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It's arrived! - the .41 Spl Colt
Axis Of Excellence
First Gen Smokeless Big Bottle Cartridges
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by Kid Cossack
The older I get, the smarter those old guys that came before me seem to get too. The Single Action Army, the Smith and Wesson New Century/Hand Ejector series, the 1911?
Those are excellent designs.
I used to look at them as really good rough drafts, to my current embarrassment. I used to think, yeah, a N-frame (or I guess it was an S-frame back then?) .44, say a 2d Model like some BGA dude has, that's a decent enough platform for fixing up. I figured you just had to have a heavy barrel on it. I figured you just had to have adjustable sights.
A 1911? Well, you "need" (NEED!) a lowered and faired ejection port, a high ride grip safety (and now, of course, I know that if you need that, you also need a grip safety with a bump on it), a Commander hammer and assorted gee-gaws. You need 'em, I say! (Said, anyway.) I never got to the fuzzy dice and curb feelers----but gents, at times I was close to a small chain steering wheel and an 8-ball shifter.
As for the SAA, well, once more---adjustable sights and probably a transfer bar safety, and make it bigger and heavier so you could hotload the .45 Colt to what it was never intended to be. And coil springs, too---how silly was a gun with flat springs? I mean, sheesh, how very, very 19th century.
Like I say, older I get, the smarter those other guys who came before me seem to be getting.
Your base box stock 1911? It'll run all day, slicker'n owl snot, with hardball, and it'll put 'em pretty much where the sights are lookin'.
Bullseye accuracy? Nah----but remember what Unca Jeff calls the 1911's role: it's a short range portable fight stopper.
And a good Brazilian contract 1917, or it's civvy street sisters in .44 Special? Yeah, I'd hate to touch off a really hot load in them, both due to the light weight and the old steel. But guess what? I don't particularly care to shoot really hot loads. I'm a mediocre enough shot to stick with moderate loads that I can shoot well, or at least better.
I like the .45 ACP and always have. I like hardball---I've shot more of it than any other centerfire, and I think it's a wonderfully balanced cartridge. All three of these designs will gobble hardball up, all day long, no muss, no fuss, no bother.
Don't take me wrong----I'm certainly not knocking the Kimbers, the Ruger NMs, the new Smiths. They're fine guns, and in some ways inarguably better than the old guns. Sometimes, though, I think they're better in ways that didn't need much improvement to begin with.
Look ye, gentlemen, at the axis of excellence. The SAA, the 1911, and the Hand Ejector. They are all roughly the same size and weight. Read "handy" and "packable." They were produced to a high standard of fit and finish, even when intended for military use. They all took off like a rocket with the public. With any decent example, any of them will riddle a 100 yard target---I've "proved" it with a 1911 and a S&W (albeit a newer one).
In under forty years, guys, we hit the grand slam. Oh yeah, and in that same time frame we came up with the Winchester 1894, the Savage 99, and a few relatively decent cartridges such as the .45-70, the .30-06 and .38 Special. An axis of excellence indeed.
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