Didn't mean to pee in anybody's cheerios.
OldDog said:
"Growing up?" What years were those?
I've been around a minute and never heard that "Colt build quality was considered a joke."
Started reading gun rags and having experience with hadguns in the 1980s. The gun rags had their own particular dialect or code to deal with troublesome or POS products. You knew if the author wrote that a particular handgun was, "combat accurate" it slung its pills all over the target. Or if there was fulsome praise regarding X company's customer service, you could assume the gun would not run reliably and had to be sent back. Maybe more than once. As for Colt 1911s, the writers were getting them from the factory and promptly turning them around to their favored gunsmith for reliability work.
And in the hands-on face-to-face department, many proud Colt 1911 owners said something to the effect of, "It has been 100% reliable--since I sent it off to X gunsmith to work on it." Meaning: out of the box--not so reliable.
And the VN veteran family & friends had nothing good to say about issue 1911s (though I later learned none of those 1911s were made after 1945 and had heavy use, so not surprising).
So, yeah, when I became handgun-aware in the 1980s, Colt and their 1911 did not have a great reputation. I am interested and hopeful Colt may have turned it around. And your subsequent comments do seem to corroborate my recollection of the times.
WVsig said:
I am a Colt fan but there have been time periods where they built a lot of Monday morning and Friday afternoon guns. If you look at Colts history most of its crappy production can be traced to labor issues where their production workers walked out and people who did not give a crap or did not have the skills required were the ones assembling the guns. The quality was hit or miss. The other dark times where when volume and the money to be made off the name were more important than the quality and they let the tooling get long in the tooth.
That is not the case these days. They make a pretty good 1911. Maybe a little overpriced but if you ask the best 1911 smiths in the world what base gun they want to work on most will still tell you Colt.
See, that ^^^ is useful information, given I am considering putting my $$$ down on a 1911 and Colt has a couple offerings that interest me.
Double_J said:
My Taurus 1911 trigger is better than a friend of mina's colt commander. And the overall fit/finish are better on my Taurus, but I don't know about accuracy as we have not shot together in a while. I would not spend the premium for a normal Colt, but a Gold Cup would most assuredly get a premium from me.
I bought a Taurus revolver on the basis of a better trigger than a similar S&W some years back. After I did some reliability work on it, the Taurus has been a good revolver, but I am not looking for a project out of the box.
brunowbe said:
My Colt’s build quality is fantastic. It’s a 9mm version and is less than 3 years old. My only complaint is the stainless slide scratches a lot more easily than my Ruger’s stainless slide (they’re very fine scratches, but oh well as I don’t plan on ever selling it).
Thanks for the data point. I am particularly interested in a 9x19mm 1911 and Colt has a couple variants that interest me.
9mmepiphany said:
Like the years just prior to Springfield Armory and Kimber Custom came on the market. Those two really forced Colt to up their QC (SA) and offer more features (KC) to try to keep up.
When I bought my first service 1911, early-70s, Colt was the only game in town. The common route to a reliable and usable defensive 1911 at that time was to go right from the shop where you bought it to your local pistol smith to 1) change the sights, 2) Clean up the trigger, and 3) tune it for reliable function. I went the extra step of having a long trigger and a flat MSH installed
That about nails my experience. A buddy of mine wanted "A 1911 bult with S&W semi-auto qualtiy." Then S&W produced a 1911 and I bought one. Then another. S&W made a 1911 shooter out of me.
cfullgraf said:
I still consider Colt manufactured guns to be excellent. Some small adjustments may be required to make them 100% reliable but I'm comfortable with working with the platform so it is not an issue.
That is Kel-tec level QC. Now, I own 3 KTs, one of which required factory service. All 3 are now good-to-go and reliable for SD duty. But none of them cost me more than $240 out of the door. Dare we expect more from Colt than we expect from Kel-tec?
bannockburn said:
Today I believe (as do several other knowledgeable people I know that are in the gun business), that Colt is turning out some of the best product that they have made in the last 30+ years.
Thanks, that is handy to know.
sequins said:
I have a modern series 70 and it's great. It's one of my most accurate pistols. I've had a couple gentlemen at the range comment on the groups and invite me to try bullseye matches at a local club.
Had a bullseye shooter shoot my SW1911 and produce such teeny-tiny groups at 25 yards I had no idea it was capable of. Made me more confident in the weapon and gave me an appreciation of just how capable some of those BE shooters are.
hotshot357 said:
I've got a GCNM that's 4 years old and it's my most prized possession !!!!! The trigger is fantastic and the fit & finish is awesome !!!
Beautful pistol. I never questioned the beauty of some of those blued Colts. Got to handle a GCNM that was some sort of factory special edition back in the 1990s. The blueing and finish was spectacular. Saw a 4" blued Python some years before that might have matched it.
wojownik said:
OP - like some of the other are asking - what era did you grow up? (Of course, my wife would say I still haven't "grown up").
I have a 1970s vintage colt 1911 ... just a fine, fine pistol.
I had a 1991 Series 80 from the the mid 1990s. That was not their finest, I'll have to admit. Rattletrap from the factory, horrible trigger, roughly finished. Sold that off.
Colt Commander from the early 2000s - excellent, excellent pistol (and my EDC).
Colt Series 70 repro from the past 5 years or so ... another very fine pistol.
Colt WWI O1911 repro in Carbona blue ... fantastic beauty, tight and accurate.
So, in my limited experience, the 1990s might have been a glitch with their "Old Rollmark" ORM 1911s.
Thanks for your experiences with Colt 1911s over the decades. Yeah, those blued Colts can really be examples of "how its done" regarding a blued finish.
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Looks like Colt produces a quality out-of-the-box product the last few years. Will have to consider them when I make the purchase. It will be a gift, so I don't want to hand someone a project out of the box.