One of the reasons I started writing Insanely Practical Guides was to help acclimate new shooters and gun owners to the confusing world of guns, shooting and etiquette. Here’s a quick excerpt from The Rookies Guide to Guns and Shooting, Handgun Edition…
If you talk to a couple of gun aficionados, you’re likely to hear about what sounds like yet another type of handgun – the 1911. No worries, it’s just a type of semi-automatic pistol. People tend to get pretty passionate about 1911 style pistols so they tend to get placed in their own category.
1911
You’ll hear gun folks talk in reverential tones about something called a 1911. Yes, it’s a year. It also sounds a little bit like a famous model of Porsche. But in context of this book, it’s a pistol design. Not a manufacturer or a specific model, but a design. Kind of like how a pickup truck is a design. Lot’s of car manufacturers make them, and you can get them with different size engines, but they all have some common features, like seats in the front and a cargo bed in the back.
Here’s a 1911 model pistol made by Springfield Armory. It’s the TRP Armory Kote model.
The Springfield Armory TRP 1911 Armory Kote shown with Galco Miami Classic II
It’s not a perfect analogy, but 1911’s are kind of like pickup trucks. They are all based on a semi-automatic pistol design, invented and brought to market in, you guessed it, the year 1911 by one John Moses Browning. 1911’s have a number of common design elements, regardless of which manufacturer makes them and often parts are interchangeable. For example, classic 1911’s are all single-action semiautomatics, have a thumb and grip safety, and a similar design to lock and unlock the barrel during recoil.
1911’s have a lot to live up to. They have been known to take down both a Japanese Zero fighter and German Storch observation plane in World War II. In fact, some believe that a stray 1911 .45 ACP round inadvertently destroyed the city of Dresden. OK, the Dresden thing may be a slight exaggeration, but the 1911 has been a phenomenally successful and long-lived design.
The Rookie’s Guide to Guns and Shooting, Handgun Edition is available in print and Kindle format at Amazon:
The Rookie’s Guide to Guns and Shooting, Handgun Edition
Actually Browning started designing this pistol in the late 1800’s (originally in something similar to a 38Super and then changed to 45), and submitted it to the Army for review in 1906. It made the final short list, and underwent extensive testing in 1910. It was adopted by the armed forces on March 29, 1911 and was designated the Model 1911 (M1911). It actually proved to have some issues, and was modified in 1924 and subsequently in 1926 was designated the M1911A1, Almost all modern guns we call 1911s are actually 1911A1, but for commercial nomenclature they are are collective just called 1911s.