Bushings on Defenders and Officers???

[carsten1911]

Hi,

this question is simple. Just asking cause I cant find a real COLT shorty gun in any of the shops I now and then visit to look myself:

On pics of Officers models I see a sort of shortened (lower "legs"?) bushing and a strange spring plug with a wide slot.

A) Now do the Officers take down just like a full size?

B) Is the guide rod similar to a standard or a is it a FLGR, as the slot in the plug advertises?

C) I know Springfield and many others use a bull/ conical barrel and FLGR configuration. Does anyboy know a good reason for that? Do they do it only to add weight to the muzzle?

Thanks for answers!

Carsten

[44 Man]

The Officers has a short bushing. The recoil system is not a 'guide rod' system but a standard. The slot in the plug allows you to press the bushing in and turn it to release a tab from a slot in the dust cover. The Defender has a standard recoil system and no bushing. The Defender recoil plug has a flange on the back side and must be removed by first removing the slide, which is the way I take most of my 1911's apart anyway. Many people worried about the tab breaking off on an Officers plug. I think that was a highly overrated concern but I suppose anything that can break eventually will. The flange on the Defender recoil plug addressed this supposed weakness. I never had lick of trouble from my Officers. It was very accurate, would feed anything, and was 100% reliable. 44 Man.

[RickB]

The bull barrel, as it applies to the 1911, was originally designed to allow a very short barrel, not to add weight, per se. If you shorten the barrel, you must also shorten the skirt on the bushing, or the latter will crash into the barrel lugs when the slide runs to the rear. That's why the skirt on a Commander bushing is shorter than on a Government Model bushing. On a gun with a 3.5" barrel, any bushing must be large enough in diameter to clear the lugs, and that's why the OACP has a flared muzzle. Others go with an even larger muzzle diameter, to eliminate the bushing completely.

[carsten1911]

Thanks for the information!
Do you know of any drawings, manuals or anything where this can be actually seen?

Carsten

[lindermant]

this manual has a few pics http://stevespages.com/pdf/colt_mkiv_series_80_&_90_pistols.pdf

this page has lots of online manuals http://www.stevespages.com/page7b.htm