Post by bradshaw on Dec 19, 2016 10:30:57 GMT -5
mike454----"My first 1911 was a Colt Gold Cup. The less said about it the better...” and, “....new 1.5" Baer and it was as good as the Colt was poor.”
Shot for a number of years a Colt 1911 National Match. According to serial # data, made in mid-1960’s. Basically 100% reliable with Colt commercial and GI magazines, and any other useful mag----with all manner of hollow point, cast and ball ammo. Good for 2 to 3-inch groups @ 50 yards, 6-inch groups @ 100 yards. Good for bowling pins offhand @ 50 yards, along with barn pigeons at the same distance; brain-panned a bear at that distance. The Colt had an NM serial number and the slide was roll marked National Match. Had occasion to put it against a number of expensive custom 1911s @ 50 yards and the Colt NM won. The Les Baer 1911s I’ve shot are more accurate than my mid-60’s NM, also more accurate than an earlier National Match. Shot my old NM in a very difficult IHMSA silhouette match----stretched ranges and a wind, without spotter----where, due to drift & trajectory, milking intrinsic accuracy is at a premium. Other competitors seemed more impressed than the struggling present shooter, one silhouetter saying, “Man, that Colt shoots. I shot my old National Match out here. Didn’t do as well, but it sure felt good.”
The Colt box for my NM had “Gold Cup” printed on it, with a gold trophy on the red, white & black label. The pistol has no “Gold Cup” marking. Colt should not have descended to spitting out the Nation Match as a production run Gold Cup. Weak spot in the originals is a beautifully machined wide steel trigger, which weight (inertia) acts as a slide hammer and can trip the sear as the slide slams shut. Instead of dropping the meatball trigger, Colt’s cure was to add a little spring and clip to complicate the mechanism and require use of s slave pin on re-assembly. The Ellison sight, which legend says Bo-Mar copied, is not nearly so rugged as the Bo-Mar, but adjusts as reliably on the serrated-edge of the screw head.
kings6.... glad to hear you were able to retrieve your Les Baer before it went to the dump!
zeus & axehandle..... thanks for the info, depressing as it is. Questions arrive on occasion, the interested party wanting my take on the quality of Freedom Arms. My answer, beginning from the Dick Casull days to the present, is and has been virtually no variation----an extraordinary achievement in manufacturing.
David Bradshaw
Shot for a number of years a Colt 1911 National Match. According to serial # data, made in mid-1960’s. Basically 100% reliable with Colt commercial and GI magazines, and any other useful mag----with all manner of hollow point, cast and ball ammo. Good for 2 to 3-inch groups @ 50 yards, 6-inch groups @ 100 yards. Good for bowling pins offhand @ 50 yards, along with barn pigeons at the same distance; brain-panned a bear at that distance. The Colt had an NM serial number and the slide was roll marked National Match. Had occasion to put it against a number of expensive custom 1911s @ 50 yards and the Colt NM won. The Les Baer 1911s I’ve shot are more accurate than my mid-60’s NM, also more accurate than an earlier National Match. Shot my old NM in a very difficult IHMSA silhouette match----stretched ranges and a wind, without spotter----where, due to drift & trajectory, milking intrinsic accuracy is at a premium. Other competitors seemed more impressed than the struggling present shooter, one silhouetter saying, “Man, that Colt shoots. I shot my old National Match out here. Didn’t do as well, but it sure felt good.”
The Colt box for my NM had “Gold Cup” printed on it, with a gold trophy on the red, white & black label. The pistol has no “Gold Cup” marking. Colt should not have descended to spitting out the Nation Match as a production run Gold Cup. Weak spot in the originals is a beautifully machined wide steel trigger, which weight (inertia) acts as a slide hammer and can trip the sear as the slide slams shut. Instead of dropping the meatball trigger, Colt’s cure was to add a little spring and clip to complicate the mechanism and require use of s slave pin on re-assembly. The Ellison sight, which legend says Bo-Mar copied, is not nearly so rugged as the Bo-Mar, but adjusts as reliably on the serrated-edge of the screw head.
kings6.... glad to hear you were able to retrieve your Les Baer before it went to the dump!
zeus & axehandle..... thanks for the info, depressing as it is. Questions arrive on occasion, the interested party wanting my take on the quality of Freedom Arms. My answer, beginning from the Dick Casull days to the present, is and has been virtually no variation----an extraordinary achievement in manufacturing.
David Bradshaw
Just for a sanity check... I have USAF Distinguished Pistol Shot Badge #231, Chief's Fifty badge #124P, made the 2600 club in 1984 with iron sights, CNGB smallbore pistol National Champion in '95, Alabama NG State Pistol Team from '78 to '95, and Alabama State Champion in '86, '94, '95, and '96. Made the All NG International Combat Team and All NG National Match Pistol Teams during my NG years. With the exception of the smallbore and Combat portion this type shooting is where the accurate 1911 lives and dies. I have seen one or two accurate 1911s... 