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Colt 1911 in 38 special


Tennessee williams

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Any if yall have much experience with the colt gold cup 1911 in 38 special? I'm starting to get a hankering and almost picked one up today but got a Chiappa Rhino and a airweight smith and wesson 329 in 44magnum and left the gold cup sitting...for now. Any reason to let her stay where she is? 

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I used to know a co-worker that had one. If I remember right, he called it a "mid-range". It was a fairly rare gun, I guess...I've never seen another like it. It was REAL particular about the ammo that it liked but once he found ammo that it liked, it was lights out accurate.

 

If it was offered at a fair price, I'd say buy it with the caveat that parts and magazines for it WILL be in short supply if available at all. 

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Howdy,

I wonder why you ignore the 1911 in 9mm?

One of my non22 favorites.

And nearly every time I let other folks pop a few rounds.....

I get   Say any chance you are thinking of selling this?

Not fussy about ammo.

Ammo available all over and I mean the WORLD.

I guess fussy is more fun..

Best

CR

 

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10 minutes ago, Chili Ron said:

Howdy,

I wonder why you ignore the 1911 in 9mm?

One of my non22 favorites.

And nearly every time I let other folks pop a few rounds.....

I get   Say any chance you are thinking of selling this?

Not fussy about ammo.

Ammo available all over and I mean the WORLD.

I guess fussy is more fun..

Best

CR

 

I don't ignore the 1911 or the 2011 in 9mm. I like them and have a few of them. I happen to be sitting next to 2 of them so Ill attach a picture. My ONLY problem with my STI 2011 is for such an expensive semi-auto, you have to be pretty religious about deep cleaning it every 100-125 rounds to expect good reliability. The Kimber Rapide, I haven't fired enough yet to know about reliability to use in a match or carry. I reckon that's why I'm mostly a revolver guy. Repeatable and reliable. 

 

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i knew someone that had a race gun that shot them , dont think it ever ran as well as he wanted it to but he tried a lot of different ammo , ended up with a bunch of it at our range - sold most of it slowly over the years , i think there is still one box of magtech on the shelf 

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Someone had a .357 1911 at one of our shoots but it wasn't a Colt. I'd get a Colt 1911 in .38 spl if I could!

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Ammo is critical in the 38 AMU , I had one sent it down the road , in hind sight , I should have made it into a 38 Super 

 

 but some one wanted it a lot worse than I did , so away it went , 

 

 the 357 was made by Connan , if I recall right , the one I messed with was a JAM O MATIC , same as the 38AMU 

 

 CB 

 

 

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Howdy,

I dont find 9mm that fussy on cleaning but clean is good.

A friend had a 357  1911 and it just wasnt fun.

Way too much jamming while my old ruger 357 ran just perfect.

Get the right option and one Blackhawk can shoot 357 and 38 sp and 9mm.

And never fussy in my experience. ymmv.

I know I should make my own ammo but just never did.

A friend who was all set up and would load so reliable spoiled me...

I miss that fella....

Best

CR

 

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2 hours ago, Chili Ron said:

Howdy,

I dont find 9mm that fussy on cleaning but clean is good.

A friend had a 357  1911 and it just wasnt fun.

Way too much jamming while my old ruger 357 ran just perfect.

 

 

It's not the 9mm cartridge that's fussy for cleaning and oiling. It's the STI limited 2011 that's fussy. You can almost tell time by mine. It hits 125 rounds, there's going to be a fail to feed.

With the 357 1911 style, my favorite was the LAR Grizzly, I think was the name. It'd run forever.

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1 hour ago, Three Foot Johnson said:

Never knew such a thing existed, so I checked Gunbroker, and there are some for sale.

 

That's what I did also. I was surprised to see a couple on there and even more surprised to see that Triple K even made an aftermarket magazine for it. I guess they aren't as rare as I thought. Too bad I haven't seen that co-worker in many, many years...he probably sold it already anyway, he was always broke.

