Detonics Combat Master

Back in the late 1980's I shot M1911's almost exclusively. I shot a Detonics that a guy had. Was not overly impressed with the gun or the accuracy of it over a standard M1911. He want to trade it to me for my M29-2 4". Told him he would have to add several hundred to the deal to get me to trade(read I didn't want it). He decided against it.

Krogen said:

A followup to the post above. At the club the other day, my buddy handed me a Combat Master to shoot. It's a work of art! I'm sure that back in his Detonics days, it got some special attention from him.

Two rounds of 230 gr FMJ was all I could withstand! It's a little gun, light weight and hurts like mad! It stung right up my forearm into my shoulder. No doubt, in a defensive situation one wouldn't notice. But, how do you practice with it? I'd never make it through a box of ammo in one session. Beautiful gun, and it hurts on both ends.

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They certainly were not meant to be match grade target pistols nor pistols that you would plink with all day long.

I've had a blued Mk. I for twenty-five years, and have put something over 5000 rounds through it.
As long as recoil and mag springs are kept reasonably fresh, 500-1000 rounds, mine has been very reliable.
It was my off-body "carry gun" for about twenty years, but was actually shot in IDPA competition, not really suited for the latter, but for "Back Up Gun" type shooting, it's great.

I scratched that itch with a Para Ordinance LDA 3.25. All stainless steel, Double action, very accurate. 6 shot mag, my spare mag is a Wilson 8 round.

I also have a Para LDA 4.25. Alloy frame, double stack 12 round mags. Double action! Mine isn't as accurate as the 3.25, but better than most non-enhanced Government Models.

Both guns shoot ball, Fed HST and Win. STHP to sights at 25 yards.

Of the 7 guns I have in the 1911 family, the only one not in 45 is Commander in 38 Super. Great gun, great cartridge!

Ivan

stansdds said:

They certainly were not meant to be match grade target pistols nor pistols that you would plink with all day long.

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I thought it kind of funny that my early Detonics has a Colt NM barrel that had been chopped and sleeved.

1985, I'm sent to a FBI firearms instructors school. Very cool, filled with .38 cal. revolvers. But for one guy from the smallest, safest city and he's sporting a .45 ACP. Yeah, it's a Detonics. As I recall it had some mods, but not quite a race gun.

Anyway this school is all about shooting and you do a bunch, counting by the case. The Detonics worked perfectly as did all the Smith revolvers.

Hey Lenny, are you out there?

dsf said:

I thought it kind of funny that my early Detonics has a Colt NM barrel that had been chopped and sleeved.

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Yes, the very earliest Detonics used a sleeved barrel. Before the sleeveless barrel was perfected.

I am bummed that I did not see this thread sooner and that I am not currently residing in my Washington state home. Family matters. I have so much I could share. If I were, I could have taken photos of the nine Combat Masters that I currently own. In 2011 I got into shooting and collecting with my main focus at the time being in 45 ACP handguns. I became fascinated with the Combat Masters, at first because of the history of their production in the Seattle area. But even more so after I purchased my first one. It was one of the good ones. Explanation upcoming. It is blued, all carbon steel in the "C" serial number range. The frame to slide fit was good with no overhang in the back. This one came with a set of grips that I have never seen on any other Combat Master. The left grip panel looked like factory checkered wood, but the right grip panel is checkered but has a palm swell incorporated. It fit my hand so well and shot so well the obsession was off and running. Having a good magazine seems to be key with reliability. The factory ones as mentioned above marked Detonics .45 A.P.C worked the best for me. The magazines from Metalform are ok but the magazines from Triple K were not reliable. In my experience some of the earliest guns had the poorest fitment. Loose slide to frame fit and with the back of the slide hanging past the frame not flush with the frame. These were guns with four-digit serial numbers with no letter prefix. During my quests for Combat Masters all around Western Washington I got to meet 3 former Detonics employees. One was the head pistol smith, and the others were production guys. One of those fellows worked with a famed shooter and pistol smith named Richard Neimer who worked at both Detonics and Olympic Arms before his sudden passing. He relayed to me several stories about Detonics and its demise. Detonics are great guns when you find good ones. Look for the proper fitment. If you find a nice one for under $800 I would recommend buying it. The inflated prices that you see are because of one guy in Texas that bought up a bunch of them during the time I was acquiring mine, but that is another subject that would be much lengthier. The word from the guys in the know was the best of Detonics production were with guns serialized CR17xxx and above. As far as mine are concerned I have nickel, carbon steel, and stainless-steel models for sure. I may have a hard chromed model as well, but I never tried to identify that for sure. As mentioned by one of the other commentors not all roll marks were well done. I've only seen one MK IV that was clearly stamped, and the bluing did not really differ from the 3 blue ones I have so I have been a bit confused if mine are all MK I's or mixed. My serial numbers are prefixed in "I", "C", and "CR", they have all functioned well for me. I have six Seattle marked guns. One Bellevue marked gun and Two Pendergrass; GA produced Combat Masters. They may be the best of the lot. One is a two-tone model that I have shot numerous times with no issues. The other is LNIB stainless, I've only shot twice, flawlessly but I've leaned towards preserving that one because of its high condition.

Just saw this. I bought a C-prefix Seattle Mk VI back in the early 1990s to use as my ‘Bosnia gun’. I never wound up carrying it however. It’s a beautiful piece, with flawless functioning (I did have to replace a follower on a Triple K magazine to keep it from overriding the slide stop on the last round). It feeds and ejects with 100% reliability. I’ve run softball 200gr SWC loads, along with Speer 200gr ‘flying ashtray’ JHP, Speer 230gr Gold Dot, Hornady 175gr XTP JHP, Winchester 185gr Silvertip, Remington 230gr JHP, and of course plenty of GI hardball 230gr. I’ve put thousands of rounds through mine, although the stiff recoil means I usually only shoot 50-100 rounds at a time.

It’s a terrific gun, much more accurate than one might expect, heavier than it looks, and legitimately cool. There are many better choices for a defensive gun today, but in its day it was the ultimate backup gun.

I feel very fortunate to have mine. I haven’t shot it in far too long. Must fix that….

Mine was a stainless steel stinker! It wasn't as bad as my Colt Combat Commander was, that gun was total trash, but it was not reliable. It had issues even after having Detonics and 2 local guys look at it. It had to be run really wet and it had to be held with a death grip or it would limp wrist. My Beretta 92 was totally reliable, and I could barely hold onto it and it shot fine. The Detonics is the last 1911 gun I've owned, and that was about 45 years ago.

When it comes to the 1911 and reliability, chances of reliability are best with the Government Model (5 inch barrel) and Commander (4 1/4 inch barrel), at least with the traditional barrel bushing. With shorter barrels, a bushingless, cone barrel often makes the compact sizes more reliable. With the compact 1911's, the best reliability will likely come with bushingless barrels than also have an integral feed ramp. Just my thoughts on 1911 reliability, they are probably worth exactly what you paid for them.

Yes, I own one and find it be a very reliable shooter.....in fact the recoil is very tolerable with the spring system that Detonics developed.
I lived in the Seattle area from 1986 until 2016 and picked this one up from a friend who's father was the original owner.

This is one of the hard to find Seattle made .451 Magnum versions that came with the .45 ACP conversion.......but unfortunately the .451 Mag barrel and magazine did not come with it. But I do have two original Detonics marked .45 ACP mags.