Tag Archives: 1911

John Browning’s Swan Song

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As a guy who has a few FN/Browning Hi-Powers, ranging from a circa 1943 Pistole 640b to a downright wonky circa 2005 SFS, I had fun examining a wide range of BHPs recently.

Browning’s original 1923 concept, as patented in 1927.

This rare late 1940s-produced Hi-Power is a very early model featuring the “dimple” on the right side of the slide to help with take down for maintenance and the “thumbprint” style internal extractor. Marked “LGK OO”: Landes Gendarmerie Kommando für Oberösterreich (Provincial Gendarmerie Command for Upper Austria), it is a former Austrian police-issue handgun.

This circa-1969 commercial Browning Hi-Power still features the original wooden grips that the model first entered production with but shows the updated external extractor. Also gone is the slide/frame dimple.

More detail in my column at Guns.com.

Running a basic 1911, successfully

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So I’ve been testing a basic $500 U.S.-made vanilla GI .45 format– the Auto-Ordnance BKO.

This thing

On the outside, it is a dead-ringer for a post-1926 made martial M1911A1. On this inside, it is an 80-series update with arguably a better trigger and tighter tolerances (due to CNC) than the old warhorse.

In range tests so far I have found that it ate 600 rounds of mixed bulk ammo from various makers, run through a hodgepodge of factory and aftermarket mags, with accuracy that is “close enough for Government work.”

Boom

Much more details in my column at Guns.com

The 411 on 1911s

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I had a few people ask me recently as to the differences between the M1911 and M1911A1, as well as what makes a 1911 a GI Longslide or a Commander, or Officer; 70 series or 80, so I put this together.

For more detail on how to speak 1911, check out the article below in my column over at Guns.com

https://www.guns.com/news/2019/11/14/how-to-speak-1911-holding-class-on-the-evolutionary-differences

So a 1911 and a CZ75 swiped right…

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Billed as a dream match using DNA from two of the most iconic handguns of the old and new world, the new Dan Wesson DWX has been announced.

Teased this week, the new gun has a release date only of “2020” and is promised in both full-size and compact variants.

“It started as an experiment — a grand melding of Dan Wesson and CZ pistols,” says the company. “Borrowing the crisp single-action fire control group of a DW 1911 and combining it with the ergonomics and capacity of a CZ, the resulting pistol emerged as something great.”

The Dan Wesson DWX. Concept art firearm vaporware? We shall see…

Using a locked-breech barrel system and a CZ-style takedown, the 9mm DWX incorporates a 5-inch match-grade barrel without the 1911’s link system or barrel bushing. However, it contains many 1911 parts while coming to the party with a 19+1 magazine capacity based on the CZ P-09/P-10 and aluminum CZ 75 grips.

More in my column at Guns.com 

CMP got 8,000 M1911s. Guess how many order packets they received?

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The plan to transfer some of the Army’s stockpile of vintage M1911 pistols to the public via the Civilian Marksmanship Program has been met with a big response.

On Tuesday, the federally chartered non-profit corporation tasked with promoting firearms safety and practice announced that they had received and were processing 19,000 packets submitted for a chance to acquire one of the classic .45ACP handguns. That’s more than twice the number of guns in the CMP’s warehouse.

And they may not be getting any more.

More in my column at Guns.com

Heard you were looking for a pre-owned M1 or M1911? CMP just got 99K of the first and 8K of the latter..

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The Civilian Marksmanship Program has recently received truckloads of vintage M1 Garand rifles long ago loaned to U.S. allies overseas and is preparing to inventory M1911 pistols as well.

Gina Johnson, CMP’s general manager, told me via email Tuesday the federally-chartered non-profit corporation has been moving the repatriated 30.06-caliber rifles into their warehouses in recent days.

“We have roughly 86,000 rifles from the Philippines and roughly 13,000 rifles from Turkey in our possession,” said Johnson.

And then there are the 1911s…

More in my column at Guns.com.

A Lil Jeep and a lot of swagger

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Capt. Forrest F “Pappy” Parham in front of the famous shark teeth of Little Jeep, a P-40 Warhawk when a member of “Chennault’s Sharks” the 23rd Fighter Group in the China-Burma-India theater of WWII. He went on to make ace with the 75th Fighter Squadron flying P-51s.

The Saskatchewan-born Parham was reared in Minnesota and began his career as an Army enlisted man but retired a full bird colonel in the U.S. Air Force having served through the Korean War. He retired after 28 years, carried the Distinguished Flying Cross with two oak leaf clusters, Air Medal with eight oak leaf clusters, Distinguished Unit Citation, Soldiers Medal and two Bronze Service Stars.

He died in Louisiana in 2002 at age 85. As you can tell, he enjoyed a good pipe and an ivory-handled 1911.

A relic with the ability to induce a shudder

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Object 19880274-001, Canadian War Museum http://www.warmuseum.ca/collections/artifact/1042602/

This early Colt M1911 was used by an individual with the 27th Infantry Battalion (City of Winnipeg), Canadian Expeditionary Force, during the First World War.

If you note, there is a bullet or shrapnel hole from the right penetrating the left-hand side of the grip, meaning if the pistol was in a holster or hand, the owner likely had a very bad experience somewhere on the Western Front.

Canada placed orders for a total of 5,000 Colt Government Model pistols between August and October 1914, with officers, senior NCOs and machine gunners of early units heading to France so equipped with these .45ACP Connecticut-made guns.

The 27th Winnipeg was authorized on 7 November 1914 and disembarked in France as a fully trained and equipped unit on 18 September 1915, just in time to head to the front for the meat-grinder that was Somme the next year.

Close to 61,000 Canadians were killed during the war, and another 172,000 were wounded.

The 27th and a dozen other Manitoba-area Great War battalions are perpetuated today as the “Little Black Devils” of the Royal Winnipeg Rifles (R Wpg Rif).

Happy 99th, Dick

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major-dick-winters-officers-i-d-card-on-display-at-the-gettysburg-museum-of-history

Major Dick Winters‘ Officer’s Geneva Card, on display at the Gettysburg Museum of History, who have an extensive collection of items related to the late, great “biggest brother,” including his early model Colt 1911.

1911-assigned-to-maj-dick-winters-during-wwii

Finders Keepers

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colt-model-m1911a1-pistol-captured-1965-by-warrant-officer-class-ii-k-a-wheatley-australian-army-training-team-vietnam

Here we see a well-traveled M1911A1 .45ACP Government Issue long slide.

It’s a mismatch gun that likely became such in some long forgotten Army armory, with a (likely Great War era) Colt-marked slide and a 1943 U.S. Army-marked Remington Rand frame from the Second World War. As such, it or at least components, served in both World Wars, probably Korea, and definitely Vietnam.

How do we know the latter? Well, the gun, SN 1431274, was captured north of Da Nang in August 1965 by Warrant Officer Class 2 (WO2) Kevin “Dasher” Wheatley, Australian Army Training Team Vietnam (AATTV). The weapon was recovered from rom North Vietnamese Forces who were believed to have captured it earlier from ARVN forces or the Americans.

Wheatly passed it on to war correspondent Pat Burgess as a protective weapon when Burgess suffered a cut on the elbow and had to go to Da Nang accompanied only by some sketchy ARVN troopers.

Wheatly went on to die just two months later in an incident that would see him receive the VC. His medals came into the Australian Memorial’s collection in 1993, joining the 1911 on display.

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