Evolution of Army Handgunsr Carry?
By MARJ LAW
Joe and I are at the Wakulla County Sheriff’s Office (WCSO) range. With .44s out and a biting wind, do you think I’m going to shoot?
Heck, no! I’m watching Joe shoot.
Today, he’s shooting a Colt Single Action Army Revolver. It’s also known as the Peacemaker or the M1873. Then he will shoot the semi-automatic M1911. Both guns were used in the U.S. Army.
The ownership of handguns evolves.
Take Joe and me, for example.
One Christmas, he surprises me by gifting me his cherished Charles Daly shotgun. What a beautiful surprise!
The wood grain of the stock was absolutely gorgeous. I’m a sucker for pretty wood.
Unfortunately, when I hold it up to my shoulder, my finger can’t reach the trigger.
The Charles Daly is a great gun, but it isn’t the gun for me.
Next, he thinks a Ruger Mark III would be something I’d like and can handle.
Yes, it works for me. Because it is a .22 caliber gun, it has an easy trigger pull, practically no recoil, and is very accurate.
Then I knew enough to find a handgun for myself. It turns out to be the Kimber Mako with a green red dot.
The Kimber makes for a better defensive gun because it’s a 9mm instead of a .22. If it comes to personal safety, the Mako has much greater take-down power to neutralize the threat. The Mako also has an easy trigger, little recoil, and is very accurate.
So, my evolution in guns has gone to a great gun I can’t shoot, to an easy shooting gun with little take-down power, to a very accurate gun with good take-down power, easy trigger, and pretty easy recoil.
The same is true of the handguns used in the military. They, too have evolved tremendously over the years.
Imagine, shooting the Colt Army 1860 Percussion .44 today as a defensive gun. The bad guy would get you even before you could begin to try to defend yourself. This is because loading the six-shooter would take so long.
First, you have to half-cock the hammer to be able to turn the cylinder. Turn the cylinder to the first chamber, pour in 30 grains of black powder into that first chamber. Then, place a lead ball over the chamber and take the loading lever that’s under the barrel to swage that lead ball into the chamber. Put the lever back into place.
Now, place a tiny percussion cap onto the nipple above the chamber. Recalling that this is a six-shooting revolver, you have to perform those same actions six times.
What a pain! And unloading takes a while too. Clear every percussion cap that might still be on the gun.
Naturally, today we’d see all this work as inefficient. And it was. So then the Colt Single Action Army, also known as the SAA, Model P, Peacemaker, or the M1873 replaced the percussion revolver.
With the M1873, you didn’t have to worry about measuring your powder or keeping it dry. Instead, half-cock the hammer to allow the cylinder to spin. Open the loading gate to one of the six chambers and pop in your .45 Colt caliber round.
Once all six chambers are loaded, you shoot, and then you’ll have to open the gate and remove each brass casing after shooting with the ejection rod. Again, this is pretty involved, and who wants to take all this time to load and unload when someone else is shooting at you?
Naturally, the 1911, also known as the M1911, was much less cumbersome to load and unload.
Instead of six shots, you could now have seven in the magazine and one in the chamber. Sure, eight is better than six when your life is at stake.
The 1911 is a cartridge gun: a sure upgrade from the percussion revolver or the six-shooting Peacemaker.
Now, you can load several magazines in advance. Pop a magazine into the grip. Pull back the slide, aim and shoot. Once all eight are discharged, push a button to make the magazine fall out and push in another.
Presto! Loading and unloading a magazine is ‘way easier than loading and unloading each of the 1873’s six chambers.
The 1860 percussion gun was followed by the 1873 Single Action Army revolver. The 1873 was followed by the 1911, which was formally adopted by the Army on March 29, 1911. After this, in 1913, the U.S. Navy and the Marine Corps adopted the 1911 in .45 ACP.
In 1985, the military moved to a Model 92 9mm Barretta. So, the 1911 lasted as the preferred military handgun from 1911 to 1985, although some 1911s “are still in use by some units of the U.S. Armed Forces,” according to Wikipedia.
Out of curiosity on this frigid Wednesday, Joe is shooting both the M1873, the .45 Colt (the Peacemaker), and the M1911 or the Colt 1911 .45 ACP. The .45 Colt is a rimmed cartridge and is a longer than the .45 Colt ACP, which is not a rimmed cartridge. The .45 Colt is a slightly stronger round.
What’s the difference between shooting the gun used from about 1873 and the one used after 1911?
Both guns are shot in single action, which means the trigger only does the one job of releasing the hammer.
Joe finds both to have easy trigger pulls and short trigger pull travel. Recoil is about the same. The grip on the 1873 is short, so the 1911 is more comfortable for someone with large hands.
Some major differences in the 1873 are: loading and unloading is very cumbersome, it has a 7.5 inch barrel, is 10.25 inch long and it shoots only six rounds. When the gun is in the half-cocked position, it cannot fire.
Sights on both seem crude. The 1873’s front sight is a high-profile blade with a long groove in the frame as a rear sight.
The 1911 is 8.5 inches long with a 5.03 inch barrel. It used to be able to shoot seven rounds, but with new magazines can shoot eight rounds (7+1) or more. The 1911 weighs 39 ounces. The 1911 has both a manual and a grip safety.
Sights on the 1911 are also very basic, with a low-profile front sight and a half-square cut out on a fixed rear sight. Sights on both guns are fixed. Modern sights are enhanced with tritium.
On this frigid day at the range, Joe shoots five rounds from both handguns. Four of the Peacemaker’s bullets hit the 8.5 inch target at 21 feet. The fifth bullet hits the very edge of the target.
Three of the 1911’s bullets hit the target. They are in a tight grouping just to the lower left of the x-ring. The other two bullet holes are probably rushed shots as they are pretty far from the target.
This was really a terrible day to visit the WCSO range. Since conditions were pretty awful, hitting the target at all is a feat.
But no wonder these guns have been used by the military for so many years. From the 1860 Percussion Army, to the 1873 .45 Colt caliber Peacemaker, to the semi-automatic 1911 Colt in .45 ACP, handguns have evolved tremendously.
Marj Law is the former director of Keep Wakulla County Beautiful who has become an avid shooter in retirement.