.45 Service Handguns of the 20th Century

[PALADIN85020]

About 10 years ago, I authored an article on this subject which appeared in the 2003 Gun Digest. It won the John Amber award for the best article for that year. I took a series of photographs with a 35mm camera on slide film to illustrate the piece. Since the digital camera revolution, I've been converting some of those old slides to digital pictures using an optical slide copier. I thought I'd share some of those resurrected pictures with you.

Here's an overall shot of the major service .45 handguns of the last century:

This is the Model 1909 Colt revolver, chambered in .45 Colt (modified).

Here's the famous Model 1911, made by Colt:

A Model 1911 made at Springfield Armory in 1915:

And here's a Model 1911 made by Remington-UMC:

This is a closeup of the slide markings on a Model 1911 Augusta Arsenal rework using a slide produced by the A.J. Savage Munitions Co. of San Diego, California in 1918.

Here is an assemblage of Model 1911 pistols surrounding an original Model 1912 swivel holster:

Here are two Model 1917 revolvers, one made by Colt and the other by S&W:

This is the Colt Model 1917:

And this is the S&W Model 1917:

This is a Model 1911A1 made by Colt during WWII:

This is a Model 1911A1 made by the Union Switch and Signal Co.:

The Ithaca Gun Co. made 1911A1s during WWII. This is one of them:

Remington-Rand made more 1911A1s than any other manufacturer. Here is one:

Here is an F.P. 45 "Liberator" pistol. About a million of these were produced to arm resistance fighters during WWII. Most were lost or destroyed, making them very scarce today.

This is a shot of a Liberator pistol with the action open, showing the smooth (no rifling) bore:

And finally, this is the civilian Mark 23 version of the SOCOM Mk 23 Mod O pistol used by our Special Forces:

These handguns reflect a century of .45 caliber dominance in our armed services - here's hoping they'll continue with that caliber in the future; any of these guns will soundly trounce the anemic 9mm service pistol loaded with hardball ammo when it comes to stopping power.

Hope you enjoy the pics as much as I did putting them together for you.

John

 

[sigp220.45]

I really enjoyed that article when it came out - thank you for writing it.

Great post, too.

 

[nawilson]

I just love reading your posts on firearms history.

 

[Texas Star]

John-

Another superior post! Thanks.

 

[old bear]

Sir, great job as always,thanks. Do you have any idea on which of the handguns listed is now the rarest? Thanks..

 

[Old 44 Guy]

Great photos, many Thanks.

 

[PALADIN85020]

Sir, great job as always,thanks. Do you have any idea on which of the handguns listed is now the rarest? Thanks..

The 1909 Colt is pretty rare; most were sent to the Philippines in the early part of the 20th Century. Not too many came back; those that stayed there faced very humid and harsh conditions through the WWII period.

Springfield Armory 1911s are getting scarce and very pricey when found. Same with Remington-UMC pistols.

The A.J. Savage slide reworks are almost impossible to find today. I've never seen another of them other than the one I own.

Excellent condition U.S.&S. 1911A1s are very difficult to find. The one I have is almost mint; a real rarity.

And of course, probably the most rare is the Liberator pistol. You can find them here and there, but the prices are now in the several thousand dollar range. I got mine back when their true value wasn't really all that understood.

In actuality, any original G.I. .45 handgun is now much in demand, and where they were once plentiful, most of them are now kept in collections and don't come out to play any more. I've noticed fewer and fewer for sale at gun shows, and many are mixed-parts guns that may or may not have been arsenal reconditioned. Original finish guns are really scarce now.

That's about all I can tell you on these.

John

 

[Snakeshift]

I love film camera shots

Nothing against digital photography or anything; but there's nothing like a great film shot IMO.

Great shots, and an envious collection!

 

[jbull380]

Excellent post! Just out of curiosity though didn't the colt single action army get slice of early 20th century service? Or are we speaking only of .45 ACP?

 

[coiler666]

I always enjoy the pix n posts from Mr.Paladin. Its great to have a forum with so many knowledgable folks, i thank ya's all Mike

 

[COL Jagdog]

Great article -- I remember reading it when it came out.
Thanks for sharing.

