1911 - Canadian Contract of 1914 - still doing us proud!

[Rob!]

Finally got to the range with this 102 Year old Colt that I bought off the EE forum here. It's largely original, with consumables - like springs - replaced with parts I don't think Mr Browning would have objected to. Sear has been replaced and the barrel was reported to be WW2 GI, and largely shot out. This is not a pristine antique. Just an old timer still doing just fine thank you. (Kind of like me..)

Three of us shot it - and all loved it. It fed everything we gave it from low recoil, to LSWC, to 230 FMJ - all standard velocity or less and didn't fail once. It particularly liked the 230 JHP loads, in one case dropping a full mag into a single ragged hole at 10 yards.

This won't be my primary range gun by a long shot, but it certainly won't be a safe queen either.

Very pleased to own and use this. Thanks Lawrence.

 

[jparent]

Excellent.

Still amazes me sometimes how long firearms can last. Almost laughable how some are afraid of shooting them and wearing them out.

I have at least one gun in my collection that is over 100 years old, I suspect it still shoots as good as the day it was made.

 

[Garand]

Glad you are happy with it.

 

[Challenger2010]

How long a fire arm last depends on the quality and material used to make it.

Colt is in my opinion, #1 and the reason why I buy this brand.

Will a Norinco last 100 years???????

 

[misanthropist]

I've been treated very well by Colt guns (and staff, frankly) but if you change the springs on the norinco and keep it oiled, yes, it'll probably last 100 or 200 or 500 years.

But time is not, in and of itself, the enemy of guns.

Will the Norinco last fifty thousand rounds? Likely not without parts breakage. Could you put 50,000 through a Colt 1911 while doing nothing but changing springs and keeping it oiled? Many modern guns will also do that...but they have been designed in a very different era in which access to engineering data is absolutely unparalleled.

The fact that a gun from a century ago can hold a candle to modern machines is just incredible. Compare a car of 1911 to a current car. Compare a train. Compare a plane! Compare a sewing machine or a mill or a camera.

In most categories, modern machines seem like they're from a different planet than the 1911 version. And yet 1911s remain largely competitive today and are really only hindered by their low capacity. Quite a machine.

 

[buckbrush]

Colt 1911's and most handguns made at the same time were not made of heat treated metal. I think 1911's started getting heat treated around 1927.