Colt M1911: the most famous American pistol in history
This gun was created more than a century ago, it went through two world wars and a huge number of smaller military conflicts, while weapon It is still in service and produced by a large number of firms around the world, which produce its modern versions, as well as clones. The pistol is actively used by police, military, sportsmen and ordinary citizens. Despite the age of esteem for firearms, this gun is not in a hurry to leave the world arms market. All this is said about the legendary creation of the gifted designer gunsmith John Moses Browning: his gun model M1911 has become one of the symbols of the United States.
Surprisingly, the Colt company's self-loading pistol, the M1911, adopted by the American army in 1911, became more popular these days than the Colt revolver, which was destined to “equalize all people in rights”. This model, its upgraded versions and clone pistols are released more than 100 years after creation, and amateur collectors and arrows all over the world are chasing rare instances of the famous pistol. A curious fact is that the patent for this gun was issued on February 14 1911 on Valentine's Day, which naturally has nothing to do with its more than century-old fame.
In the American army, this model of the pistol was widely used from 1911 to 1985 a year, after which it was removed from service. At the same time, the Colt M1911 self-loading pistol is still authorized for use. In our country, this development of Browning was introduced already during the First World War. Officers bought part of pistols at their own expense even before the war; during the war years, several thousand more of these pistols were purchased, but already centrally. Then the pistols were already supplied to the representatives of the White movement; in total, up to 1918, more than 13 thousands of pistols of this model were sent to the Russian Empire. During the Civil War, these weapons were used both white and red. During the Second World War, the Colt M1911 pistols were used by officers of the Red Army, originally they were captured models, a legacy of the Civil War. But during the war, under the Lend-Lease program, the USSR received from the USA another 12 997 pistols of this type.
At the beginning of the 20th century, self-loading pistols became widespread in Europe. In this case, most of the automatic equipment worked by locking the barrel bore with a free gate, most often with low-power ammunition. Against this background, after the end of the colonial war in the Philippines, the US military realized that the existing .38 caliber revolvers had insufficient, small power, and the army needed an 45 caliber weapon. At the same time, the revolvers, although they possessed a number of positive qualities: a large resource, simplicity and smoothness of production, a small cost, they were inferior to self-loading pistols in the rate of fire and accuracy of high-speed shooting.
John Browning, who was in the process of creating a pistol chambered for an .38 cartridge, learned about the military's need for a new pistol. He quickly reworked the pistol for the caliber of interest to the American military and showed them the first model. The .45APC cartridge (11,43 mm) was developed in 1904 for the Colt Model 1905 pistol with the participation of the Browning itself. The cartridge had a high initial speed of a bullet and good energy performance. It is worth noting that John Moses Browning was a gunsmith from God, such people are born really rarely. Over the 71 year of his life, he designed 37 rifled models and 18 smooth-bore weapon models. He with equal success created rifles, machine guns and pistols, many of which became legendary developments in their field. Its designs were repeatedly copied, and also were a subject of imitation for the gunsmiths of other states.
The redesigned gun model chambered for the .45APC was well suited for the announced tactical and technical requirements for a new army pistol: caliber not less than 11,43 mm, initial bullet speed not less than 243,8 m / s, bullet weight - within 14,9-15,2. Only tests performed confirmed the advantages of the model of the gun, proposed by Browning.
Two companies took part in the competition for the development of a new self-propelled pistol for the American army: Colt and Savage. Testing pistols (both under the cartridge .45APC) began on November 10, 1910. At least 6000 shots were planned from them, for weapons of the beginning of the last century this was a very serious indicator. As a result, the Colt pistol was significantly more reliable - 11 delays versus 33 from a competitor. On March 15, 1911, after improvements by the companies, the pistol tests were resumed. And this time, during their course, a significant superiority of the pistol created by Browning was revealed, he won in strength and reliability of operation. According to the commission’s conclusion, the Colt pistol exceeded its competitor in terms of strength, reliability, accuracy and ease of disassembly. As a result, the Browning pistol was recommended for further testing in the army. Already on March 29, 1911, a self-loading pistol designed by John Browning was finally adopted by the American army under the designation Colt M1911, it was also known as the Government Model. Since 1913, the gun began to appear in the Marine Corps (US Marine Corps) and on navy (US Navy).
