Colt 1911 (thing)

In the early 1920's, the Colt 1911 which until then was designated as the m1911 Government, received a few changes to its design which resulted in the new pistol being renamed as the m1911a1. I say changes and not improvements as it is debatable if some these changes were indeed any improvement from the original.

The main differences between the m1911 and the "a1" version are that the a1 version had a(n):

• thicker front sight
• shorter trigger
• longer hammer spur
• longer grip safety spur
• arched mainspring housing
• relief cut on each side of the frame where the trigger finger would be when firing the pistol
• stocks which no longer had the diamond checkering

While most of these features were favorable to the user the arched mainspring housing was something that was not exactly accepted as a very good design change. Nowadays, custom 1911 style pistols very often include a flat mainspring housing similar to that of the original 1911 specification.

From the time John Moses Browning designed his autoloading pistol until the time it was finally adopted by the US Government as the m1911 many changes were made at the insistence of the US Army board.

Had Browning been left to his own devices we probably would have ended with something like this:

• a pistol chambered for a .355" or .357" caliber bullet (aka .38)
• or had it been done using a big bore ala .45 ACP it would be specified to fire the 200 grain FMJ bullet at 920 fps instead of the 230 grain bullet fired at 850 fps as milspec decided.
• a pistol with no passive grip safety

Well, either way I'd say it turned out pretty ok because now, almost a century after, the m1911 is more popular than ever as a service, self defense, or competition pistol the world over.