Is the Colt .45 Obsolete? :: Guns Weapons Essays

Is the Colt .45 Obsolete? Can the Model 1911 Colt .45 Autos still hold their own in today’s market of newfangled high tech guns? The 1911’s have faithfully served our country from 1911 to 1983 without any changes being made to the original design, and only minor modifications were incorporated then, such as an automatic firing pin locking safety and a redesigned half-cock notch. It is a proven design and there is nothing newfangled about it. Colt Firearms had a long and profitable relationship with John Browning, which included his machine guns as well as the world-famous Colt .45 automatic pistol. In 1899, John Browning had devised an auto-loading pistol using a locked-breech, tilting-barrel design and chambering a powerful .38 auto pistol cartridge. The army wasn’t interested in a .38 caliber pistol; instead, because of its effective stopping power, the next pistol was to be of the .45 caliber. Using Browning’s inventive genius, Colt, with the help of John Browning and the U.S. Army, produced the timeless .45 Auto Government Model of 1911. -1- The United States adopted the caliber .45 Browning-designed Colt automatic pistol in 1911. All manufacture of this pistol was originally carried on at Colt, but Springfield Armory was tooled to produce the weapon by 1914. At the time of United States entry into World War I, 55,553 pistols were on hand. During World War I, Model 1911 pistols were manufactured by Remington Arms and Colt,†¦ Approximately 450,000 Model 1911 pistols were made during World War I by Colt and Remington. Colt was by far the largest producer;†¦ To this day the 1911,s are still in service with U.S. Armed Forces, police agencies and some very elite units, most notably the LAPD SWAT Team. Since the beginning of its career when the Military adopted the pistol in 1911, it has proved itself a fine fighting handgun. The Colt 1911 has seen action in all the major conflicts of the 20th Century from WWI, WWII, Korea and Vietnam to Desert Storm. Many of the 1911,s from WWII are still in active service today. To clarify matters, when I refer to the †Colt 1911† or â€Å"1911†, I am not only referring to the original1911, but also all subsequent modifications and developments as well, including the 1911A1 in commercial and military trim, the Commanders, the assorted copies and clones†¦to be short, all pistols based on the original Government Model of 1911.