The Colt Report

Now that the shooting season is finally underway, we’re going to start doing our regular installments of The Colt Report, detailing the shooting and maintenance of my Colt CCG pistols. We have two pistols that are roughly identical, which will be referred to as “440” and “619”. 440 is the main match gun and will see the most work, 619 is the backup match and primary carry gun. Both guns started life as factory Colt 1911 CCG pistols. Here is a list of the mods done so far to each:

440

  • Replaced thumb safety with Caspian ambi safety
  • changed mainspring to Ed Brown 19 lb spring
  • switched to 13 lb recoil spring
  • removed series 80 parts
  • added C&S sear and disconnector
  • installed extended magazine release
  • removed slim grip screw bushings
  • installed Techwell grips and magwell
  • tuned action

The current trigger pull on 440 is right at 3 lbs, which quite frankly is about as light as I’d want a trigger. It takes some getting used to, and after shooting Glocks and DA pistols, there have been a few instances of me touching the trigger a little too soon and getting a surprise “pew” into the berm as I move the gun towards the target.

619, the carry gun has had the following mods:

  • remove series 80 parts
  • action tuned for carry
  • leaf spring replaced with C&S spring
  • mainspring replaced with Ed Brown 19 lb spring
  • recoil spring changed to 15 lbs
  • slim grip screw bushings replaced
  • grips replaced with Techwell carry grips/magwell

The guns have been shot, with 440 seeing the lion’s share of the shooting. Current round count on 440 stands at 1,340 rounds. During that time, the gun has failed to complete its normal cycle of operations 6 times. Here are the details on the malfunctions:

  1. failure to return to battery on a slide lock reload using 185 grain FMJ semi-wadcutter
  2. failure to feed using 200 grain lead semi-wadcutter (4)
  3. failure to return to battery on a slide lock reload using 185 grain JHP

619 has fired 250 rounds with no failures of any type. Of the malfunctions experienced, number 1 isn’t a concern, the 185 grain FMJ wadcutter fed reliably under shooting conditions, and will only be used at Steel Challenge and Bianchi Cup. If I’m doing slide lock reloads at either of those matches, I’m off in a bad way. The 4 failures with 200 grain semi-wadcutters are a bit more concerning, and will be investigated further since it occurred in only 50 rounds of shooting. Until I can spend a little more time behind the trigger with those rounds, my stash of 200 grain SWC has been down checked. The final issue with 440 came last night shooting the IDPA classifier, the gun failed to return to battery on a slidelock reload during el pres, this was fixed with a sharp bump on the mag. The gun may need to be cleaned, as it hasn’t received a cleaning since the 800 round class it fired last weekend.

We’ll have another update next Tuesday, goals for this week are to function check both guns with the 200 grain ammo and work on shooting reduced targets.