Colt 1911

The Colt 1911 was produced by the prolific firearms designer John Browning, in response to the US Army competitive trail to provide a sidearm for the US Military in 1907.  One of the stipulations of the trail was that any weapon entered should be chambered in .45 cartridge developed for the trail.  The 1911 was the culmination of a series of designs by Browning, including the Model 1900, Model 1902 and the 1905 Colt Automatic Pistol, Military Model. 

The .45 ACP was also developed with involvement from Browning.  The requirement for a larger calibre stemmed from the US Army’s experience in the Philippines Insurrection from 1899 – 1902.  they found that the stopping power of the existing .38 Calibre Colt revolvers was lacking, particularly when facing fierce Moro tribesmen, often fuelled by drugs.

The main competition to the 1911 was the Savage and a .45 version of the Luger.  Revolvers were also submitted, by Smith and Wesson and Webley and Scott, but were quickly rejected when the army recognised the advantages of the automatic pistol.  Luger also dropped out of the completion, because it was not cost effective to produce the requested 200 units in .45 for the second phase of the trial.

The Colt proved to be more reliable than the Savage and was declared the winner.  It was adopted as the Model 1911 Pistol.  The 1911 went on to serve the US Army as its primary handgun for almost 80 years.  It was carried throughout WW1, WW2, The Korean War and the Vietnamese War, before being replaced in 1985 by the Berretta M9.

Throughout its life the 1911 only went through one upgrade when in 1924 the Model 1911A1 was introduced, which incorporated a number of improvements identified during WW1. 

In WW11 the there was a huge demand for the 1911 pistols and as well as Colt, three other companies produced the pistols in significant numbers.  These were Remington Rand, Ithaca Gun Company and Union Switch and Signal.  A small number were also produced by the Singer Manufacturing Company.  These models are very rare and very collectable.

It is a testament to John Browning’s skill that more than 100 years later his design is still being produced for the civilian market. 



Thompson, Leroy (2011); The Colt 1911  Pistol. Osprey Publishing