feet. 05:00 – Dead.
2	7.65mm Luger Weight: 92.5 grs. Style: FMJ-FP Velocity: 1420 FPS Energy: 340 FPE	Stag Weight: 1200 – 1300 lbs.	00:00 – Shot through lungs left to right. 00:30 – Dead.
3	.38 Long Colt Weight: 148 grs. Style LRN Velocity: 723 FPS Energy: 191 FPE	Stag Weight: 1200 lbs.	00:00 – Shot through lungs; animal jumped around. 02:30 – Shot through lungs; animal jumped around. 03:20 – Shot again; staggered 30 second. 03:50 – Dead.
4	.476 Eley Weight: 288 grs. Style: LRN Velocity: 729 FPS Energy: 340 FPE	Stag Weight: 1300 lbs.	00:00 – One shot through intestines. 02:00 – One shot through intestines again. 03:10 – One shot through intestines again. 06:10 – Shot twice in the head. 07:15 – Shot in the ear. 08:15 – Shot behind the ear. 08:15+ – Killed by four hammer blows to head; no round reached brain.
5	.38 ACP Weight: 130 grs. Style: FMJ-RN Velocity: 1107 FPS Energy: 354 FPE	Steer Weight: 1100 lbs.	00:00 – Shot through lungs. 01:00 – Shot through lungs again. 01:35 – Shot through lungs again. 01:35+ – Killed by 4 hammer blows to head.
6	.45 Long Colt Weight: 220 grs. Style: LHP Velocity: 700 FPS Energy: 239 FPE	Cow Weight: 1000 lbs.	00:00 – Shot through lungs. 01:00 – Shot through lungs again. 02:00 – Falling; shot twice in abdomen. 02:00+ – Dead.
7	.45 Long Colt Weight: 250 grs. Style: L-FP Velocity: 720 FPS Energy: 288 FPE	Bull Weight: 1300 lbs.	00:00 – Shot through lungs. 01:00 – Shot through lungs again. 02:00 – Shot through lungs again. 02:35 – Shot in abdomen; fell, then got up. 02:45 – Shot in abdomen; fell; got up; fell, but tried staying on its feet for 70 seconds. 03:55 – Killed with hammer.
8	.455 Man-Stopper Weight: 218.5 grs. Style: L-HP Velocity: 801 FPS Energy: 312 FPE	Stag Weight: 1250 lbs.	00:00 – Shot through lungs. 01:00 – Shot through lungs again. 02:10 – Shot through intestines. 03:15 – Shot through intestines again. 04:15 – Killed with hammer.

Neither Thompson nor LaGarde could have been very satisfied with the first day’s results, so for the second day of testing, they changed the testing procedure completely, deciding to shoot the animals as rapidly as possible until either they fell or ten shots were fired. The second day of testing went as follows:

No.	Caliber	Animal	Results
9	.45 Long Colt Weight: 250 grs. Style: L-FP Velocity: 720 FPS Energy: 288 FPE	Cow Weight: 950 lbs.	Shot through lungs; fell after sixth shot.
10	7.65mm Luger Weight: 92.5 grs. Style: FMJ-FP Velocity: 1420 FPS Energy: 340 FPE	Cow Weight: 950 lbs.	00:00 – Shot through lungs three times. 01:00 – Jam; shot five times in lungs. Reloading break. Shot twice. Killed with hammer.
11	9mm Luger Weight: 123.5 grs. Style: FMJ-FP Velocity: 1048 FPS Energy: 301 FPE	Cow Weight: 1100 lbs.	00:00 – Shot twice through lungs. 01:00 – Jam; shot six times in lungs. Reloading break. Shot twice in abdomen and twice in lungs. Killed with hammer.
12	.476 Eley Weight: 288 grs. Style: LRN Velocity: 729 FPS Energy: 340 FPE	Bull Weight: 1100 – 1150 lbs.	00:00 – Shot six times through lungs. Dead after sixth shot.
13	.455 Man-Stopper Weight: 218.5 grs. Style: L-HP Velocity: 801 FPS Energy: 312 FPE	Bull Weight: 1150 lbs.	00:00 – Shot five times in lungs. 00:30 – Shot three times in lungs. 01:30 – Shot twice in lungs; animal began to fall, then shot twice in abdomen.

