Who doesn’t love a Gold Cup?
John Moses Browning’s celebrated 1911 design was adopted by the U.S. military just in time for World War I and soon after Colt began to respond to feedback to tweak the gun for further use. In January 1932, Colt responded to the common fine tuning done to service pistols by military marksmen at the National Match competitions in Camp Perry by introducing the National Match series of accurized 1911s that offered upgrades such as hand-fitted internals, match barrels, checked triggers and mainspring housings and adjustable sights. This model proved popular until it was suspended in 1942 due to the pressing needs of World War II.
In 1957, Colt rebooted the concept as the “Gold Cup National Match” line and has retained the terminology ever since.
Fundamentally, these guns have been the benchmark for right-out-of-the-box competition pistols for more than a half-decade with Colt long describing them as “the finest shooting semi-automatic in the world.”
Check out a sweet spread that covers several decades of these classics in my column at Guns.com.
The Queensland government crushed Colt Gold Cups, any post 1946 constructed pistol with a barrel diameter larger than .38″, with very few exceptions for metallic silhouette competitors. Barrel length had to be longer than 4″ for revolvers or 121mm for auto or single-shot pistols.
Had a friend with a 1950 Model 25 Target S & W in .45 ACP, crushed. He was most unhappy, but that is what happens when you have registered guns; the guvmint ‘thorities know where to come calling.