Description of the Colt Model 1911
The pistol has been around hundreds of years but never had a huge place on the conventional battlefield until John M. Browning revolutionized handguns when he invented the Colt Model 1911. A major advantage to the new Colt Model 1911 is its semi-automatic, making it easier and faster to reload compared to the revolver previously in use by the U.S. Army. The magazine held seven rounds (Askins28). This allowed shooters to put a higher volume of fire downrange or more importantly reload less in a gunfight. Although the Colt model 1911 was not the first semi-auto pistol it was the first to be produced in large quantities. The first semi-auto pistol ever made was the Borchardt C93, made by a German named Hugo Borchardt (Askins54). It was mostly used for target practice. The Borchardt C93 was never produced in large numbers, most likely because it was too fragile and bulky to have any military use. The U.S. Army was looking for a new sidearm after its .38 caliber revolver proved incapable of stopping attackers in there campaign against the Moros in the Philippines. After a few years of testing the military choose the Colt model 1911. The Colt model 1911 met the criteria of the army because of its large .45 caliber bullet. Also the Colt 1911 was semi-auto allowing for quick reload times in the chaos of battle but, it still didn’t meet the quality requirements of the Army so John Browning went back and fine tuned each part. Upon returning the pistol to the Army for testing it passed the quality tests. Due to these advantages the Colt model 1911 was adopted as the official sidearm of the U.S. Armed Forces on March 29th 1911(Askins28). The .45 caliber semi-auto pistol M1911A1 is a recoil operated hand gun (Sheldon 57). The magazine fed semiautomatic weapon fires one round each time the trigger is squeezed once the hammer is cocked by prior action of the slide or thumb. This design is referred to as single action only. The thumb safety may only be activated once the