During the cadaver testing, the bodies were hung by the head and were shot at from distances of 3 yards, 37.5 yards and 75 yards. The target areas were fleshy areas, bone ends and bone shafts.11 If a round struck a fleshy area, only the hollow point rounds produced a bare minimum of sway, but if a bone end was struck, all the rounds showed similar results, though the .455 Man-Stopper and the .476 Eley were just slightly better.12 When a round struck a bone shaft, the sway produced enabled Thompson and LaGarde to give each round a subjective measurement; in short, they watched the body sway and simply gave it a number value for comparison purposes without setting a standard to compare it to.13 The table below details these subjective measurements:

 

Based upon the data they gathered, Thompson and LaGarde stated, “the Board was of the opinion that a bullet, which will have the shock effect and stopping effect at short ranges necessary for a military pistol or revolver, should have a caliber not less than .45”. But they also said, “…soldiers armed with pistols or revolvers should be drilled unremittingly in the accuracy of fire” because most of the human body offered “no hope of stopping an adversary by shock or other immediate results when hit.”14

(Author’s Opinion: Thompson and LaGarde did what any soldier would do when carrying out orders from a superior where an inconclusive answer would be intrepeted as failure: they gave a reasonable recommendation even though the data did not support the conclusion. In short, they LIED to at least give some results. )

In 1905, Colt asked John Browning to improve his Model 1902 Military. As his first task, Browning first developed a .45 caliber round firing a 200-grain bullet. Later that year, Colt unveiled the Model 1905, a .45 caliber pistol quite similar in appearance to its precursors.

Trials were scheduled for September 1906, but some delays caused by the sample .45 cartridges provided by the Ordnance Department forced the Secretary of War to issue a Special Order dated 28 December 1906 signifying the U.S. Army was ready to begin testing handguns again and created a list of requirements for the new handgun to meet.15 The main requirements, of those put forth, were as follows:

• Caliber not less than .45.
• Magazine holding no less than six rounds.
• Bullet weight not less than 230 grains.
• Trigger pull not less than six pounds.

In January 1907, the competitors for this first trial submitted their handguns. The competitors included Colt, Savage Arms Company, DWM/Luger, Knoble, Bergmann, White-Merril and the Webley Automatic Revolver. The U.S. Army had purchased about 200 Model 1905s for testing. Many designs were rejected quickly, so only the pistols from Colt, DWM and Savage remained, but each firm’s pistol still had problems in need of correction.16 But this action caused DWM to feel their pistol was being used by the Army as a “whipping boy” for both the Colt and Savage designs and withdrew their pistol from further testing in early 1908.17 At this point, the Army decided to schedule a yearlong field trial beginning in late 1908, after Colt and Savage had fixed the problems previously noted. Savage at first declined since the firm was not ready for production, but managed to return to the competition.18

By November 1908, Colt and Savage provided new pistols with the requested modifications to the Chief of Ordnance for inspection. Defects due to parts interchange and function were observed and both companies acknowledged requests for improvement. In March 1909, the revised pistols were issued for field trials to Troop I, 3rd Cavalry, Fort Wingate, New Mexico; Troop G, 6th Cavalry, Fort Des Moines, Iowa; and Troop G, 11th Cavalry, Fort Ogelthorpe, Georgia. Testing, reports and repairs/improvements occurred over the next nineteen months, with both firms making changes to their pistols in the interim.19

By this time, John Browning decided to prove the superiority of his design himself, so he went to Hartford to personally supervise the production of the gun. There he met Fred Moore, a young Colt employee, who worked in close cooperation with Browning, trying to ensure each test gun was simply the best possible.

