I have always associated "1911" with "Colt". (Okay, and maybe with "Remington Rand" ... but that ain't happenin' any time soon.)

Up until now the socialist state in which I reside did not "approve" Colt firearms. Not sure of the back story ... maybe Colt didn't submit their firearms for testing/approval. Either way, we couldn't buy new Colts ... not even a Single Action Army. (I know ... I know ...)

But very recently some of the Colt 1911's (not sure which models yet) have been "blessed" by the mountebanks in the state capital.

I am very interested in buying one, but, frankly, I haven't paid much attention to them since they were verboten. (Plus, I am really a S&W guy at heart.)

Are they good? Do you recommend them?

I already own S&W & Ruger 1911's ... but I think I really need a Colt in the stable.

Thanks in advance.

I had a stainless COLT Government model and loved it. Why I sold it, I will never know. All of my AR's are COLT.

Series 70 reissue government model is the one you want.

Most all reviews of recent Colt 1911's have read have been very good. A shooting buddy of mine has a recent production blued Gold Cup. I have shot it several times, and have given it a good looking over. Don't remember if its a series 70 or 80. Its just as accurate and well made as my original series 70 GC, but with a less polished blue finish. The current adjustable rear sight seems more robust than the older "Elliiason" rear used on mine. I liked it.

Larry

I bought a Colt govt. model, 01991 and it is SUPER.I just wanted one like the boys used in WW1,WW2, Korea, and Vietnam. The fit and finish is very good. Very satisfied!!!

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I bought the "new" Lightweight Commander in .45 ACP late last year and so far so good. Two odd things about it though, the two 8rnd mag's it came with turn it into a jam-o-matic even with hardball, works well with Wilson 47-D's and just about all other mag's I have on hand even the new Remington R1 mag's. The other thing is the barrel throat, it has an odd configuration of being high in the middle with a scallop on either side, with other than it's factory mag's it works just fine with hard ball and a selection of hollow point ammo. Looks odd but it feeds just fine.

Accuracy is quite good, it's favorite load is the Hornady 230gr plus P XTP. Over all I give mine a thumbs up.

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Stay safe people!

I've looked at a few new ones in the last year or so. Appears the marketing folk at Colt are working overtime with the number of "special editions" limited to 300 or so units that have appeared. Some look and feel pretty good. None in my opinion though have the fit and finish of the Series 70 and earlier guns. Certainly functional and if I couldn't buy a Series 70 or earlier and just had to have a Colt 1911 I wouldn't hesitate to buy one. Came close to buying a Lightweight Commander with a blue frame (one of those limited editions; called a Navy something or other if I remember correctly) last week. Looked at another limited edition in 38 Super called "Aztec Gold" I think; had some kind of pseudo engraving, laser maybe ($2500); actually looked pretty sharp. Managed to hold off on both hoping another beat up old S&W revolver will turn up. Good luck.

Jeff
SWCA #1457

I purchased a new stainless Colt Competition Model in 9mm last May. It's the Series 80 version (they now offer the same pistol in a Series 70 version). Fit and finish is outstanding. Trigger is a crisp 4.5 lbs out of the box. Accuracy is excellent. Whats not to like about it. For the money it can't be beat. The blued version can be had for $749. I couldn't be happier with mine.

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I've owned several new Colts. My current one is a blued 1991 Government model.

All of the Colt 1911s I've had were very good. Keep in mind that Colts have a very loose slide to frame fit: not a tight custom race gun.

Personally I prefer Colts when it comes to 1911s. They seem to always work right out of the box. I can't say the same for other brands of 1911.

I'd get the series 80.

In the past year I've picked up three new Colts, all have been good performers. I bought a Competition Stainless .38 Super, a Wiley Clapp Gov't Model, and stainless 70 Series. All three are much better than the Colts I bought ten years ago. One wouldn't group for anything, and the front sight fell off the other one before I fired a full mag. My favorite is still the 1991 Gov't I got for my 21st birthday. It may have been the econo Colt, but it has run flawlessly for me.

My reccomendations would be either the 70 Series Gov't or the Competion (which is also a 70 Series).

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Wheel guns are real guns.

^^^^^^ THIS ^^^^^^^

I have one, and got a couple of my buddies to get them too. We just finished a 3 day camp where we shot them a lot. All three worked flawlessly and we were banging some steel at some pretty good distance. I have had several 1911's and this one is by far my favorite.

Dan

I only own Colt 1911's.

I've shot many competing 1911's, but none match the Colts in comparably equipped guns.

If you have a 1911, it should be a Colt.

No one does 1911's better than Colt.

Back in the day, and I’m talking 40 years ago, if you bought a Colt 1911 the odds that it would actually work were only about 50/50. I owned several that couldn’t be counted on to feed a full mag of hardball. I owned one Series 80 that wouldn’t even fire straight out of the box. Colt didn’t care ‘cause they were the only game in town. Once they began to get some competition they started to get better and, IMO, the Colts made in the last 10 years or are the best ever. They aren’t necessarily the prettiest or the most finely finished but they WORK. I currently have a Lightweight Govt Model, a steel Commander, a Series 80 Govt model in 38 Super and another in 45 ACP. All of them are 100% for function, and I would count on any of them for daily carry. If you want a Colt, go for it. I think they’re the best they’ve been since the end of WWII.

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Everybody could shoot

Post war to early series 70. Target ? find a nice condition old Giles or Clark.

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ANTIQUESMITHS
LM1300 SWHF425

I am a huge Colt 1911 fan and own a bunch of them - all Colts! IMHO there is not a better 1911 for the money! A standard Gov't model can be bought new for under $1000 and a Series 70 National Match Gold Cup for under $1,200. They work perfectly right out of the box - no break in period and function perfectly with hand loads. They shoot as accurate as the person behind the trigger, are very well built, fit and finish is excellent and are just a great value for the money. Oh yes, made right here in America!

