The Officer!

[dandyrandy]

barney by Dandy Randy, on Flickr

The Officer refers to numerous different semi auto pistols. The first being probably the M-15 Rock Island. Not to be confused with the Filipino company of similar name. This gun was issued to General Officers of the US military. Good luck trying to find one of those! Colt also came out with there own version and also Detonics. After that a slew of other companies followed suit. The officer size guns usually have approximately a 3.5" bull barrel with no front bushing and a smaller "officer" size frame accepting 6 to 7 round shorter 1911 mags.

I dont own one of these guns YET. Yes it was one of the first compact guns however I dont own one for a few reasons. Reason one being they tend to not be that much smaller in weight and size to a Commander size pistol and also there is a smaller, shall we call them Defender size pistols, that tend to be much lighter too. One of my favorite setups is the CCO.. Its a Commander length slide mated with an officer size frame which I think is brilliant! I digress! I probably will get an Officer size gun some time in the future because there cool and I like them. One reason I like them is because I always like the Smith and Wesson 4516. That gun is not a 1911 however it was very much the same size and weight as an Officer size 1911. Unfortunately those 4516s are no longer made. I will be getting an "Officer" in the future for review. Thanks and stay tuned!

 

[ContinentalOp]

The officer size guns usually have approximately a 3.5" bull barrel with no front bushing and a smaller "officer" size frame accepting 6 to 7 round shorter 1911 mags.

Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe that when the Colt Officer Model 1911s came out, they did have bushings. I know I've seen aftermarket match grade bushings for Officers.

I really like the CCO, but from what I've seen, it seems Officer Model 1911s can be finicky to keep reliable. The problem seems to stem from the short slide moving at higher velocity than the longer Commander and Govt Model slides. The longer, slower-moving slides give a longer time window in which to extract/eject the spent casing and feed the next round. It's more difficult to balance this timing with the Officer Model. I've seen recommendations to change the recoil spring every 500 rounds as a result, or use of heavy recoil springs or dual recoil spring systems.

While they can be run reliably, I've often seen instructors and gunsmiths familiar with 1911s say that for best reliability, stick with the Govt Model or Commander slide lengths. And I'm sure there'll be plenty of people posting that their Officer Model guns run reliably. Who knows? Maybe the more modern iterations are more reliable out of the box. Even taking reliability out of consideration, I just don't see enough of a size advantage with the Officer Model to choose that over a CCO.

 

[mikerjf]

Gee, that guy has a 38 LRN and only needs one... I'm carrying that!

 

[jdlii]

My EDC is a series 80 Colt Officer's model. It was acquired specifically for its size and caliber, .45 ACP. Mine has a barrel bushing and double recoil springs. There have, fortunately, been no issues with feeding or function with 230 grain ball or the 185 grain Federal Hyda Shocks that fill the magazines.

Like most of you I have heard and read of issues with the barrel bushing failing and recommendations that an aftermarket replacement be acquired. That makes sense but, I haven't acquired one yet.

The only change that I made to mine was the addition lf the stag grips. Should the bushing fail, I have available back up options.

 

[Lonestar57]

I like them:

 

[Grayfox]

I own one officer's size 1911. A 1996 Springfield Armory Ultra-Compact in .45acp. I bought this used some years ago at a gun show. The previous owner had modified it some adding a new trigger, sights, checkering the front strap and a Wilson beavertail.
As mentioned, these shorter barreled 1911s can be difficult to make run reliably. Mine proved to be troublesome with feed and ejection issues. I replaced the dual recoil spring assembly and tweaked on it a bit so that now its 100% reliable.
Its a good gun, but honestly, I prefer my Commander for carry. Its not much bigger and I can shoot it much better.
Note that Springfield Armory no longer offers a .45acp in an Officer's size. Only a 9mm.

 

[crsides]

I have the DW CCO, and love it.

 

[H Richard]

I have owned two of the Springfield Armory guns, a 45 and a 9mm. The 45 was an earlier one, and I had to make several enhancements, sights and beavertail safety, (and tighten up the slide to frame fit a little). The 9mm was all dressed up straight from the factory and I used it as the test gun for working up many 9mm loads, it shot well.

Im my opinion, the Springfield Armory guns steel is just a tiny bit softer than I would have liked, and found them doing a litter slide battering, even with the nested springs. But then I shot several thousand rounds through the 9mm and the accuracy never dropped off.

