Saturday, September 06, 2008

Pistol pr0n on teh w3bz:

Xavier with a blurb on the reintroduction of the Combat Elite by Colt.
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9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hmm, I wonder.. Do they plan on bringing back the Delta Elite as well?

11:05 AM, September 06, 2008
HokiePundit said...

I wonder what percentage of people prefer blue slide, stainless frame vs. stainless slide, blue frame. I'm not a fan of the former at all, but I can really get behind the latter.

3:26 PM, September 06, 2008
Tam said...

Well, the reason for the look, originally, was guys getting the carbon steel frames of their Government Models hard chromed, since that was the part that got gripped by a sweaty paw at Gunsite classes and USPSA matches.

As a matter of fact, I had my '66 Colt done that way a couple years ago when I had it ceramic coated; the slide is a matte black and the frame is a gunmetal color, to give it that rollin' old school IPSC look...

3:53 PM, September 06, 2008
Anonymous said...

I'd be interested in the Delta Elite, as well!

9:23 PM, September 06, 2008
Xavier said...

Yep, the Delta Elite is supposed to be back as well. I haven't seen the new ones though.

thanks for the link Tammers!

10:06 PM, September 06, 2008
Anonymous said...

What's really cool about it is that the Colt slides and recievers, along with Rock River's, are being made by my old company, Continental Machine (That's Stag Arms to you M-4 people).
The Rock River's are machined to slightly tighter tolerances than the Colts, then lapped to fit.
When we first started making 1911's, back in spring of 2000, we discovered something interesting. The track grooves in the slide opened up in the middle, a very consistent .0025, give or take the odd tenth.
So we programmed the machine to cut a shallow arc .002 shy in the middle, and the finished slides function much smoother, with less energy lost to side drag.
The locking lug recesses in the slide are a work of art, and the one degree offset in recesses, firing pin hole, and breechface, (for over the center lockup) are actually there, unlike most of the competition.
The magwells are now cut by EDM rather than broaching, so no distortion at all in the reciever.
The position of the holes in the reciever, all of which time off the slide release hole, have been tweaked to plus or minus a thousanth, and everything is hard turned or milled after heat treatment, so they're totally stable.
Saint John Moses Browning (Is that a pun?) would be tickled pink at the best 1911 ever made.
The guy running the 1911 cell is an amazing craftsman named Marek Dumbrowski. Yeah, I know, Dombrowski from New Britski, an old joke here in Connecticut. They leave him completely alone, and he does magic.
Eight great years running firearms ops there at Continental, and I miss it like hell. If only Teddy paid a competitive wage...

1:37 AM, September 07, 2008
Tam said...

Xavier,

Re: The Delta Elite. I fingered the new ones at the NRA Convention. They were nice like modern Colts are nice. I liked them as Colts, but my perspective on fit and finish is permanently skewed by working around good 1911 'smiths for years. They're production guns, but good ones.


Ed,

Someday I will own a Rock River 1911. They are the best-kept secret in the business. Even people who don't haunt 1911 geek boards know about Wilsons, Les Baers and Ed Browns, few people realize that they can order a 1911 as good (and sometimes better) out of the back pages of their handy AR-15 accessories catalogue...

9:08 AM, September 07, 2008
Anonymous said...

Got that right. The Larsen brothers kick serious butt. Particularly Chuck, who actually runs the nuts and bolts assembly. If you make it to Perry next year, Chuck runs a party most nights to die for. Next morning you'll think you did. I'll be the Irish looking lush on the end, drinking his Jameson straight up. (Water? Do you know what fish do in water?).
4 or 5 years ago, Sherriff Wilson, the crusty old Texas lawman who writes for Shooting Times, did a torture test on a bone stock RRA .45, and said, simply, it was better than any other 1911 he'd ever shot. Then he bought it. Not bad for $700 less than a Baer.
Yeah, I set up the line. Do I sound like a proud poppa or what? If you ever hit Connecticut, I'll take you by for a tour. Still best of friends (Teddy wants my .50 semi-auto).
Hell, do it before John Kulak retires over at Colt's, and I'll get you in there too. Kind of sad though.
When I was there in the 90's, it was rocking. Now it's an assembly area and lots of empty echoes. Still, the custom shop is fun.

8:26 PM, September 07, 2008
Tam said...

Ed,

"4 or 5 years ago, Sherriff Wilson, the crusty old Texas lawman who writes for Shooting Times,"

Cool Blogosphere Factoid: See that "JPG: Expert Witness" guy in my blogroll? Ask Jim Wilson who turned him on to 1911s back when he was a young cop sometime. :) I never would have known if Sheriff Wilson hadn't finked him out in print once.

9:18 PM, September 07, 2008

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