 

[mc5aw]

Beautiful photos and text. Thank you John for posting this info.

 

[charlie sherrill]

Do you have a Singer?

 

[Texas Star]

Excellent post! Just out of curiosity though didn't the colt single action army get slice of early 20th century service? Or are we speaking only of .45 ACP?

Yes. After the .38 Colts were found wanting in stopping power, Colt refurbished many of the SAA's, cutting the barrels to 5.5inches, and sent them to the Phillipines.

I presume that black powder ammo was supplied, given the age of the guns. The M-1909 was supposed to replace or supplement them, while the Army tested autos. M-1909's used a .45 Colt case with a wider rim, better to extract from DA revolvers. These have to be loaded every other chamber in SAA's, but I think the military probably never authorized their use in the old govt. issue SAA's. The smokeless pressures may have been too great.

M-1909 ammo was loaded only by US arsenals. It was never made commercially.

 

[PALADIN85020]

Do you have a Singer?

Nope. Seeing as how only 500 were made, most of them going to the Army Air Corps, very few are in existence today. I did have the opportunity to bid on one at an auction many years ago, but I would have had to take out a second mortgage on the house. My wife put her foot down on that. Ah well.

John

 

[PALADIN85020]

Excellent post! Just out of curiosity though didn't the colt single action army get slice of early 20th century service? Or are we speaking only of .45 ACP?

The Colt .45 Model 1873 single action army revolvers were indeed taken out of mothballs in the early 1900s and used in the Philippines, where they were more effective against the Moros than the .38 Colt and S&W revolvers then in use. However, for the purposes of the article (and this post), I covered only handguns born in the 20th Century. The 1909 Colt used a modified .45 Colt cartridge with a wider rim to facilitate extraction, although .45 Colt cartridges could be used in it. The regular .45 Colt case has a very tiny rim. This worked great for single actions with their poke-out extraction, but not so great with the ejector stars of double action revolvers in their swing-out cylinders.

John

 

[JJEH]

Great work, thank you for sharing this.

I really enjoyed it.

 

[PALADIN85020]

John,
Thanks for posting. Would you or anyone have a scan of the original article?

I believe, as I understand it, that many of the 1911s that were one time used by our military were destroyed by the U.S. government or given away to other countries?

I don't think it would be proper to scan the article - it's copyrighted to Gun Digest; also it's pretty comprehensive and runs 11 pages long. Might be best to borrow a copy of the 2003 edition or see if you could get a 2003 GD through eBay or other services.

Yes, many 1911s were sold or given to other countries, and numbers were destroyed. Many were disposed of through the Director of Civilian Marksmanship for dirt cheap prices back in the day, but sadly, those days are over now. I remember when I was in the Army a Sergeant in my outfit ordered a DCM pistol, and when it came, it was a near-mint Springfield Armory piece. I offered to buy it from him, but crafty devil that he was, he declined...

John

 

[Cyrano]

If you're including foreign firearms there's the Norwegian M1914 (I think), a copy of the 1911; the Webley 455s, and the Danish Shouboe. For experimental guns, the Luger 45, the Remington (J. D. Pederson design), Savage and Grant-Hammond. Most of these exist in museums only.

Added: Pictures of the Grant Hammond in the NRA Museum, the Shouboe and Savage 45 at Springfield Armory.

 

[PALADIN85020]

If you're including foreign firearms there's the Norwegian M1914 (I think), a copy of the 1911; the Webley 455s, and the Danish Shouboe. For experimental guns, the Luger 45, the Remington (J. D. Pederson design), Savage and Grant-Hammond. Most of these exist in museums only.

You are quite correct on those guns, however, I've only addressed the U.S. issue guns here. The .45 caliber is almost unique to the United States; foreign .45s are mostly based on U.S. designs or were catering to U.S. interests (such as the Sig-Sauer P220). At any rate, it's definitely the all-American caliber, and has been since 1873.

John