$600 1911 with a Good Looking Pony from the Late 1980s

[il.bill]

I have a friend who bought a blued Colt 1911 MK IV Series 80 Government Model in the late 1980s. He probably has run less than 200 rounds through the pistol. It looks like it may have never been cleaned since purchased and has a couple of small scratches on the finish, but overall it looks pretty good to me. The barrel bushing is the first I have seen that is not solid but has spring steel fingers that fit tightly on the barrel and have shined off the finish but after a detail strip I find no rust anywhere.

He asked, so I traded him even up for a new in box SS Ruger SP101 .357 Magnum Revolver with a 4.2" barrel that I would normally sell for about $600, so I figure I have that $600 now invested in the Colt 1911 in its original box. Thought I would clean it and lube it and probably keep it - the shiny blued MK IV should be good company for my matte black blued Colt 1911 Model O1991. My iPhone is not co-operating, so pictures may take a while to post.

Two questions: 1) what is a nice used MK IV Series 80 5" 1911 worth these days?
2) what is the deal with that split fingered barrel bushing? I am by no means a 1911 expert, but I certainly like them and have had several dozen of various brands in hand and that is the first non-solid barrel bushing I have come across.

 

[il.bill]

Looking at the pistol components a little more, I just realized the the barrel OD is tapered, I guess to work with the fingered collet style bushing. I suspect that means a 'normal' solid bushing would not be a direct replacement using that original barrel?

 

[JTQ]

The collet style bushing was the significant feature of the Series 70 Colt pistols. Of course, parts are parts, so when Colt stopped using the collet style bushing as a feature, they simply used up the remaining parts in other pistols. Apparently, your Series 80 gun being one of them. It has the collet style bushing of a Series 70 gun and the firing pin safety of a Series 80 gun.

There may be some collector value to the combination you have, but new Series 80 guns are $850 - $900ish.

 

[red rick]

I think you came out good , I doubt you could get $600 for your SP 101 since I could but it new for less .

I think you could probably get around $700 for the Colt .

 

[Merle1]

I have been told that it is better to leave the bushing on the barrel when dis-assembling the gun.
Allegedly that puts less stress on the "fingers" and reduces the chance of breakage.

 

[cfullgraf]

I have a Series 70 Colt 1911 that had the collet style barrel bushing. The first collet bushing lost one of the fingers that got jammed up in the dust shroud and put a ding from the inside in the shroud.

Colt did replace the bushing but I elected to not do anything about the ding because it was only cosmetic at the the time.

I eventually replaced the bushing. A solid bushing will work with the barrel.

I'd replace the bushing and save it with the box in case you decide to sell the Colt. The net owner might like to have it.

My Colt was rebarreled to 38-45 Clerke which included a change to a solid bushing.

I kept the original barrel and on a lark, installed it in an Auto Ordinance 1911 using the Auto Ordinance's solid bushing. Even though the Colt barrel had north of 3000 rounds through it, accuracy of the Auto ordinance improved dramatically. I got a good lesson on the value of a quality barrel.

The collet barrel should have a full diameter section at the end of the barrel and then it will begin to taper to a smaller diameter a half to three quarter of an inch or so from the muzzle. A solid bushing will rest on the full diameter section of the barrel at the muzzle.

It has been a while since I bought any 1911 parts. It used to be all barrel bushings required at least some fitting. But then, semi-fit barrels for the 1911 weren't available either at the time.

 

[Ca survivor]

Congrats, looks like you have the best deal, yes you can put a solid bushing on that Colt, see if you can get a Colt bushing it will save you on fitting it and if is going to be your carry gun I'll definitive get a solid bushing on it.

 

[gotboostvr]

I thought when I snagged a LNIB Kimber Custom for $600 I was doing well!

I'd gladly pay that for a 80 series Colt.

My Colt LW Commander has a pretty rough bore, and the slide is the shakiest of all my 1911's, it has the best trigger and shoots equally well with my Kimber, Custom Norc and my 625 with the same ammo despite it's lighter weight and smaller dimensions.

 

[CapnMac]

Yep, you wound up $200 to $300 ahead on the deal, which will buy you a few decent-quality magazines.

The solid bushing will also fit that gun. How much the collet bushing helps is partially determined by how well the barrel link fits (which is some mitigated by the fit of the barrel slide cuts.

Some collet bushing fingers break. I know I broke two in my Series 70 before getting a solid bushing--but, that was over about 8K rounds, too.

 

[bannockburn]

il.bill

I think you definitely made out with that deal! Never had a problem with any of my Colt Governments that used the collet bushing but that's not to say the fingers can't break. I would go and get a solid bushing properly fitted to the barrel.

 

[il.bill]

Thanks for taking the time to reply!

My friend wanted the SP101 .357 mag. revolver and did not want to wait or work at selling his Colt 1911 so he approached me with the deal after shopping around to price a new-in-box Ruger 4.2" - I thought about it for a second or two and ordered the new SP101 to do the deal. I plan to keep the MK IV Series 80 for myself.

I like the idea of a fitted replacement solid bushing, keeping the original fingered collet one with the original box and paperwork for the next owner if I ever do sell it. I will be surprised if it averages as much as 250 rounds a year once the first blush of a new-to-me handgun shooting experience wears thin, since every time it goes to the range, one of my other 'favorites' will have to stay at home. Other than regularly shooting my concealed carry handgun(s), the rest of the collection has to patiently wait their turn to go out and play.

Still cannot get my phone to cooperate, so pictures remain elusive. Thank you all, again, for the information.

 

[tark]

You did very well on that deal

 

[Coltdriver]

That is a great deal. I have never lost a dime on a Colt in .45ACP and I have made a little on most of them. I have an Officers and a lightweight Commander now. If I stumbled across a full sized Colt for $600 I'd have to buy it on general principle!

You can get a bushing from Wilson and fit it yourself in about an hour. I have done this twice. Just get some 400 grit metal sandpaper and use a light oil to fit the part. A cheap pair of calipers helps. You can blue it with cold blue and it will look just fine. Tightening up the barrel bushing is a great way to improve the accuracy and doing it yourself is very satisfying. One other thing you can do is to order an oversize firing pin stop and fit that too. If you leave the bottom nearly squared off it will slow the slide enough to make a felt difference in recoil.

 

[Rock185]

You made a good trade. The collet bushings were used up until about the mid '80s. A regular Colt or aftermarket drop-in bushing is an easy replacement. It works fine with no fitting,etc. I did replace some of mine. But, I found that the factory collet/"Accurizer" barrel bushing really did as advertised in that accuracy fell off when I replaced the collet bushings with Colt drop-in solid bushings. A fitted or Briley bushing brings back the collet bushing accuracy, but of course, some effort and expense is involved when going that route. Attached a photo of just a few of the different bushings I've worked with over a good many years, some drop-in, some fitted, some the original Colt Collet type,etc.