Colt reintroduces Delta Elite

Old news. They'll run you around a grand.

Got mine about a year ago for $850. Worth every penny to me.

I've only put about 400 rounds through it, but no problems and a whole lot of fun so far.

Meh.

Saw one in the LGS today. Good looking gun. Not in the budget right now, but some day.

If they had novak sights and a rail I'd consider it. Maybe one day...

Earlier ones would eventually crack frames with sufficient round-count. Hope Colt has resolved that issue...

Good Luck

SC

That's a beautiful pistol!

Earlier ones would eventually crack frames with sufficient round-count. Hope Colt resolved that issue...

Click to expand...

They resolved that issue early on in the original run of guns. The spot that would crack was the small section of rail over the cut out for the slide stop nub. Colt started milling that area away on the original guns, and eventually started doing it on all of their 1911 frames.

You can see the different here (Thanks to dsk on the 1911forum for the photos):

Old Style:


New Style:

Looks like a 1911. Well a 1911 that says Delta Elite I guess.

I have 3. Paid an average of 1k.

Auto426 said:

They resolved that issue early on in the original run of guns. The spot that would crack was the small section of rail over the cut out for the slide stop nub. Colt started milling that area away on the original guns, and eventually started doing it on all of their 1911 frames.

You can see the different here (Thanks to dsk on the 1911forum for the photos):

Old Style:


New Style:

Click to expand...

Thanks for that. I see it as evidence that Colt doesn't see a crack there as a problem since they commenced to remove the metal altogether. Nice to know should a "cracked" example ever come my way... I'll just relief cut it myself.

As for the re-introduction... Isn't this about the 3rd or 4th so far? I love the philosophy of build some, sell them off and then shelve the tooling and materials till demand returns rather than have a "flagship" gun languish on shelves through over production due to satisfied or over satisfied demand. i'd like to pop for one to sit with my GC Delta should the opportunity arise.

The problem with the cracked frame was that so many people where sending their Colts back under warranty when the crack didn't mean anything. The frame is neither here nor there. The slide/barrel assembly is the gun. The frame is no more than the gun mount and a housing for the controls.

It's the slide and upper barrel lugs that are the main concern.

1911Tuner said:

The problem with the cracked frame was that so many people where sending their Colts back under warranty when the crack didn't mean anything. The frame is neither here nor there. The slide/barrel assembly is the gun. The frame is no more than the gun mount and a housing for the controls.

It's the slide and upper barrel lugs that are the main concern.

Click to expand...

How well do those parts hold up?

As for the re-introduction... Isn't this about the 3rd or 4th so far? I love the philosophy of build some, sell them off and then shelve the tooling and materials till demand returns rather than have a "flagship" gun languish on shelves through over production due to satisfied or over satisfied demand. i'd like to pop for one to sit with my GC Delta should the opportunity arise.

Click to expand...

To my knowledge no, this is only the second time the Delta Elite is in production. They were first introduced in 1987. I'm not sure when Colt stopped production, but my best guess is probably in the mid to late 1990's. The new production run began a few years ago, and while you may not always see them in stock everywhere, Colt hasn't stopped producing them since that reintroduction.