1911

History of the 1911

On the tail end of the 1800s the U.S. Military was engaging in conflict in the Philippines, a dense jungle environment with a revolver side arm chambered in .38 long colt. The side arm used at that time was the M1892 revolver, but the round just wasn't effective in stopping the Moro swordsmen. In response, the Ordnance Office tested various calibers determining a round equal to or greater than .45 caliber is required for an effective military side arm. After that, they put out their list of requirements for the next Standard issue pistol. Some of their requirements were that it be self-loading, reliable and a minimum .45 caliber.

In 1907, six designs were submitted to the U.S. Army pistol trials, only three designs had requests to continue developments, but only Savage and Colt came back for round two. Both manufacturers continued to refine their designs from 1907 till 1911. The most well-known result of these tests happened in 1910 when 6,000 rounds were put through a single pistol in a day, whenever the colt became hot it simply needed to be dunked in water to cool it down and they could continue. By the end of this test, the Savage Model 1910 was reported to have encountered 37 faults, while the Colt Model 1911 didn't have a single one.

The firearm designed by John Moses Browning and developed by Colt was adopted by the U.S. Army on March 29th, 1911, and by the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps only two years later. Just a short time the pistol got to see battle in the Mexican Border War before the United States' entry into World War 1. During the war, manufacturing of the pistol wasn't just at Colts factory, but at the Springfield Armory, Remmington, and North American Arms company all had contracts to produce it, and over 640,000 were produced by the end of the war in 1918.

After WWI, further design improvements were implemented, including an arched mainspring housing, ergonomic improvements like a longer grip safety, a shorter hammer spur, narrower trigger, and redesigned sights. In 1926, this redesigned model was designated the M1911A1. The 1911 also began to be adopted outside military service, with Law enforcement, the U.S. Border Patrol, the FBI, the Prohibition Service, and the Texas Rangers all adopting the pistol for use.

The 1911 remained the standard service pistol through WWII, the Korean War, all the way until 1985 when it was replaced with the M9. This change was shortly lived as the same issue that brought the 1911 into this world was still present with the M9's 9mm ammunition. The firearm has also taken off in the civilian market, and over 100 different firearms manufacturers produce some variants of the 1911 today, some exclusively. All these variants are used in competitions, recreational shooting, and personal safety. The 1911 has been around for over one hundred years, cementing its place in history and proving Browning's design remains a reliable choice.