At first, the Colt M1911 pistol was manufactured at Colt’s plants, but soon Springfield Armory, Remington-UMC, and North American Arms Co. joined them. During the First World War, pistols of this model were delivered to the armies of Great Britain, France and Russia, and then used by the American army, which entered the war shortly before its end. World War I proved the correctness of the choice of .45APC caliber cartridge. The powerful cartridge had a stopping effect at a distance of up to 100 meters. A heavy bullet fired from a Colt M1911 pistol stopped the enemy, making it impossible to resist, even getting into limbs. At the same time, smaller-caliber weapons were not as effective as a wounded enemy soldier, as a rule, could respond to a shot. A heavy Colt bullet simply knocked the enemy down or contusions so that he dropped his weapon. The M1911 pistol has established itself as an easy-to-use model of firearms, and the box magazine in the handle allowed the pistol to be reloaded almost instantly.
But the pistol also had its drawbacks, which included: substantial weight, strong recoil, susceptibility of the automatic pistol to dirt, low store capacity. In fairness it should be said that such shortcomings were characteristic of other pistols of the period of the First World War.
The experience of American soldiers in the First World War allowed to make a number of minor changes to the design of the pistol:
- the “tail” of the grip fuse button is extended, the spoke of the trigger cocked when the gun is fired and the holding hand are better separated;
- changed the emphasis of the mainspring, the back of the handle has acquired an arcuate shape;
- the trigger protrudes less, its stroke length has been reduced;
- Inclined grooves for the index finger appeared in the frame behind the trigger;
- the notch on the cheeks of the handle reaches the fastening screws.
An updated version of the gun was adopted in the 1926 year, the model received the designation M1911A1. In an updated form, the gun existed until the end of the Second World War. After the end of the world conflict in the United States, several modifications of the popular weapon were released: Commander, Officer's, Double Eagle and several others. It should be noted that there were no any fundamental differences in comparison with the M1911A1 model with these modifications of the self-loading pistol.
Gun device Colt M1911
The gun consisted of 53 parts and three main parts: the barrel, the frame and the housing-bolt. The shutter pistol moved along the guides in the frame. The barrel was connected to the frame of the pistol with the help of a swinging earring, which was under the breech of the trunk and a transverse rod located in the frame.
Coupling the pistol to the bolt (the barrel is locked) occurs with the help of two protrusions (lugs) of the semi-circular form on the barrel and the grooves located on the upper inner surface of the bolt in front of the window intended for the extraction of spent cartridges. After the shot, the barrel of the pistol, which is engaged with the bolt, moves backwards. Earring rotates on the grenade axis and the rod in the frame, the breech of the gun falls. Combat stops pistol barrel out of engagement with the grooves of the bolt. Then the barrel stops with a rod in the frame, and the bolt continues its movement back, then throws out the sleeve, cocks the pistol and compresses the return and combat springs.
Swinging earring was under the breech. The return spring with a guide rod is located under the barrel of the pistol, the combat spring with guide rods is located in the pistol grip. In the frame of the handle Colt M1911 inserted: lamellar trehperaya trigger spring, trigger pull, trigger, as well as grip fuse that can block the trigger, not letting it break with a platoon, until the handle is not fully grasped by the arrow.
Trigger mechanism (trigger) pistol single action, with an open trigger. The gun uses a twisted cylindrical combat spring, which is located behind the store. The force of the spring on the trigger is transmitted through the traction. The drummer is located in the back of the bolt, it was spring-loaded and sunk into the interior of the bolt to prevent premature shots. Trigger pistol moves longitudinally in the grooves of the frame. In order to prevent premature shots in the rear of the pistol grip is located disconnector on the same axis with the sear. When the bolt rolls back until the barrel is locked, the uncoupler with its stem emerges from the recess of the bolt, lowering the rear part of the trigger pull, withdrawing the thrust from the ledge of sear. When the shooter releases the trigger after the shot, the uncoupler, under the action of the lamella trigger spring, rotates and brings the trigger pull under the sear, entering with its stem into the recess of the bolt.
