1911 vs 1911 A1

Haycock 45 what are you looking at I think you're looking at a couple of beautiful 1911's and are they gorgeous better question is are they really 1911's well we're gonna talk about that let's shoot one of them first like this one it actually is a 1911 I'm gonna shoot it where it says 1911 or try on that target okay now if you still it works 1911 interesting okay 1911 versus 1911 a1 well first of all what the heck is a 1911 when you hear someone mention a 1911 you know what might they mean they might mean several things right or when you use the term obviously or I use the term I tend to mean a firearm like this of 1911 design and whatever size it is whenever it was made you know depending on the discussion okay but yeah a person could mean a 1911 versus 1911 a1 somebody could mean a full-size government model whenever they say 1911 you know they might mean only an old 1911 that was made back between 1911 and roughly 1924 a vintage military firearm that was made within that time frame you know yes who knows most people I think refer to these farms as just kind of the 1911 style pistol even though we don't say style you know pistol maybe so we want to clear some of that up and the other thing is you might you might go the other way you might be at a gun show or somewhere and you're I don't know you're you're asking about a 1911 there or you're showing somebody here in 1911 and that you're going to trade for something maybe it's a new spring flood Armory and you're talking to somebody about trading for some firearm that he has and he goes super purist obnoxious nerd on you and says that's not a 1911 thank you no heed to him a 1911 has to be an old military pistol from 1913 or 1912 or something okay so it runs the gamut and most of us who have studied these firearms very much the 1911 style pistol we kind of know not everybody but we kind of know that there was the actual 1911 that came out and it was modified in the 20s 1920s and that's mainly what I want to talk about here because there weren't a lot of changes see I did this shot all the amo yep I did ok pull the trigger this one has no ammo in it so what are the differences between 1911 and the 1911 a1 and many of you already know that but many of you don't know the differences probably and I might get going to go into extreme depth there there were actual transitional guns as well as they normally are when there are changes made in a firearms production it's not like one day they're making one like this the next day they're exactly like that you have parts left over I have a ar-15 like that it's a transitional ar-15 it's an egg too let's go looks kind of like a mix of a 1 and an 18 for the same reasons yeah so what are the basic differences between now when I say in original 1911 I do mean that the first ones that were made 1911 then on up into about 1924 1924 was kind of the onset of the a1 okay but again there were transition guns there was a time period there where they were working on some modifications and then about 20 for most of them made I think Colt made about 10,000 of them that year they were like this okay so the difference is four or five differences and there may be some other subtle differences you're aware of that I'll go over the main the main differences the big one you can you can observe and see flat mainspring housing on the originals okay now these are both original well this is original cutting but on the first 1911 flat mainspring housing and then as they came out with the a1 they made the you know they put in a raised mainspring housing and it's kind of serrated there alright that was a big change they there was there were criticisms that people were shooting them low and mostly new shooters I think but they were shooting them low and they put this on there as I understand to kind of force you to hold the gun up a little bit and to to not be as likely to shoot low with it that's the theory that was the plan for me I much prefer the flat mainspring housing and in fact it's funny because most people now I think prefer that most not everybody depends on your hand size and everything experience but most competition guns are flat mainspring housing and it's one of the first things I do to any 1911 I'm going to shoot much no I won't do it to that because that's a real world war 2 pistol how am I going to start changing it out but I love a flat mainspring housing but they went to that and your your World War two government model you know it's going to have a raised mainspring housing like that okay also you notice the trigger the trigger on the originals the first ones were a longer trigger and when they made that the changes around 1924 they went to a shorter trigger and also it's you know it's kind of not so rated but it's got bumps there are knurls in there okay get a little friction so a shorter trigger all right that's another thing I don't like I like the long trigger this is the configuration my favorite long trigger flat mainspring housing right there this gun feels better so when they fixed it they didn't fix everything for me this feels much better to me this firearm okay so the mainspring housing the trigger the long trigger all right now again this is not to say that you buy or see a bunch of 1911 's go to any gun shop and there's about 15 or 20 of them they're gonna be all different configurations new ones you know there's just whatever whatever the main factor puts on them okay another change was the beaver tail the well it's the actual the the safety tang we'll call it C the the safety of the grip safety the Tang is not very long on this thing and you notice it's longer on this a1 ok this Colt fate 1 these are both Colts that's an a1 and it's a little bit longer now it's still not what we would call a true beaver tail I guess that you see on a lot of competition guns are just new new firearms it's not as comfortable with some of those but the main thing is you don't get the hammer bite that you get with this one now that is one improvement no doubt about it because you got a pretty big hammer spur and you can see your skin gets up in there if you have normal sized hands you can get hammer bite and I don't look like God any I guess I didn't get it maybe a little on that those few shots I fired but if I shoot this thing three or four magazines I'll be sore right there it's as simple as that and that was a major criticism there's a lot of people were suffering from that that hammer bite or hammer pinch there did you can see that it kind of now doesn't look like it looks like there's plenty of room there but you see when the slide comes all the way back and pushes that down it's pushing it yeah that like that against your skin and catching a piece of your skin there all right I don't know how can you design this God and not discover that earlier earlier on now I've read also that that what's that guy's name John Browning actually was in on the design changes of this and helped with that even though it was kind of a field thing resulting from