SlamFire1:
What Old Fuff has not mentioned that the original Colt M1911 was never made to a TDP. My source is "The Colt .45 Service Pistols" by Charles W. Clawson.
Ah… I think you need to read the book again… Your history is a bit muddled.
Colt built the M1911 following a master model, in the model shop. All dimensions, critical or otherwise, were measured off this master model.
Mostly true, parts were also gauged by both machine operators and inspectors. Keep in mind that Uncle Sam had their own inspectors at the plant, and apparently they didn’t get upset with all of this. Otherwise they would have shut down production.
Colt was given a contract to develop drawings, and the due date was 6 Feb 1918. The drawings were so dimensionally incorrect and did not contain all important information that a functioning pistol could not be built from them. Instead of using the Colt drawings, Remington UMC received ten functioning Colt pistols, five of which were acceptable for taking measurements.
Well not exactly. According to the original contract between Colt and the Army the company would produce the first 50,000 pistols to recover some of their development and tooling costs. Thereafter the government could set up Springfield Armory as a second source. For obvious reasons the military services did not want all of their eggs in one basket. Springfield’s first order was received on December 27, 1912. This is when the Army discovered that Colt couldn’t produce drawings, so they selected 20, (not 10) Colt pistols that had been gauged and were known to be dimensionally accurate, took them apart, measured everything, averaged the results, and made their own drawings. These were completed on or about September 1914, so obviously The Army’s Ordnance Department would have been able to provide Remington UMC with a set by February 1918. I presume that these drawings and other assistance from Colt worked, because Springfield Armory did indeed manufacture the 1911 pistol prior to 1918.
However for some reason they placed an order with Colt to provide Remington UMC with drawings and gauges. Colt did so, but Remington found the drawings to be unacceptable, and so made their own. They too were filled with inaccuracies, and problems with part interchangeability continued throughout most of the war.
In passing I would point out that the pistols that were made by Colt, Springfield Armory (the U.S. Arsenal, not the company), and Remington UMC earned an excellent reputation for reliable service under the worst of conditions, issues with different sets of blueprints not withstanding.
Having been badly burned by the “blueprint wars” between Colt and various other contractors during World War One, the Ordnance Dept. came out of it determined to get the issue settled once and for all, and between the two world wars they developed what became the 1911A1 pistol, and saw to it that a full and accurate set of drawings were created.
The above paragraphs describe problems during the era when the original 1911 pistol was being made. When World War Two arrived the military services were using the 1911A1 version and serious discrepancies with blueprints and dimensioning had been resolved. What had happened in the past was moot.
Now as to the question of availability of up-to-date machine drawings of the 1911A1 pistol and they’re use by current manufacturers. It seems to have been implied that these were, or are difficult to obtain. Not so. Anyone, be they a pistol manufacturer, gunsmith, or simply a hobbyist can purchase a full set from this link:
www.nicolausassociates.com
And probably other sources. They are interesting, but largely ignored by current makers. Either they buy all of the parts from other sources and then assemble them, with minimal or no inspection – or they make their own parts to their own blueprints. These we are sometimes assured, represent an improved product with tighter tolerances then those seen in the “government gun.” They are less apt to explain why so many of the “improved models,” have functional problems, don’t always work with the magazines that come with the gun, and require long (and expensive) break-in periods before they (maybe) can be expected to work.
We are also not supposed to notice that other service pistols made by Beretta, Glock, H&K, Ruger, SIG, and others do generally work reliably out-of-the box, and with the magazines they are shipped with. One may contend that the newer guns are indeed superior regardless of their shortcomings, but the fact is that the earlier guns, made to USGI drawings and government inspection procedures, have a better overall reputation for reliability then those being made now.
