Well - I got me a 1911 and have a few questions

[BUCK HINKLE]

The grips are fine If you like them I like wood grips but it is up to you, It looks good and I hope you enjoy it ..For your wife for supporting your gun wants.

 

[goColt]

Colt Forum

Congrats on your 1911-style pistol. The fact that it is a Colt is even better. If you want to learn more about your Colt, a good place to start is the Colt Forum. There is an incredible amount of great information and several folks on there that know more about Colts than the Colonel himself!!

They should be able to answer any question you may have, or more likely have already answered it for someone else.

 

[AverageMidwest]

It was a deal I could not pass up,

COLT .45 Mk IV Series 80 Officers ACP

I really like it and its in pretty darn good shape.

I would like to know the year it was made, I am guessing early 90's but I am not sure. The serial is FA1xxxx. I looked for places to get dates at Colt online and could not find anything without spending $100.

I do not know the value of it, I have looked and guess it to be anywhere from $300 to $500. It fits my hand great and it is compact like the new agent that I was looking at. I have not fired it yet but will soon.

The neat thing is the excuse I used to get it. I had stockpiled about 175 rounds of .45 ACP and didn't own a 45. So when this came up I told the wife I had to have something that could shoot my ammo.

Anyway she was cool with it, and actually likes the feel of it. I even think she will shoot it. Its an all steel gun so she might like it like she did the Baby Eagle in 9mm. She even helped me clean it all up

I think the grip is not an original as it says Pachmayr Signature Model from Los Angeles.

Can someone help with with a link to a place to get the manufacturing date? Also if anyone has any experience with this gun let me know about it. I was doing some reading on what I could find and this gun also had a 'lightweight' model at one time that had issues with the barrel spring and such.


Also for you 1911 owners, just so you know I had a real *&%% of a time getting it back together. Now that I have done it once, it should be easier next time. I can just imagine the GI's having to do that in the field.

Dayum - I'm gonna have to try that line about having to buy something(s) that will shoot my stockpiled rounds on She Who Must Be Obeyed. I'm SO sure she'll buy off on the idea instead of saying 'why don't you just sell the rounds that don't fit what you have'....hey, it could happen.

 

[edsinger]

OK this gun done have the idiot mark, just not that bad. I am not sure I did it as I only put it together once, but I would not rule it out either.


Grips

Well, 21st Century had a set of houges for it and I tried it. They offered me a great price so I took it and both the Wife and I like it better. So here she is with 'minor' idiot mark.

Next I have an issue with the mags,

It says on what information I can find that it is a 6+1. I wanted to get a replacement magazine for it since I only had one. I tried to find a Colt labeled 6 rounds and could not find one. I was told me that a Kimber Compact magazine would work so I bought it after making sure it fit into the gun. It is labeled a 7 rounder.

With the original Colt magazine I can feed from the magazine into the chamber with all three types of ammunition that I have. Federal 45 ball, Hornady XTP, and some Gold Dot reloads I have. the new Kimber magazine will only properly feed the ball ammo.

The tops of the magazines are different, so I assume that it where I am having issues feeding the hollow point ammo. I guess the 7 round magazine will not properly work in this gun. Thing is it was for a compact 1911 of which the OACP is I had thought.

Any advice or information you have would be helpful!

Thanks

 

[edsinger]

Better Pics

I will post better pics, take a look at the difference between the 2 mags.

 

[edsinger]

Finally got to shoot her today at Rouche Lake

At 7 yds, the very first shot was a bullseye, after that is was around a 3" circle. At 15 yards, it moved to about a 4-5" circle. Not bad for the first time shooting her. It felt really good in my hands and the recoil was much less than I expected but it is an all steel gun.

I shot 50 rounds of Federal 230G FMJ, and (3) XTP 230G Hornady.

Something unexpected happened though, the colt mag actually stove piped on the last round (twice), the Kimber magazine did not ever. I was able to shoot my hornady rounds from the Colt magazine so that was important if I want to carry. I guess I would carry with the Colt mag and know I have only 5 shots instead of 6. I will look into this more as I think it can be resolved somehow.

Anyhow, I LIKE this gun, she fires clean and crisp.

When I got home to clean her, I actually did not make the idiot mark worse. I am getting better.

My son and his cousin got to shoot an SW M&P AR15, and I got to shoot my new Remington 597 LR HB, nice little rifle.

 

[edsinger]

Here are some r.reports, first at 7 yards, middle left was the 3 XTP shots aiimed not at bullseye.

Then at 15 yards, bottom right is son's only shot and he was aiming at the bottom right. Seems both our first shots were the best.