criticisms from the field and the cavalry in different folks but that he was there at the Colt factory you know helping with that know how true that is so that that was a big improvement right there I like that improvement another thing a little more subtle the the cutout where they relieve this see that on the a1 you don't have that cut out there on the the early ones in 1911 now this is a replica of the early nineteen eleven this is the Colt replica it's just like them it's not an original one so that's more squared-off on both sides you see all right so they went ahead and started machining the frames on both sides to do that for more comfort and also if you have small hands it essentially you know way kind of shortens the distance to the trigger - you think about it so if you have really small hands you know you're not reaching around that big 2x4 there I guess it's not a problem that's another thing is not what is not a problem for me I guess maybe it's a little more comfortable there it's kind of cool-looking - so it I don't know how much of an improvement it is but it doesn't take away or cause any problems so you know makes it look cool so that cut away on the frame so we got the mainspring housing the trigger that cut away we've got the extended safety tang what am I forgetting okay the sights were slightly improved not by much really you really most can't tell any differences the rear sights a little bit higher it's got a little bit more of a cutout you probably can't see it changes in sights even a subtle change is a big difference of course and the knotch on the a1 on my your right and my right it has a little bit bigger opening there so that's kind of nice the front sight is supposed to be a little bit bigger but and attached a little better as I understand they lost some of them they would come off and so they changed the way it was attached I think and made it a little bit bigger I don't it may be a little wider okay I don't think it's any higher maybe so the subtle and improvement in the sight and it wasn't until years later you know cold start putting and other makers a real sight that you could actually pick up in a combat sight like most of us liked but you know serve the purpose okay so so what I leave out mainspring the trigger the tang the cut outs the sides there five of the biggest differences the grips a little different of course when you get to World War two now they in 2425 in the mid 20s they still were using wooden grips but I think they quit putting the diamonds on them from not mistaken a different design there I think another subtle difference might be the slide stop there I think that was a little different it's not much a lot of different sales so some of those things it's not that big a deal and that's basically it the biggest the biggest changes and that's where you why you see some most of the 1911 you see are a once okay they're basically the a1 and unless someone is manufacturing one with these features on it and generally the only reason they're doing that is like Colt did with this one I've had this one can fifteen years whatever they came out with with this reintroduction which we call a replica because it's made by Colt I just like they were back in a day but kind of a reintroduction I was a limited run of the World War two model this is the 1918 World War one model rather and that's a good reason to get it right right because that's what you're doing you're making a world war one model an actual 1911 a pure 1911 and otherwise not having that extended safety tangs little annoying because you're going for a hammer bite I tell you if this weren't an exact replica and such a nice firearm I I'd be tempted to to put like a commander hammer on this thing or trim down the hammer because if it had a commander hammer which is shorter and it would be no trigger bite you know with it a hammer bite discipline this farm would just feel like a million bucks to me and it would be my favorite full-size government model my you know full sized 1911 it would be my favorite it's one of my favorites as it is and I go shoot it and and every time I pick it up I just man that thing feels good if I hold my hand right I don't get hammer bite if I stick my thumb out like that I can shoot it I'm I've been doing that but I can I could shoot it without getting the hammer but if I get any kind of grip like that I'll get the hammer bite alright so I can see why there were a lot of complaints about that alright and that's that's kind of the difference and I'll shoot a little bit of federal here we appreciate federal furnishing the ammo and the support we get from them and Bud's gun shop so check out the people that support us buds in federal and why don't I shoot this thing I know you want me to shoot a denture let's put a wham I went a couple shots all right this is a jewel this one is World War two vintage nineteen 143 and it's one of my faves of course Colt day one alright gosh I can't believe I'm getting both these firearms dirty for you all let's put a couple on the a1 parts there I can go and both work they both get the job done because the 1911 is a wonderful piece of hardware whether or not is something you want to carry or not I mean these things are gorgeous so much history I regard them a little bit like a Colt Single Action Army in a way just masterpieces feel great the ergonomics are wonderful I feel kind of sorry for people who who hate these things to the point where they won't ever own one you don't have to carry it doesn't have to be your favorite pistol lots of firearms involved in our hobby that many of us own that we're not going to take the battle necessarily okay just for the history of it they're just wonderful old firearms the 1911 so if you're in an argument or in a discussion with somebody hopefully that helps a little bit really true 1911 could be that one on the table more or less ok 1911 in the 1911 a1 again most of us just mean a 1911 stop pistol and we know what we're talking about right so hope that helps life is good since I'm still here let me thank SDI for all their help SDI is a fully accredited online gunsmithing school check them out at SDI dot edu we'd also like to thank Bud's gun shop and Federal Premium for all of their support you can find us on full30 also now and you can find the links to our Facebook pages and the other YouTube pages and the description of any video so I invite you to check out the description and every video where any video you'll find what you need to know and you'd better do it

Channel: hickok45

Views: 3,573,474

Rating: 4.8746991 out of 5

Keywords: 1911, 1911 A1, John Browning, Colt 1911, .45 ACP, 45 Colt, Colt 45, WWI, WWII, semi-auto, semi-auto pistol, Korea, Vietnam, slabsides, warhorse, shooting steel, shooting range, steel targets, single action, 230 grain, fmj

Id: Huk1b9PKSmw

Length: 16min 1sec (961 seconds)

Published: Mon Oct 31 2016

Reddit Comments

[u/Baljit147]

Saw this in my subscription feed in the morning, love this guy.

[u/cnw4747]

good video