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9 hours ago, Chickasaw Bill SASS #70001 said:

just get a 38 Super , , if ya want to go down that road 

 

 proven , and parts are some what avalable , much better than the 9x19 IMO 

 

  Chickasaw Bill 

 

I came very close to buying a Colt in .38 Super a few years back when I was working behind the gun counter. A co-worker snagged it before I could. If I were the grudge carrying type, I still would. I have a Colt Lightweight Commander in 9x19, and all things being equal, it is a lot easier to feed from the local store carrying ammo. Not to mention all the others that eat the same diet.

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38 Special, be it a 1911 or S&W M 52 is a target gun.  38 Super, or 357 usually for carry. Have had and used them all at one time or another.  In these days of frequent shortages, pleasant though they be, each type with advantages, anyone who doesn't handload is better off with 45 ACP or 9MM.

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having been around a few 1911s , I like the Super better than the 9x19 , when running 124 and 147 bullets 

 

 even fooled with one in 40 S&W , that was a tough to make run build , 20 odd years back 

 

 I looked at a 10mm , but let it pass , , the 9mm is not a bad ctg , I just prefer others over it 

 

  CB 

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2 hours ago, Rip Snorter said:

38 Special, be it a 1911 or S&W M 52 is a target gun.  38 Super, or 357 usually for carry. Have had and used them all at one time or another.  In these days of frequent shortages, pleasant though they be, each type with advantages, anyone who doesn't handload is better off with 45 ACP or 9MM.

I reload.38’s for cowboy and since I don’t shoot my 9mm or .45 acp too much I just buy the ammo.
 9mm is pretty affordable. 

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17 hours ago, Tennessee williams said:

  I like the fact, they're purpose built for accuracy. I haven't seen very many reviews on feeding, etc. I've handled a couple, and there's really no difference in the feel. The grip seems to be the same size. 

Mine fed just fine, but I used real Colt magazines and ammo hand tailored for that gun. There were magazines converted from other 1911 mags, I'd have to think those might be iffy. I never shot bullseye but I read once that if your gun jammed you could get a reshoot, and every shooter learned how to make his gun jam so that if he had a "flier" he could "limp wrist" it, get a jam and a reshoot. I think a lot of the 1911's reputation  for unreliability came from people watching bullseye matches.

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The first time I read this, I assumed you mistook it for .38 Super.  But here I am, reading about all these .38 Special 1911s.  Putting a rimmed cartridge in a semi-auto seems ridiculous to me; I'll stick with my two custom 1911s :)

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It was one of my bullseye guns until I went all Les B.

It was more accurate than me.

 

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Smith&Wesson made the model 52, a single-action semi-auto in .38 Special.  This was a specialy gun made for Bullseye matches.  Bullseye match had a .22 class, centerfire class and .45 class.  The model 52 was designed for 147 grain fullwadcutters loaded to 800-850 fps.  Those guns around $1500-2000 in the used market.

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Colt developed the .38 Special National Match gun after old time pistolsmiths like John Giles were converting .38 Super Government Models to shoot flush seated .38 wadcutter ammunition.  I have one of them that John Giles made.  I'll have to dig it out and see if I have the test targets to see how well it can shoot.

 

EDIT:  I found a page from the American Handgunner  (July/August 2011 p. 28) about another old time pistolsmith, Jim Clark.  He was reknown for his .38 Super conversion to .38 Special wadcutter. 

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I believe these came out around the time S & W came out with the Model 52 in .38 Midrange wadcutter.  From the stories I've heard, while the 52 was an overwhelming success, the Colt in .38 Midrange wadcutter had a lot of issues.  a lot of failure to feed and failure to extract.  My only experience trying to shoot one was 45 years ago and it demonstrated these problems.  Though in fairness, much less was know about spring rates and mag design in those days.

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14 hours ago, punxsutawneypete said:

Colt developed the .38 Special National Match gun after old time pistolsmiths like John Giles were converting .38 Super Government Models to shoot flush seated .38 wadcutter ammunition.  I have one of them that John Giles made.  I'll have to dig it out and see if I have the test targets to see how well it can shoot.

 

Did someone mention a Giles Colt?

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