What do you know about the Colt Ace?

[wbwanzer]

I was at a gun show today and saw some older looking pistols that definetely looked like 1911s. I zeroed in the the best looking one and noticed that it said '.22LR' on the slide. It turned out to be a Colt Ace. I had not heard of these before. I asked how much and was told $4200. Well that put it way out of the realm of possibility for me unless I wanted to be shot with it when I got home.

So I'm wondering what the deal is with these. I saw some on GB that were considerably less than $4200, but they're still expensive guns. Are they exceptional shooters? Are they just rare now? What can you folks tell me about the Ace? I know I wanted it, but not at that price.

 

[skipsan]

Colt "Aces" were introduced in the early 1930s. Its the early ones that are listed for the multi-$K prices, although there don't seem to be many sales of those particular examples. The government acquired a number of them to serve as lower cost training aids to military trainees.

The later model Aces were built into the early 1980s. The more recent examples, like mine, have a floating chamber, which supposedly causes the Ace to duplicate the recoil of the .45acp. It doesn't, but it does have a different feel when shooting. Mine isn't particularly accurate but it still gets shot a lot, with no reliability problems. Parts can be hard to come by and expensive when found.

I paid exactly $1K for mine from a local gunshop without box or paperwork.
That's probably an OK price but no bargain. I'd estimate its condition at 95%.
I've not seen one go on gunbroker.com for any less but I'm sure in this economic climate they can be had for less.

There are also ACE conversion units which comprise the slide, barrel, springs, and extractor which supposedly slide directly on to a 1911 full-size lower. They normally sell (used) for around $500.

I think the appeal of the Ace models is primarily to the hard core Coltaholics as there are other conversion units currently in production, for less money, which allegedly have better performance.

 

[wbwanzer]

Thanks skipsan. I'm not a Coltaholic, so I don't need it. I thought maybe they were incredibly accurate.

 

[skipsan]

I'm sure they can be tuned to more accurate, but my Beretta M92 .22 conversion will shoot rings around it. Its alleged that a conversion unit made by "Marvel" is the most accurate of those available, past or present.

 

[MattTheHat]

What do you know about the Colt Ace?

I know I'm going to go shoot mine tomorrow.


-Matt

 

[skipsan]

Your question is pretty general. One comment I've seen repeatedly and have heeded myself, is that the ACE needs high velocity, copper coated, ammo to avoid fouling the floating chamber. I don't know if this applies those variants without the floating chamber.

My personal favorite ammo is Federal "brick" hv, copper plated, from Walmart.
Its been a little hard to find occasionally, but I have a small stash that has supported my habit. It sells for $15/550 rds. I'm sure that there are other ammo brands that will work nicely, but having found a cheap souce that works fine, why look further? There was mention of the ACE needing premium match ammo, but that hasn't proven to be the case with my pistol. I only clean it now because I feel guilty about going several hundred rounds without doing anything other than wiping it down.

Magazines are quite expensive. They are available new from Checkmate or Metalform--can't remember which, but they are $65 each.

 

[MattTheHat]

> magazines

Metalform and Triple K both offer them, as does Colt, directly.


-Matt