In November 1910, the second competitive range test was held on weapons improved as a result of field trials, but problems were still noted with both designs. Both firms went back to the drawing board preparing for the next round of testing. On 15 March 1911, an endurance test was held. The test involved having each gun fire 6000 rounds, with cleaning after every one hundred shots fired, then allowing them to cool for 5 minutes. After every 1000 rounds, the pistol would be cleaned and oiled. After firing those 6000 rounds, the pistols were then tested with deformed cartridges, rusted in acid or submerged in sand and mud.20 By the end of the test, the Savage design suffered over 37 incidents of malfunction or breakage; the Colt did not have one. On 23 March 1911, the evaluation committee’s report stated, “Of the two pistols, the board was of the opinion that the Colt is superior, because it is more reliable, more enduring, more easily disassembled when there are broken parts to be replaced, and more accurate.”21

On 28 March 1911, the U.S. Army finally adopted the Browning-designed, Colt-produced pistol as the United States Pistol, Caliber .45, Model 1911, beginning a relationship that would last until 14 January 1985.

In 1914, after a few years service, the Army requested and received several small changes to the M1911, with the most noticeable change being the lengthening of the hammer spur to help cock the pistol with only one hand. Also this year, the Norwegian military adopted the M1911 and began licensed production of the pistol.22 Springfield Armory of Springfield, Massachusetts also began producing the M1911 in this year under a contract provision stating Springfield Armory was able to build one pistol for every two purchased from Colt after the first 50,000 M1911s were produced.23

When the United States entered World War I, the military was in dreadfully short supply of types of small arms. This meant the M1911 was put into full production, but also other small arms were acquired to fire the M1911 Ball round. Both Colt and Smith & Wesson adapted their large frame civilian revolvers to do this round and both were adopted as the United States Revolver, Caliber .45, M1917. Additionally, several other firms, including Remington Arms-Union Metallic Cartridge Company(UMC) of Ilion, New York, National Cash Register Company, Savage, Burroughs Adding Machine Company, Winchester Repeating Arms Company, Lanston Monotype Company, North American Arms Company and Caron Brothers of Montrael, Quebec, Canada, were contracted by the U.S. military to produce the M1911. Only Remington-UMC was able to produce any significant numbers of pistols before the war ended in 1918, but most of their deliveries of M1911 pistols occurred in 1919 after hostilities ended.24

During World War I, it was noticed the lengthened hammer spur, combined with the short grip safety tang, caused a condition where the webbing between a firer’s thumb and forefinger was pinched during firing, sometimes with painful results. A civilian, Marcellus Rambo, suggested several changes to make the M1911. These changes were as follows:

• Arched, checkered mainspring housing replaced the flat, smooth original one
• Hammer spur was shortened back to its original length
• Grip safety tang was extended to better protect the firer’s hand
• Trigger finger clearance cuts were made just behind the trigger opening
• Trigger was shortened
• Rear sight notch was made larger to give a clearer sight picture
• Front sight was widened and its slide mounting hole enlarged to accept the new sight

With these changes, the Army adopted the revised pistol on 20 May 1924 and renamed the M1911 as the M1911M1, and later the M1911A1. It should be noted no mechanical changes have ever been made to the pistol since first adopted by the military.25

In the early 1940s, the Army decided to run an experiment to find out what problems would be encountered in producing the M1911/M1911A1 by a firm without any prior firearms manufacturing experience. The Singer Sewing Machine Company of Worcester, Massachusetts was selected and built only 500 pistols before the start of World War II caused the production machinery to be transferred to the Ithaca Gun Company of Ithaca, New York.26

During the war, Colt, Ithaca, the Remington-Rand Company of Syracuse, New York and the Union Switch & Signal Company of Swissvale, Pennsylvania produced the M1911A1. The only change made to the M1911A1 during the war was a shift to brown plastic grips, replacing the diamond-checked walnut grips of the M1911.27 By the time the war ended in 1945, nearly 2.7 million M1911 and M1911A1s had been purchased by the military. Even the adoption of the M1 Carbine in 1941, an arm intended to replace the M1911 in the hands of many support personnel, could not alleviate the military’s need for the M1911/M1911A1 pistol.28

After the war, the formation of North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) caused the American military to look at standardizing its small arms with other countries in the alliance. But the Army pointed out most of its pistols were only a few years old and it would be a waste of money to throw them away, so the idea was forgotten.29 In the late 1950s, the Army and the Air Force began to experiment with match-grade .45-caliber competition pistols using the M1911A1 as the basic foundation. Adding adjustable sights, modifying some parts and generally tightening the tolerances of the pistols resulted in handguns able to compete head-to-head at the topmost levels against the customized guns used by the best target shooters from across the United States and around the world.30

