"Carbine Williams", aka David Marshall Williams, has a reputation as the designer of the M1 Carbine, and a very colorful history. He was a moonshiner who pled guilty to second degree murder of a sheriff's deputy and served time in prison. He gained a reputation as a gunsmith in prison, fixing the...

The United States adopted the M1911 pistol just in time for the First World War, and between Colt and Springfield Arsenal some 643,000 of these pistols were made by the end of 1918. During that production and the gun's field service in France, a number of potential improvements were recognized. T...

Here I present the developmental history of the 1911.

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The Colt 1907 was one of the significant developmental iterations of the design that would eventually be adopted as the Model 1911 by the US military. This pistol began as John Browning’s Model 1900 in .38 caliber, with the .45ACP cartridge being first created for the Model 1905 iteration. That 1...

When the US military held its automatic pistol trials in 1907 (actually beginning in December 1906…), Colt submitted a Model 1905 pistol. Despite what would be considered today to be significant problems, it was judged one of the best guns tested. A few changes were requested (more vertical eject...

Even while the field trials of the Colt 1907 were ongoing, John Browning was improving his pistol. With the Model 1909 he designed the single-link barrel system that would prove to be the core of the final 1911 design. The 1909 model also included an enlarged grip safety, a slide release integrat...

With the impending success of Colt’s program to develop new .45 caliber pistol for the US military (the 1911), the company began to look for ways to exploit the work that had gone into it. They had previously sold lots of .38 caliber automatic pistols, so why not offer a .38 caliber version of t...

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A quick look at a Browning pistol prototype that I've been fascinated by for years. During the development of what would become the M1911, John Browning designed a 'hammerless' .45 calibre pistol for the US Army's pistol trials.

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Some people put a lot of weight on the fact that the 1911 has a grip safety and a thumb safety...but I don't think many folk understand how it ended up that way. John Browning's first self-loading pistols had very different safeties...and often, no safety at all. So today, let's look at the guns ...

Thanks to Legacy Collectibles, today we have a unique Colt prototype pistol to look at today - a double-action variation of the 1911. Judging by the grips and markings, this was made in the late 1950s - but I have been unable to find any documented record giving details. The double action capabil...

The M15 General Officer’s pistol was the replacement for the Colt Model M, which had long been the military issue sidearm for General-level officers. By the late 1960s, however, the supply of Model M pistols was running out, and Colt no longer had the design (the Pocket Hammerless) in production....

Guncrafter Industries is a custom handgun company formed by one Alex Zimmerman in 2002 after many years working for Wilson Combat. Among other things, they make custom 1911 pistols chambered for the .50 GI (Guncrafter Industries) cartridge, also designed by Zimmerman. The idea of the cartridge is...

Almost immediately after adopting the Colt/Browning Model 1911 pistol, the US military requested a .22LR conversion for training purposes. In 1913 Springfield Arsenal developed a conversion, but it was woefully inadequate. A better solution was submitted by a man named J.H. Carl, whose system mat...

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In the early 1970s, Colt wanted to develop a new military pistol so that it could offer a modern replacement for the venerable 1911. Colt Engineer Robert Roy designed the new gun in 1971, and was granted patents on it in 1972. It was made entirely of stainless steel, had a 15 round capacity (in 9...

Colt introduced the Delta Elite in 1987 to take advantage of the hype and publicity surrounding the 10mm Auto cartridge in the Bren Ten pistol. When the Bren Ten became such an ignominious failure, it left Colt in an excellent position as one of the first companies to actually have a viable offer...

The Double Eagle was Colt’s foray into the DA/SA pistol market in the 1990s. It was effectively just a standard 1911 with a Seecamp-type double action trigger mechanism and a modernized (for the time) trigger guard profile. Available in .45ACP, 10mm, 9mm, .40 S&W, and .38 Super, it never did sell...

At the end of the Great War, the United States sent several thousand soldiers to eastern Siberia, to protect war supplies from the Red Russian forces and to help rescue the Czechoslovak Legion. Also known as the Polar Bear Expedition, this force spent 1919 around Arkhangelsk and Vladivostok. They...

In the early 2000s (specifically 2006/2007, I believe) US Delta Force decided to replace its .45 ACP 1911 pistols with something having a larger magazine capacity. After testing a number of different platform initially, they settled on two to purchase and fully evaluate. These were the STI 2011 (...

The Arsenal 2011 began as a manufacturing proof of concept, to showcase the technical ability of the company making it (their prior experience was largely in exquisite miniature firearms). It was introduced to the public at SHOT Show a few years ago, and garnered more purchases than had been anti...

In 1977, Arcadia Machine & Tool introduced the Hardballer, the first commercial stainless steel 1911. Stainless steel was a hot commodity, although there were some initial teething issues with slide/frame galling. Eventually, AMT introduced a number of additional 1911 models, including the Javeli...