The fuse box is located on the left side of the gun frame. The direction of the fuse is the same as that of the pistol PM. When the flag is raised, the Colt's fuse blocks the bolt, sear and prevents the trigger from moving forward. In this case, the trigger with the safety lock turned on can be left on combat platoon, this compensates for the lack of efficiency in the use of small arms with single-triggering control with single trigger action. When the trigger is cocked, the shooter can turn off the fuse by lowering the flag.
With the fuse off, the shooter can pull the trigger off the cocking, holding it with the thumb and pressing the trigger as well. At this moment the grip fuse, which does not allow the trigger to move backwards, should be turned off by the grip of the pistol grip. After a soft trigger, the trigger will engage itself on the safety platoon, which intercepts the trigger that has broken during the cocking, thereby preventing the trigger from contacting the hammer until the trigger is cocked. When the safety switch is on, the undershot trigger of the M1911 pistol stops and can be cocked. With an unlocked trigger, the fuse can be turned off by lowering the flag or cocking the trigger. The magazine latch button for 7 cartridges is located on the handle on the left side, at the base of the trigger guard.
The transverse rod in the frame of the pistol is also the axis of the slide stop lever. After the magazine is exhausted, the tooth of the lever from below abuts against the recess of the bolt, after which the bolt delays in the rear position. In order to remove the shutter from the delay, you must push the lever down. If before this the shooter replaces the magazine with the equipped one, then the cartridge will reach the chamber and the pistol will be completely ready to commit the shot.
For more than 100 years since the appearance of the Colt M1911, he managed not only to participate in a huge number of warriors, but also became the hero of numerous films, computer games and even cartoons. The well-remembered profile of the pistol, the notch under the barrel, smooth griped cheeks and sizes are familiar to many today. Currently, the gun is not only used by law enforcement officers and the military, but also by civilians, occupying the niche of one of the most popular pistols for self-defense.
Performance characteristics of the M1911:
Caliber - 11,43 mm.
The cartridge - .45APC (mm 11,43х23).
Length - 210 mm, height - 133 mm.
Barrel length - 217 mm (Government model).
Weight without cartridges - 1,1 kg.
The initial speed of the bullet - 251 m / s.
Magazine capacity - 7 cartridges (+ 1 in the barrel).
Information sources:
http://huntsmanblog.ru/pistolet-colt-m1911
http://smallarms.ru/article?arms=colt_m1911
https://shkolazhizni.ru/culture/articles/42569
http://army-news.ru/2013/08/pistolet-colt-m1911-i-ego-modifikacii
Open source materials
Surprisingly, the Colt company's self-loading pistol, the M1911, adopted by the American army in 1911, became more popular these days than the Colt revolver, which was destined to “equalize all people in rights”. This model, its upgraded versions and clone pistols are released more than 100 years after creation, and amateur collectors and arrows all over the world are chasing rare instances of the famous pistol. A curious fact is that the patent for this gun was issued on February 14 1911 on Valentine's Day, which naturally has nothing to do with its more than century-old fame.
In the American army, this model of the pistol was widely used from 1911 to 1985 a year, after which it was removed from service. At the same time, the Colt M1911 self-loading pistol is still authorized for use. In our country, this development of Browning was introduced already during the First World War. Officers bought part of pistols at their own expense even before the war; during the war years, several thousand more of these pistols were purchased, but already centrally. Then the pistols were already supplied to the representatives of the White movement; in total, up to 1918, more than 13 thousands of pistols of this model were sent to the Russian Empire. During the Civil War, these weapons were used both white and red. During the Second World War, the Colt M1911 pistols were used by officers of the Red Army, originally they were captured models, a legacy of the Civil War. But during the war, under the Lend-Lease program, the USSR received from the USA another 12 997 pistols of this type.
John Moses Browning
At the beginning of the 20th century, self-loading pistols became widespread in Europe. In this case, most of the automatic equipment worked by locking the barrel bore with a free gate, most often with low-power ammunition. Against this background, after the end of the colonial war in the Philippines, the US military realized that the existing .38 caliber revolvers had insufficient, small power, and the army needed an 45 caliber weapon. At the same time, the revolvers, although they possessed a number of positive qualities: a large resource, simplicity and smoothness of production, a small cost, they were inferior to self-loading pistols in the rate of fire and accuracy of high-speed shooting.
