My New Replica

[Wes Janson]

The box has sat at the shooting range for nearly a week now, but at last we've taken it home. I unpacked everything, inspected, and disassembled. Tomorrow I will be going back to the range to fire the WWI Replica for the first time. From what I observed handling the pistol, and from what I've read on here, I'm inclined to think the tolerances on this one are rather tight. There's very little wiggle between the slide and the frame, barely any. The springs seem to be stronger than on other 1911s I've seen (especially the magazine catch spring). I cleaned out all of the gunk inside the gun from the factory, and I'm going to oil it at the range tomorrow, so that it'll be reasonably clean.

If anyone's interested, I may take some pictures and put them on here. Tomorrow I'll update on how it shoots!

[GCT00427]

Wes Janson,

We are interested and definately want to see pictures.

Chuck

[Wes Janson]

The computer repairman from school, and my mom, took off third period and we went to the pistol range down the street. Bob wanted to get some practice with his .40, and I was eager to try out the Replica. It was quite an experience, to state it mildly. I don't recommend people new to shooting start out with a .45. I was expecting it to have quite a kick, but I didn't mentally anticipate that it would pull up so much as it would push back. The first shot startled me a bit, and then the second threw the case into my eyebrow and down onto my glasses (near-sighted). Then I tried a few rounds of .22 through my uncle's little Beretta, loading it one shot at a time due to a problem with the magazine. At ~20-25 feet, both rounds went through the same hole, which was probably just luck. Bob had me fire a magazine through his .40 S&W Sig, his "hand cannon". To me, the recoil was roughly the same as the .45, although he felt the .40 to have more of a kick. Fired another magazine through the Colt, but this time I was under control and shot much better; first two hits were dead-center in the bullseye, and the rest, while not nearly as good, were much better. The Replica seems to shoot just a slight bit low, but not so much as to make much difference. Zero feeding or ejecting problems with 21 rounds, and the accuracy, when aimed properly, seemed to be quite good. To test it accurately, a Ransom Rest would've been nice, but Bob and I both felt the accuracy was superior to that of his Sig. I'm going to try to go ahead and take some decent photos of the Replica for you all. They will be posted shortly.

[Wes Janson]

Here we have them, the long-awaited photos of the WWI Replica.
Some images are large, I apologize if this becomes a bloated thread. I did some color balance shifting, because the images were coming out red-shifted as a result of the lighting and the camera. For artistic purposes, some were left more or less as they were, while others were shifted further away to try to give an idea what it looks like in person.

Simple shot, slide locked back
http://www.maj.com/gallery/WesJanson/Colt1911/aacoltreplica.jpg


Profile view
http://www.maj.com/gallery/WesJanson/Colt1911/leftleftlight.jpg


If you look closely, you can see the tag on the t-shirt I'm using for a background, at the top
http://www.maj.com/gallery/WesJanson/Colt1911/leftlefttall.jpg


It's difficult to make out, but the finish on the trigger is much more pronounced than anywhere else on the gun
http://www.maj.com/gallery/WesJanson/Colt1911/lefttrigger.jpg


Another simple shot, with a different color balance
http://www.maj.com/gallery/WesJanson/Colt1911/rightrightpink.jpg


This is about as close to what it looks like under natural light as I could get with the equipment and skills at my disposal
http://www.maj.com/gallery/WesJanson/Colt1911/rightrightreal.jpg


Some nice highlights, although the reds are artificially bright due to the camera and the lighting
http://www.maj.com/gallery/WesJanson/Colt1911/rightrightred.jpg


1941WMK, with another view of the trigger finish
http://www.maj.com/gallery/WesJanson/Colt1911/serialnumbers.jpg


Nothing to brag about, nor reason to keep, except that this is the very first target I've ever shot. The pencil marks over certain holes indicate shots fired by Bob.
http://www.maj.com/gallery/WesJanson/Colt1911/targetpattern.jpg

[1911slabsides]

Wes,

It is just beautiful.

[Wes Janson]

Oh, I forgot to mention. No issues with hand-web-pinching at all.