By the early 1970s, the Army decided to really do something for its General Officers in terms of personal protection. The M1908 Colt Pocket Hammerless pistols issued to General Officers since World War II had finally outlived its service life. To correct this situation, Rock Island Arsenal, Rock Island, Illinois began modifying the standard M1911A1. The pistol’s slide and barrel were shortened just over .75″(1.905cm) and the barrel had one locking lug removed. A full-length recoil spring guide was installed, as was an enlarged set of fixed sights. Checkered, walnut grip panels inlaid with a plate bearing the officer’s name replaced the standard pistol’s brown plastic grips. Adopted in 1972 as the United States Pistol, General Officers’, Caliber .45, M15, it is similar in both size and weight to the civilian Colt Combat Commander. The M15’s increased muzzle blast and recoil are a small price to pay for what is hoped to be a personal weapon of last resort.31

The last military modification of the M1911A1 came in the early 1980s. The United States Air Force wanted to issue its Office of Special Investigations (OSI) personnel something a little potent, but nearly as compact as a .38-caliber snub-nosed revolver. Starting with the basic M1911A1 acquired from the U.S. Navy as surplus, unserviceable weapons, the slide and barrel were shortened by .75″(1.905 cm). The frame was also shortened nearly .5″(1.27 cm), requiring a special six round magazine to be created, with a finger rest to create a better gripping surface for personnel with large hands. The front edge of the triggerguard was squared and the frontstrap stippled for better gripping. A ramp-type front sight was installed on the shortened slide and an ambidextrous safety was built and added to the pistols. Costing U.S. taxpayers less than $100 to rebuild, only a small number of these OSI pistols were built.32

By 1979, all the M1911s/M1911A1s in military inventories had been rebuilt many times over and were falling apart. Directed by Congress, the military searched for a replacement and on 14 January 1985, the Beretta Model 92F succeeded the M1911A1 as the standard pistol for the United States military.

 

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IV – Service History

The M1911 and the M1911A1 pistols were incredibly robust and durable. From the muddy trenches of “No Man’s Land” in the Meuse-Argonne Forest of Belgium during World War I to the steaming jungles of Viet Nam and beyond, these war-horses proved their worth. Probably the greatest testament to the .45 ACP round’s lethality came during World War I in the hands of a Tennessee pacifist named Alvin York. Then-Corporal York and his squad were pinned down by German machine-gun fire and had nearly emptied his M1917 Enfield rifle when six German soldiers rushed his position. Samuel K. Cowan recounted the event in his book, Sergeant York:

York “…selected as his first mark amongst the Germans the one farther away. He knew he would not miss the form of a man at that distance. He wanted the rear men to fall first so others would keep on coming at him and not stop in panic when they saw their companions falling, and fire a volley at him. He felt that in such a volley his only danger lay.
“They kept coming, and fell as he shot. The foremost man, and the last to topple, did not get 10 yards from where he started. Their bodies formed a line down the hillside…”33

After this action, York and his squad moved toward their own lines, capturing over eighty prisoners as they went along that day. For his bravery and courage under fire, Alvin York was awarded the French Croix de Guerre and the American Medal of Honor.

With seventy-four years passing between its adoption in 1911 and its “retirement” in 1985, both the M1911 and the M1911A1 were there as a goodly portion of this century’s world history was written. And the M1911 and the M1911A1 co-authored with American servicemen in writing much of it.

