Colt Commander 80 Series

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fcthompson

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Just bought a Colt Commander, only had one box of ammunition and had a great shoot. Just one question, is it standard to have a bout a millimeter of 'play' in the slide, from side to side?

Thanks from 'sweatin'.
 
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Send it out

You can send it to a good custom shop to have it tightened. Wilson Combat did my Colt, and turned it into a tack driver. My most accurate pistol. They also fitted a new bushing and tweaked the trigger. Well worth the money. Production Colts are pretty raw from the factory these days.

P.S. I'd ditch the series 80 parts if it were me.
 
Colt Commander

Thanks Jim for the quick reply.

I may be 'over eyeballing' regarding the play on the slide. Let's call it a 'slight' play and I won't use 'guesswork' regarding millimeters. I have a CZ 75D Compact and there is '0' play, so I guess I was measuring against that.

Thanks again.

Comment???
 
How does it shoot? If it shoots well do not worry about it. Slide to frame is not as important as barrel lock up. IMHO
 
The amount of slop in the fit of the barrel to the slide is MUCH more important than the slide to frame fit. If the barrel locks up snugly to the slide when in battery and the sights are tightly fixed on the slide - there's most of your accuracy right there. Tightening the slide to frame fit is only worth maybe 15% overall for what the gun will do on paper. The quality of the barrel and its lockup in the slide is where you need to spend your money. I have seen quite a few 1911s that rattled when you shook them but when placed into a mechanical rest would chew the center out of the target. I used to peen rails down and squeeze slides 20 years ago and learned that it's a waste of time for the most part. Have a match grade barrel and bushing installed and you're in the game.
 
My Colt S80 Combat Commander has a slight amount of side-to-side play like the OPs but will shoot 2 inch groups at 10 yards which is plenty accurate for my SD needs. :)
 
A Colt that rattles, wow theirs a shocker.

Sweatin, Colts seem to run a bit looser than other 1911s. I haven’t had as many colts as a lot of folks on this board. The few (5) that I have had all were a bit
looser than other pistols that I have experienced. They also have all shot pretty well, loose and all. Maybe not a millimeter loose. If it were me, I would shoot
the thing a bit to get to know it better . If you are like me, a baseball sized group at ten yards is good enough. Truth is, I wouldn’t shoot any better than that
with an Olympic free pistol. If it doesn’t shoot as good as you think it should shoot, send it out. There are lots of pistol smiths that can tighten her up.
I have had great luck with Evolution Gun Works.

As far as the suggestion about “ditching” the series 80 parts. I am not sure why anyone would do this. If your gun is set up properly, you won’t (I wouldn’t)
even know they are there. While they probably aren’t necessary, they are there. Why fool with them?

Let’s see some groups.
Steve
 
Alittle loose is good unless to the walls tack driving accuracy is required. I like my guns to be reliable so I say leave it how it is.
 
I wouldn't sweat a slight amount of slide movement, especially on a Commander model. Barrel to slide, barrel to bushing, and the barrel link assembly fit is more important in regards to overall accuracy than slide to frame fit. A decent trigger pull and a set of high visibilty sights will also go a long way in improving your guns potential accuracy.
 
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