Colt Government

I have a standard blued Series 70 Colt Competition Model in .45 ACP that has been nothing but fantastic since taking it out of the box. It feeds, fires, extracts and ejects everything I've thrown at it with aplomb. It has also proven to be very tolerant of different magazines. A couple of Mccormick 8-rounders have given me occasional failures to lock open on empty, but no magazines have failed to feed in my pistol so far. It's also very accurate. Somewhere I have a picture of a 5 shot 25 yard group that measures just under 2", fired with reloaded 200gr powder coated LSWC bullets.

If you've never owned a 1911 before, be warned some can be very magazine picky. I've had the best luck sticking with standard 7-round magazines. Sure, I give up one round compared to the various 8-rd "upgraded" mags, but I have yet have an issue with the 7s.

For your first, get the Colt. I always wanted a Colt and could never bring myself to buy a not-Colt 1911-pattern pistol. And you can buy a Colt for less than a Dan Wesson and have a perfectly functional pistol. You're a lefty, so you will need to have an ambi-thumb safety added to the basic Competition Model, which shouldn't be a big job for a competent 'smith.

Go ahead an keep calling them Government Models too, it's proper when you're talking Colts.

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Like a lot of you on here, I first fired a 1911 in the military. On the guided missile cruiser I was on, (1989-1992), we still had clapped-out 1911's and M-14's in the armory.

I've had my share of 1911's (16 or 17), over the years: S&W, Springfield Armory, Dan Wesson, Colt, Les Baer, Ruger.

All were .45 ACP except a lone 10mm Colt Custom Combat.
I've had Government and Commander styles. (I like the Commander length, but shoot the 5" version much better.)

Currently I have two, 70 series Colts, one blue (.45 ACP) and one SS (converted to 460 Rowland).
I also have one SS Springfield Armory Mil-Spec .45 ACP.

Though I don't worship at the grave of JMB, that man had a big, well used, brain.

Every person that purports to be a gun aficionado, should have at least one 1911, even if it is only to detail strip and admire the inventive genius it took to develop that model in an era of no CAD or CNC machines.
 
I don’t consider myself to be a 1911 expert but I’ve owned a lot of them over the years and still shoot them regularly. I’ll share my thoughts.

I bought my first Colt 1911 nearly a half century ago. Since then, I’ve owned a number of different 1911s including about a half dozen Colts of various models. I’ve owned Wilson Combat, Ed Brown, Kimber, Les Baer, Dan Wesson, Detonics, Springfield Armory, etc. I’ve also owned a couple Colt Ace pistols and a few Colt .22 conversion units.

Frankly, I don’t think very much of Colt 1911s. Of the half dozen I’ve owned, only one was what I would consider a good shooter. I didn’t keep that Colt because I had other 1911s that shot better.

I also had an issue with Colt repair service when I sent my Ace to them for repair. One year and three trips to Colt later, they still weren’t able to fix my Ace. I lost patience with Colt and parted it out.

I’ve only had reliability issues with two brands of 1911s, Detonics and Colt. The other brands have been completely trouble free.
Colts were also the least accurate 1911s I’ve owned.

I’ve since thinned my collection down and have kept only two brands of 1911, a Les Baer and a few Kimbers. I consider them to be my best shooters.

If I were buying a 1911 today, I would look at Kimbers. They are, in my opinion, the best values.
 
I have an inexpensive Series 80 Colt 1911 -- .45 acp. I put aftermarket double diamond grips on. I know, an eh Colt model BUT I shoot the hell out of it and for less than $800 when it breaks I'll just keep putting it back together. Gun looks great and shooooots !

.02

David. :)
 
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