John Browning, who was in the process of creating a pistol chambered for an .38 cartridge, learned about the military's need for a new pistol. He quickly reworked the pistol for the caliber of interest to the American military and showed them the first model. The .45APC cartridge (11,43 mm) was developed in 1904 for the Colt Model 1905 pistol with the participation of the Browning itself. The cartridge had a high initial speed of a bullet and good energy performance. It is worth noting that John Moses Browning was a gunsmith from God, such people are born really rarely. Over the 71 year of his life, he designed 37 rifled models and 18 smooth-bore weapon models. He with equal success created rifles, machine guns and pistols, many of which became legendary developments in their field. Its designs were repeatedly copied, and also were a subject of imitation for the gunsmiths of other states.
The redesigned gun model chambered for the .45APC was well suited for the announced tactical and technical requirements for a new army pistol: caliber not less than 11,43 mm, initial bullet speed not less than 243,8 m / s, bullet weight - within 14,9-15,2. Only tests performed confirmed the advantages of the model of the gun, proposed by Browning.
Gun M1911, released in 1914 year
Two companies took part in the competition for the development of a new self-propelled pistol for the American army: Colt and Savage. Testing pistols (both under the cartridge .45APC) began on November 10, 1910. At least 6000 shots were planned from them, for weapons of the beginning of the last century this was a very serious indicator. As a result, the Colt pistol was significantly more reliable - 11 delays versus 33 from a competitor. On March 15, 1911, after improvements by the companies, the pistol tests were resumed. And this time, during their course, a significant superiority of the pistol created by Browning was revealed, he won in strength and reliability of operation. According to the commission’s conclusion, the Colt pistol exceeded its competitor in terms of strength, reliability, accuracy and ease of disassembly. As a result, the Browning pistol was recommended for further testing in the army. Already on March 29, 1911, a self-loading pistol designed by John Browning was finally adopted by the American army under the designation Colt M1911, it was also known as the Government Model. Since 1913, the gun began to appear in the Marine Corps (US Marine Corps) and on navy (US Navy).
At first, the Colt M1911 pistol was manufactured at Colt’s plants, but soon Springfield Armory, Remington-UMC, and North American Arms Co. joined them. During the First World War, pistols of this model were delivered to the armies of Great Britain, France and Russia, and then used by the American army, which entered the war shortly before its end. World War I proved the correctness of the choice of .45APC caliber cartridge. The powerful cartridge had a stopping effect at a distance of up to 100 meters. A heavy bullet fired from a Colt M1911 pistol stopped the enemy, making it impossible to resist, even getting into limbs. At the same time, smaller-caliber weapons were not as effective as a wounded enemy soldier, as a rule, could respond to a shot. A heavy Colt bullet simply knocked the enemy down or contusions so that he dropped his weapon. The M1911 pistol has established itself as an easy-to-use model of firearms, and the box magazine in the handle allowed the pistol to be reloaded almost instantly.
But the pistol also had its drawbacks, which included: substantial weight, strong recoil, susceptibility of the automatic pistol to dirt, low store capacity. In fairness it should be said that such shortcomings were characteristic of other pistols of the period of the First World War.
The experience of American soldiers in the First World War allowed to make a number of minor changes to the design of the pistol:
- the “tail” of the grip fuse button is extended, the spoke of the trigger cocked when the gun is fired and the holding hand are better separated;
- changed the emphasis of the mainspring, the back of the handle has acquired an arcuate shape;
- the trigger protrudes less, its stroke length has been reduced;
- Inclined grooves for the index finger appeared in the frame behind the trigger;
- the notch on the cheeks of the handle reaches the fastening screws.
An updated version of the gun was adopted in the 1926 year, the model received the designation M1911A1. In an updated form, the gun existed until the end of the Second World War. After the end of the world conflict in the United States, several modifications of the popular weapon were released: Commander, Officer's, Double Eagle and several others. It should be noted that there were no any fundamental differences in comparison with the M1911A1 model with these modifications of the self-loading pistol.
Gun device Colt M1911
The gun consisted of 53 parts and three main parts: the barrel, the frame and the housing-bolt. The shutter pistol moved along the guides in the frame. The barrel was connected to the frame of the pistol with the help of a swinging earring, which was under the breech of the trunk and a transverse rod located in the frame.