 

[Stevie]

I walked out of a gun store a few years back with a new ATI Titan FX light weight .45 which is an alloy frame officer's sized pistol.

For a 'cheap' 1911 officer sized gun the Philippine made Titan is really pretty decent. Perfect accuracy...perfect feeding of ball ammo...much to like.

On the down side...from the git-go it tended to throw brass right at your forehead!...I fixed that by putting more tension on the extractor and it was good then. The manual safety failed a safety check after some use...I took the gun apart and inspected the internals...really couldn't tell what was wrong. I did notice that the Philippine made disconnector part was oddly machined although quite like a GI 1911 full size part. I had a new GI/standard disconnector on-hand and installed it...that fixed the manual safety issue(could safe the pistol and pull the trigger a couple times and kick the manual safety lever off safe!)...

Now there you have a report on a cheap officer sized .45 pistol. I had actually gone looking for a Springfield compact pistol only to discover the officer sized guns were discontinued...the Colt Defenderand Kimbers too expensive. Rock Island did have an even cheaper steel framed officer size gun there...but the ATI appealed to me.

 

[4T5GUY]

I got my Series 80 Colt Officers .45 23 years ago from a Deputy friend of mine. All of them were going to the small Glocks.

I replaced most of the original parts including fitting an Ed Brown guide rod and plug. It functions flawlessly and it’s as accurate as it should/can be. Very nice little .45 acp Colt.

For whatever reason I got a .45 Defender, (100 year marked nonsense,) and I actually really like it after again replacing parts. It obviously weighs less than the Officers Model and a bit smaller. It weighs the same as my 7 rnd non-railed 45 TSW but it is shorter and of course thinner.

Jim

 

[jeffrefrig]

Stevie, I just gave my son my full-sized ATI 2 days ago. I thought it was kinda handy the way it would save the brass by ejecting the spent brass right over my head and down my back inside my shirt! That way I had an easier time cleaning up my area when I was done. It would shoot better than I could. I learned quickly to keep my shirt tight around my neck and untucked in case one slipped in. That was quite the buzz-kill getting that hot brass down my back! (Just an expression...I don't do that stuff anymore.) Anyhow, I would recommend the ATI to anyone wanting to see if the 1911 was right for them. Can't go wrong for under $400! Very reliable with ball ammo. Hollow points would FTF about once every five-six magazines on the initial rack, now that I'm remembering.

 

[dandyrandy]

Stevie, I just gave my son my full-sized ATI 2 days ago. I thought it was kinda handy the way it would save the brass by ejecting the spent brass right over my head and down my back inside my shirt! That way I had an easier time cleaning up my area when I was done. It would shoot better than I could. I learned quickly to keep my shirt tight around my neck and untucked in case one slipped in. That was quite the buzz-kill getting that hot brass down my back! (Just an expression...I don't do that stuff anymore.) Anyhow, I would recommend the ATI to anyone wanting to see if the 1911 was right for them. Can't go wrong for under $400! Very reliable with ball ammo. Hollow points would FTF about once every five-six magazines on the initial rack, now that I'm remembering.

A stronger recoil spring might solve the HP FTF problem.

 

[dandyrandy]

I have the DW CCO, and love it.

So are we going to refer to the CCO as a Commander or Officer size gun??? I consider them more of a Commander since I go by barrel length. Check out my other post on the Commander type pistols! There a few Dan Wessons on there and I talk about the CCO more.

 

[dandyrandy]

Might be one of my favorites to replace the LCP and G36
In the adult caliber .... 45 ACP.

I would like to hear more about the SR1911 Officer. I like the 45 a lot however they also have the 9mm which sounds pretty sweet too!

 

[dandyrandy]

So what are the compact Springfield Armory Range Officer pistols going to be considered as? Commander or officer size??? They got 4 inch barrels and officer size frames. Im thinking there more of an "Officer" size gun.

 

[crsides]

So are we going to refer to the CCO as a Commander or Officer size gun??? I consider them more of a Commander since I go by barrel length. Check out my other post on the Commander type pistols! There a few Dan Wessons on there and I talk about the CCO more.

I think they get their own moniker ... CCO. You and i know what they are.

 

[dandyrandy]

I like them:

Sexy and not too common any more. Everyone used to try to get those little guys as the essential carry 1911. I always wanted a Detonics Combat Master.
You dont hear of anybody carrying these tiny howitzers any more especially when you got things like the Glock 43.