Post by BoW GaCAman on Sept 21, 2013 11:19:09 GMT -5
1911 FANS
Allow me a moment of leave to 'pick on' your exalted .45 ACP for a little bit, and remind you (in some cases, inform you) that the cartridge was not what John Browning used, in the original design/concept.
John Browning, who was working for Colt at the time, had already developed a semiautomatic pistol around his .38 Colt Automatic cartridge (almost identical in performance to the 9mm, later improved in the .38 Super) that he knew he could re-engineer to accommodate a more effective 45-caliber cartridge of his own design.
Browning’s pistol was a radical, yet simple, recoil-operated, locked-breech, tilting barrel design. The barrel, slide, magazine and frame were separate components. The barrel was attached to the frame by means of pins which passed through pivoting links. The slide was fitted into channels in the frame. Ridges and grooves were machined into the top of the barrel at the chamber to match ridges and grooves on the inside of the slide. With the action closed, these ridges and grooves interlocked, the slide covered virtually the entire barrel, and the firing pin housing closed off the chamber. Lock-up was complete. Upon firing, recoil forced the slide and barrel to travel rearward together for about a quarter of an inch. The links caused the barrel to pivot downward at the same time, freeing the slide and barrel from their interlocking grooves. The slide then continued rearward to full recoil, extracting and ejecting the spent cartridge case and re-cocking the hammer. With the slide at full travel and the recoil spring fully compressed, the spring then took over and pushed the slide closed again as it stripped a fresh cartridge from the magazine and loaded it into the chamber. The operation of almost every semiautomatic pistol manufactured since has been based directly on this breakthrough design.
Browning and Colt had developed the new .45 ACP (Automatic Colt Pistol) cartridge in 1905, chambering it in a scaled-up pistol they called the Model 1905. The new .45 ACP round was loaded with a 230-grain FMJ (Full Metal Jacket) bullet, and matched the performance requirements the Moro-weary army officers were looking for. It was a further improved model of this pistol that Colt entered in the 1906 trials.
Based on the ongoing clashes with the Moros, the U.S. Army came to the painful conclusion that a new military handgun was called for. Extensive ballistic testing on live cattle and human cadavers performed in 1904 (the famous Thompson-LaGarde tests), plus the cavalry’s traditional requirement to shoot horses in battle as well as men, led to the determination by an Army Ordnance Board headed by Col. John T. Thompson and Col. Louis A. LaGarde that the army needed a 45-caliber handgun to provide adequate stopping power. The selection process started in 1906 with firearms submitted by Colt, DWM/Luger, Savage, Smith & Wesson, Knoble, Bergmann, Webley-Scott and White-Merrill.
Only Colt and Savage survived those first trials. A series of further tests and experiments were called for by the Ordnance Department, and a final selection committee was appointed in 1911.
www.boatmanbooks.com/samplelw1911.html
Allow me a moment of leave to 'pick on' your exalted .45 ACP for a little bit, and remind you (in some cases, inform you) that the cartridge was not what John Browning used, in the original design/concept.
John Browning, who was working for Colt at the time, had already developed a semiautomatic pistol around his .38 Colt Automatic cartridge (almost identical in performance to the 9mm, later improved in the .38 Super) that he knew he could re-engineer to accommodate a more effective 45-caliber cartridge of his own design.
Browning’s pistol was a radical, yet simple, recoil-operated, locked-breech, tilting barrel design. The barrel, slide, magazine and frame were separate components. The barrel was attached to the frame by means of pins which passed through pivoting links. The slide was fitted into channels in the frame. Ridges and grooves were machined into the top of the barrel at the chamber to match ridges and grooves on the inside of the slide. With the action closed, these ridges and grooves interlocked, the slide covered virtually the entire barrel, and the firing pin housing closed off the chamber. Lock-up was complete. Upon firing, recoil forced the slide and barrel to travel rearward together for about a quarter of an inch. The links caused the barrel to pivot downward at the same time, freeing the slide and barrel from their interlocking grooves. The slide then continued rearward to full recoil, extracting and ejecting the spent cartridge case and re-cocking the hammer. With the slide at full travel and the recoil spring fully compressed, the spring then took over and pushed the slide closed again as it stripped a fresh cartridge from the magazine and loaded it into the chamber. The operation of almost every semiautomatic pistol manufactured since has been based directly on this breakthrough design.
Browning and Colt had developed the new .45 ACP (Automatic Colt Pistol) cartridge in 1905, chambering it in a scaled-up pistol they called the Model 1905. The new .45 ACP round was loaded with a 230-grain FMJ (Full Metal Jacket) bullet, and matched the performance requirements the Moro-weary army officers were looking for. It was a further improved model of this pistol that Colt entered in the 1906 trials.
Based on the ongoing clashes with the Moros, the U.S. Army came to the painful conclusion that a new military handgun was called for. Extensive ballistic testing on live cattle and human cadavers performed in 1904 (the famous Thompson-LaGarde tests), plus the cavalry’s traditional requirement to shoot horses in battle as well as men, led to the determination by an Army Ordnance Board headed by Col. John T. Thompson and Col. Louis A. LaGarde that the army needed a 45-caliber handgun to provide adequate stopping power. The selection process started in 1906 with firearms submitted by Colt, DWM/Luger, Savage, Smith & Wesson, Knoble, Bergmann, Webley-Scott and White-Merrill.
Only Colt and Savage survived those first trials. A series of further tests and experiments were called for by the Ordnance Department, and a final selection committee was appointed in 1911.
www.boatmanbooks.com/samplelw1911.html