 

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V – Pistol Picture

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VI – Conflict Use

 

 

Conflicts Used
Conflict	Date
Philippine Insurrection	1912 – 1916
Nicaraguan Campaign	1912
Capture of Veracruz, Mexico	1914
Occupation of Haiti	1915 – 1934
Occupation of Dominican Republic	1916 – 1924
Pancho Villa Punitive Expedition	1917
World War I	1917 – 1918
Allied Occupation of Russia	1918 – 1920
Yangtze River Patrol Service	1926 – 1927 1930 – 1932
Occupation of Nicaragua	1927 – 1933
China Service	1937 – 1941
World War II	1941 – 1945
Korean War	1950 – 1953
Lebanon Landing	1958
Taiwan Straits	1958 – 1959
Quemoy and Matsu Islands	1958 – 1963
Berlin Crisis	1961 – 1963
Thailand Landing	1962
Cuban Missile Crisis	1962 – 1963
Congo	1964
Viet Nam War	1965 – 1974
Operation Eagle Pull (Cambodia)	1975
Operation Frequent Wind (South Vietnam)	1975
Mayagüez Rescue Operation (Cambodia)	1975
Iranian Hostage Rescue Attempt	1980
Lebanon Deployment	1982 – 1983
Operation Urgent Fury (Grenada)	1983

 

---

Footnotes:

 

1	Hallock, Kenneth R., Hallock’s .45 Auto Handbook, Kenneth R. Hallock, 1980.
2	Hallock, Kenneth R., ibid.
3	Hogg, Ian V., Pistols of the World, Third Edition, DBI Books Incorporated, 1992.
4	Hogg, Ian V., ibid.
5	Crossman, James, COL, Trials of the .45, American Rifleman, August 1985.
6	Hogg, Ian V., Military Small Arms of the Twentieth Century, Sixth Edition, DBI Books Incorporated, 1992.
7	Hogg, Ian V., Pistols of the World, Third Edition, DBI Books Incorporated, 1992.
8	Crossman, James, COL, Trials of the .45, American Rifleman, August 1985.
9	Hogg, Ian V., Military Small Arms of the Twentieth Century, Sixth Edition, DBI Books Incorporated, 1992.
10	Day, Leon, The Holes in Stopping Power Theory,Gun Digest, Thirty-seventh Edition, DBI Books Incorporated, 1983.
11	Day, Leon, ibid.
12	Day, Leon, ibid.
13	Day, Leon, ibid.
14	Day, Leon, ibid.
15	Hallock, Kenneth R., Hallock’s .45 Auto Handbook, Kenneth R. Hallock, 1980.
16	Hallock, Kenneth R., ibid.
17	Hallock, Kenneth R., ibid.
18	Hallock, Kenneth R., ibid.
19	Hallock, Kenneth R., ibid.
20	Hallock, Kenneth R., ibid.
21	Crossman, James, COL, Trials of the .45, American Rifleman, August 1985.
22	Hogg, Ian V., Military Small Arms of the Twentieth Century, Sixth Edition, DBI Books Incorporated, 1992.
23	Hallock, Kenneth R., Hallock’s .45 Auto Handbook, Kenneth R. Hallock, 1980.
24	Hallock, Kenneth R., ibid.
25	Hallock, Kenneth R., ibid.
26	Hallock, Kenneth R., ibid.
27	Hallock, Kenneth R., ibid.
28	Hogg, Ian V., Military Small Arms of the Twentieth Century, Sixth Edition, DBI Books Incorporated, 1992.
29	Hallock, Kenneth R., Hallock’s .45 Auto Handbook, Kenneth R. Hallock, 1980.
30	Hallock, Kenneth R., ibid.
31	Hallock, Kenneth R., ibid.
32	Karwan, Charles, Air Force Custom Combat .45 Auto, Gun Digest Book of Autoloading Pistols, DBI Books Incorporated, 1983.
33	Woodward, Todd, Colt .45 Automatic, Popular Mechanics, Hearst Publications, August 1995.

Figures:

 

1		Found on Internet.
2		Found on Internet at ColtAutos.Com.
3		Found on Internet at ColtAutos.Com.
4		Found on Internet at ColtAutos.Com.
5		Found on Internet at ColtAutos.Com.
6		Found on Internet at ColtAutos.Com.
7		Found on Internet at ColtAutos.Com.
8		Found on Internet at ColtAutos.Com.
9		Velleux, David L., from personal collection.
10		Velleux, David L., from personal collection.
11		Hallock, Kenneth R., Hallock’s .45 Auto Handbook, Kenneth R. Hallock, 1980.

Author: David
L. Velleux
Copyright © 1998. Article used by permission of the author

 

 

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