The .45 Automatic Pistol  Cartridge & Firearms  Phil Davis  SCRA meeting 3/7/05 April 2005 GunNews Phil Davis, battling a cold and a lack of notes, gave an impromptu presentation on the history of the .45 ACP and the guns that fired the standard 230-grain bullet at 800 feet per second and why the 1911 style pistol remains one of the favorites to this day. Davis explained that when the US went to war with Spain in 1898,  the standard setup for all branches of our services was a .38 caliber double- action break-open revolver.  It had a rather diminutive load much less powerful than the modern .38 special load.  For most purposes it was fine. However, when the US went to war in the Philippines, there was a tribe known as the Moros. The Moros were Islamic fundamentalists very similar to what we are at war against today.  They had no problem with dying for what they believed and they were determined to make their deaths very costly. These .38 caliber cartridges lacked the stopping power to put these people down so the army and the marine corp requested a more powerful handgun.  Many old Single-action army pistols were brought out of retirement and sent to the Philippine constabulary to be used during the suppression of the Moro uprising. The United States saw an advantage in a self loading automatic pistol especially when it had a magazine that was quickly reloadable and wanted a good man-stopper from the lessons learned in the Philippines. Colt developed that cartridge in 1905 which still endures today.  Davis showed members an original box of cartridges that had been opened, took one out and read the date, 1941, early World War II vintage, 230 grain metal case bullet, 850 feet per second for the 1905 Colt automatic pistol. These trials went on through 1911 and in that year the United States army adopted the Colt automatic pistol model 1911 designed by John Browning.  That pistol had a long smooth trigger, it had a short spur on the fascia, a wide hammer and a flat main spring housing.  To this day it is arguably the most-loved enduring combat gun in history, the most modified and the most widely accepted reliable combat handgun in history.  There have been more people copy the the Colt Model 1911 design than any other design of handgun today.  The only more copied gun today, and that's even debatable, is the Soviet AK-47.  More countries have copied it.  Davis thinks more commercial companies have copied the 1911 than the AK.  The Colt 1911 is one hundred percent reliable and it fires a seven round magazine, and has a locking barrel unlike some of the small caliber handguns. This is a locking blow back system, when it slides forward the barrel actually slides and locks into place, it has good meeting of the barrel bushing.  This is a superior handgun.  It also is very reliable.  Davis said the gun he was showing us was made in 1961 and he shuddered to think how many thousands of rounds had been fired through it. In World War I every soldier wanted a pistol and the pistol they wanted was the 1911.  However as with the US in the past from World War I, even through the present invariably soldiers are never equipped as well as they would like when they go to war.  People say in our current conflict in Iraq, why didn't we wait until all our troops were outfitted with enough armored humvees? You have to go to war with the army you have not the army that you want.  In 1917 the US went to war with an army that trained with broomsticks and wooden machine guns.  Uncle Sam could not keep with the demand for pistols in trench warfare.  Trench warfare was close, bloody and hand-to-hand, and you needed rapid-fire firepower that was easily wielded inside a trench.   So they contracted with two major arms company in the US, Smith & Wesson and Colt to revamp their large frame revolver, the Colt new service and the Smith & Wesson hand ejector to make the US Model of 1917 revolver.  This was a .45 ACP caliber revolver that used a half moon clip holding three .45 cartridges each.  What they did unwittingly invented was one of the world's first speed loaders.  It was actually fairly easy to reload the revolver rather rapidly with half moon clips. Later they made full moon clips and it was absolutely wonderful. In the trenches of World War I the .45 ACP performed  marvelously.  Soldiers jumping into an occupied trench did not have to wonder "Gosh, is this pistol powerful enough stop the man coming towards you with a Mauser rifle?"  No. Boom, he's on the ground. Several things were learned in the trenches of World War I.  First of all the flat main spring housing and the long trigger was difficult for  someone who had small hands.  Second of all the short safety and the large hammer spur tended to pinch the living snot out of folks with big hands.  So as a result in 1926 they redesigned and modified the Colt's Model 1911 and they designated the Colt's Model 1911A1  alteration one.  It has a shorter serrated trigger.  It has an arched main spring housing so if you have a smaller hand, it fills this gap in here and allows you to get a more solid purchase on the gun.  They give you a better sight.  The hammer was narrowed, the spur of the safety was extended and this became the Colt's Model 1911A1. A few of the 1911's were modified to the 1911A1 status but many of them were actually sold on the surplus market as were many of the 1917 revolvers.  By this time the US general public really got its appetite wet for the .45 ACP cartridge for the surplus weapons of the first World War.  It was powerful, it was accurate, it was reliable and a comfortable gun to shoot and when you compare it to the firing capabilities of the double action revolver, a man could carry one of these and a pocket full of magazines and shoot a lot and shoot accurately. The grip from the World War I version were a checkered wood grip.  The World War II version used a plastic grip to facilitate cheaper and more rapid manufacturing.  Also the wartime production 1911A1 did not have the deeper blue finish that the World War I guns had or even the matte blue finish that the late World War I guns did.  It had a parkerized finish which is a phosphating process that gives you a grayish green color finish.  It was a very durable finish,  easily applied. When World War II broke out as during World War I,  the US was not prepared again for conflict.  Davis said his Latin was very poor  but he recalled the saying,  "He who seeks peace should first prepare for war."  We sought peace and we did prepare slightly for war but you can never be fully prepared for a worldwide conflict. More from Phil Davis Return to SCRA Home Page