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breamfisher
Posts: 14,103 Senior Member
I picked up "Guns and Ammo's Book of the Model 1911"
breamfisher
Posts: 14,103 Senior Member
It was "The Cooper Edition." About all the articles had a Cooper connection: the 1911 in IPSC, the MEUSOC .45, .45 ammo, Gunsite, etc...
But what I found interesting was "Cooper on the .45 Auto." Harkens back to 1974. Very interesting. In the article, Col. Cooper espouses the 3 basic things he felt a 1911 needed: visible sights, dehorning, and a good trigger (but not too light.) It also included a photo of 3 of the Col.'s personal 1911s. The sights were a Micro sight, S&W K-frame sights, and high-profile fixed sights. They also had extended low-profile strong-side safeties. One had a grip adaptor. None had elarged ejection ports, although he said that it was a good idea if one reloads.
But what got me was that all 3 pistols had a commander hammer, one with the lower 2/3 cut off, to go with the standard A1 grip safeties, modified to allow the two to interact without interference (remember, 1974: few if any beavertails.) Cooper's reason for mounting a commander hammer on a standard A1 grip safety? Cuts down or eliminates hammer bite. Seems the Col. might have decided that it's better for your service weapon to make the other guy bleed, not the operator...
Oh, and all 3 pistols had arched mainspring housings. See Wambli, Zed, and CPJ: Knitepoet, Eli, LMLarsen, and I know what we're doing....
But what I found interesting was "Cooper on the .45 Auto." Harkens back to 1974. Very interesting. In the article, Col. Cooper espouses the 3 basic things he felt a 1911 needed: visible sights, dehorning, and a good trigger (but not too light.) It also included a photo of 3 of the Col.'s personal 1911s. The sights were a Micro sight, S&W K-frame sights, and high-profile fixed sights. They also had extended low-profile strong-side safeties. One had a grip adaptor. None had elarged ejection ports, although he said that it was a good idea if one reloads.
But what got me was that all 3 pistols had a commander hammer, one with the lower 2/3 cut off, to go with the standard A1 grip safeties, modified to allow the two to interact without interference (remember, 1974: few if any beavertails.) Cooper's reason for mounting a commander hammer on a standard A1 grip safety? Cuts down or eliminates hammer bite. Seems the Col. might have decided that it's better for your service weapon to make the other guy bleed, not the operator...
Oh, and all 3 pistols had arched mainspring housings. See Wambli, Zed, and CPJ: Knitepoet, Eli, LMLarsen, and I know what we're doing....
Meh.
Replies
Not sure I'd go THAT far. :tooth:
I prefer flat mainspring housings.
But you also prefer arched mainspring housings.
"Oh, what a giveaway! Did you hear that? Did you hear that, eh? That's what I'm on about! Did you see him repressing me? You saw him, Didn't you?"
― Douglas Adams
― Douglas Adams
Not yet, you ain't.....
"Now let's see, where did I put my football bat? When I find it, I'm gonna repress the hell outta that feller!"
So, we are back to the way God and JMB designed it. Which is the correct way.
(Can't believe I just wrote that second to last sentence. Guess "my hypocrisy knows no bounds.")
"The Un-Tactical"
― Douglas Adams
"The chain I beat you with, until you do as I command."
:rotflmao:
Aww man! Not this crap again!
Even the SPEAR wasn't right the first time. John designed, the Army revised. That ping pong ball went back and forth a number of times well BEFORE the year 1911, and John was still around in 1924 to contest/advise the issue of the 1911A1 if he so desired. As the trials of 1911 and previous years were more about getting automatics to work, it's understandable the ergonomics took a few more years. Let's have no more of this "The First Time" nonsense.
But it's odd how nobody seems to be craving new guns with John's original short spur grip safeties or frames without scallop cuts behind the trigger. . .
I'm 6'3" with pretty long fingers, and I defy anyone who is not playing center in the NBA to get the last two digits of their trigger finger 90 degrees perpendicular to the face of a WWI-style long trigger, REGARDLESS of what mainspring housing is plugged into the rear of the pistol. Long triggers are a big part of why a lot of folk's rounds end up on the left side of their targets. For all but giants, they SUCK and belong only on pre-'24 guns for the sake of historical correctness.
Mainspring housings? Meh. With flat, I need the sights to prevent gut-shooting; with arched, I don"t
"Nothing is safe from stupid." - Zee
“Get your facts first, then you can distort them as you please.”
― Douglas Adams
Aftermarket MSHs? Uh, yeah... 1911 surplus parts, maybe? He was on record (in the article) as saying that arched or flat should be done at the discretion of the user: this implies that flat were available and he had the option of getting such.