My experience with Ed Browns, Kimber's and other high end 1911's has been that they are very high quality guns but made too damned tight! In their quest to make the guns accurate, they actually build them so tight they usually will not feed reloaded ammo. I have friends that own many of the high end guns and they have all sent them back to their respective Factory's to be "loosened up" so they actually function. To me a 1911 that will not work reliably with my reloads is worthless to me. I shoot way too much to be using Factory Ball ammo!

IMHO Colt is now run by a bunch of pencil pushing Accountants and they produce very little. That said, they are in the groove with the 1911!! I do not feel you can get a better 1911 fot the same money than a Colt.

The two targets below were shot (outdoors) recently at 50 feet - 7 rounds of 230 grain RNL each target. They were both shot with my Colt Gold Cup Series 70. I can shoot no better with Ed Browns, Les Behr, Kimber's or anything else. The only real difference is the price and the Colts actually work better.

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Just want to follow up with this .....

Years ago after selling my Browning Hi Power I wanted a Colt Gold Cup Series 70 and Colt was not producing them at the time. I looked hard and found a NIB made in 1974 and paid a premium for it because it was NIB. GREAT GUN!

Fast forward to 3 years ago when Colt finally started listening and produced them once again. The new Series 70 GC's are as good and in some respects better than the original ones like mine from the 1970's. My older one has a hollowed out slide (reduces weight slightly) but is not as strong as the current production without the scooped out metal. The Rosewood grips on the new version are even better than the original Walnut, and the Barrel Bushing is now a solid fit Bushing rather than the Finger version on the older ones that is prone to breakage. The sights are not currently Elaison, however they are almost an exact copy and work just as well.They even look the same! They also improved the way the rear sight is mounted and the retaining pin never works loose as on the originals.

The triggers are a bit heavier than the originals but they are crisp and creep free. Adjusting the pull is an easy task on a 1911 so that is a non issue.

Last but not least, the NEW GC's are made without the little annoying Sear Disconnector and Disconnector Spring that always gets lost when disassembled. This was unique to the original 1970's GC's and thankfully they did away with them!

Colt has always known how to make the finest 1911's! As they lost most government business and many civilian customers, they again have chosen to sell guns that work.

Just get one.....you won’t regret it.


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Ok, I guess I'll be the **** in the punch bowl.
What I tell people , if you want to collect it or just look at it, buy a Colt. If you want to actually shoot it buy anything else.

I still have a bad taste in my mouth from the bad old days, when the only 1911 you could get was a Colt. Then if you wanted it to work you had to send it along with cubic dollars to someone like Wilson, Baer, Clark,, etc. to actually get it to work.
Then folks like Springfield ,, then Kimber and others came along and gave customers what they wanted and Colt went by the wayside.
( edit: I do have to admit , an older gentleman recently showed up at a local match with his new Colt 1911.
it looked pretty good and I think it actually worked )

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Heading out to the Range in about an hour and guess what's in my Range Bag ........ . we'll see if I've had too much Coffee this morning!

WOW ! None of my 1911's ,, Colts ,, Kimbers ,, Springfields,, etc. ever shot like that !!
of course I think it had more to do with the nut behind the trigger ,, than the firearm.

Excellent shooting sir !

Short answer: Get a Colt!

Long answer: I was in the market earlier this year for a 1911. I looked at every different maker out there at a large gun show. I came to the conclusion that I should just fork over the extra couple hundred bucks and get an actual Colt 1911 ... otherwise, I'd regret it the next day. Here we are about 8 months later and I have no regrets buying the Colt.

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High Caliber History

My LGS now carries a selection of the sub $1000 Colt 1911's as of two weeks ago. They also just started to carry the newly approved Springfield Armory 1911's in the same price range. Lastly, they carry Sigs, RIA, S&W, Ruger and Remington. I've had a good opportunity to handle all .
Personally, I think all these companies have stepped up their game in the use of high tolerance CNC machining. Fit and finish in all of them is excellent ( especially as compared to production just 10 years ago.). It's really hard to find a bad new production 1911 in any of these brands.

All that said, I've historically been happy with S&W and Sig 1911's. If I were to buy a new to our market branded 1911 today, I'd opt for the Springfield over the Colt by a small margine. I would suggest you handle both/ all before buying on name alone.

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Dave

Back in the day we called the series 70's "good starter kit's". You are right about the newer Colts they are a lot better.

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Stay safe people!

Thank you! This was my best Gold Cup target from this afternoon at 50 feet. I had a real great day today. Also shot my Marlin .38-55 and a CZ 452 while I was at it. The weather was sooooo goooood today I just didn't want to leave. Even after shooting we hung out and smoked a Cigar too!

My standard Range Hand-load is Dardas Cast 230 grain RNL bullet over 4.3 grains of W231. Gives me just over 700 fps which is a light and accurate load but always reliable and never any FTF.

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I have a new Combat Commander and it's every bit as good as any other year Colt .45 you can compare it to.
They have not slacked in their manufacturing of the 1911s.

I had a Gold Cup I purchased new back in the 70's. In a moment of extreme stupidity , I sold it.
Then in the late 80's , I got into USPSA shooting and now into shooting local steel plate matches. Both of which will make you a sloppy in a hurry.
Kind of miss the old bullseye matches. one handed at 50 ft. made you focus a bunch.
My eyes aren't as good as they use to be and the last time I shot bullseye I used a red dot on my Marvel 22 conversion .
I've seen a few folks that could hold groups like your ,, but I'm not one of them. Good Shooting!