Coupling the pistol to the bolt (the barrel is locked) occurs with the help of two protrusions (lugs) of the semi-circular form on the barrel and the grooves located on the upper inner surface of the bolt in front of the window intended for the extraction of spent cartridges. After the shot, the barrel of the pistol, which is engaged with the bolt, moves backwards. Earring rotates on the grenade axis and the rod in the frame, the breech of the gun falls. Combat stops pistol barrel out of engagement with the grooves of the bolt. Then the barrel stops with a rod in the frame, and the bolt continues its movement back, then throws out the sleeve, cocks the pistol and compresses the return and combat springs.
Swinging earring was under the breech. The return spring with a guide rod is located under the barrel of the pistol, the combat spring with guide rods is located in the pistol grip. In the frame of the handle Colt M1911 inserted: lamellar trehperaya trigger spring, trigger pull, trigger, as well as grip fuse that can block the trigger, not letting it break with a platoon, until the handle is not fully grasped by the arrow.
Trigger mechanism (trigger) pistol single action, with an open trigger. The gun uses a twisted cylindrical combat spring, which is located behind the store. The force of the spring on the trigger is transmitted through the traction. The drummer is located in the back of the bolt, it was spring-loaded and sunk into the interior of the bolt to prevent premature shots. Trigger pistol moves longitudinally in the grooves of the frame. In order to prevent premature shots in the rear of the pistol grip is located disconnector on the same axis with the sear. When the bolt rolls back until the barrel is locked, the uncoupler with its stem emerges from the recess of the bolt, lowering the rear part of the trigger pull, withdrawing the thrust from the ledge of sear. When the shooter releases the trigger after the shot, the uncoupler, under the action of the lamella trigger spring, rotates and brings the trigger pull under the sear, entering with its stem into the recess of the bolt.
The fuse box is located on the left side of the gun frame. The direction of the fuse is the same as that of the pistol PM. When the flag is raised, the Colt's fuse blocks the bolt, sear and prevents the trigger from moving forward. In this case, the trigger with the safety lock turned on can be left on combat platoon, this compensates for the lack of efficiency in the use of small arms with single-triggering control with single trigger action. When the trigger is cocked, the shooter can turn off the fuse by lowering the flag.
With the fuse off, the shooter can pull the trigger off the cocking, holding it with the thumb and pressing the trigger as well. At this moment the grip fuse, which does not allow the trigger to move backwards, should be turned off by the grip of the pistol grip. After a soft trigger, the trigger will engage itself on the safety platoon, which intercepts the trigger that has broken during the cocking, thereby preventing the trigger from contacting the hammer until the trigger is cocked. When the safety switch is on, the undershot trigger of the M1911 pistol stops and can be cocked. With an unlocked trigger, the fuse can be turned off by lowering the flag or cocking the trigger. The magazine latch button for 7 cartridges is located on the handle on the left side, at the base of the trigger guard.
The transverse rod in the frame of the pistol is also the axis of the slide stop lever. After the magazine is exhausted, the tooth of the lever from below abuts against the recess of the bolt, after which the bolt delays in the rear position. In order to remove the shutter from the delay, you must push the lever down. If before this the shooter replaces the magazine with the equipped one, then the cartridge will reach the chamber and the pistol will be completely ready to commit the shot.
For more than 100 years since the appearance of the Colt M1911, he managed not only to participate in a huge number of warriors, but also became the hero of numerous films, computer games and even cartoons. The well-remembered profile of the pistol, the notch under the barrel, smooth griped cheeks and sizes are familiar to many today. Currently, the gun is not only used by law enforcement officers and the military, but also by civilians, occupying the niche of one of the most popular pistols for self-defense.
Performance characteristics of the M1911:
Caliber - 11,43 mm.
The cartridge - .45APC (mm 11,43х23).
Length - 210 mm, height - 133 mm.
Barrel length - 217 mm (Government model).
Weight without cartridges - 1,1 kg.
The initial speed of the bullet - 251 m / s.
Magazine capacity - 7 cartridges (+ 1 in the barrel).
Information sources:
http://huntsmanblog.ru/pistolet-colt-m1911
http://smallarms.ru/article?arms=colt_m1911
https://shkolazhizni.ru/culture/articles/42569
http://army-news.ru/2013/08/pistolet-colt-m1911-i-ego-modifikacii
Open source materials
Information