Colt 1911NM .38 Special Mid-Range from 1961

[Calfed]

Earlier this year I glommed a S&W model 52-2...

http://www.jouster2.com/forums/showt...p-W-Model-52-2

Ever since, I've been obsessed with getting a 1911 .38 Special mid range as a companion piece. Yesterday, I glommed one...

[fjruple]

In their day they were it until the S&W Model 52 came out. I own both too and have shot them in competition.

[Calfed]

In their day they were it until the S&W Model 52 came out. I own both too and have shot them in competition.

How do the Colt and the S&W stack up, accuracy-wise?

[Johnny P]

The pistols were beautifully made, but the straight blow-back operation seemed doomed from the start. The first pistols ejected the shells so hard that they ended up several stations down. The cartridge case on the first models was supported by only a small part of the breech end of the barrel. Colt quickly changed this so that the cartridge head spaced on the front of the chamber. These two models only lasted a brief time until Colt again redesigned it with a "threaded" chamber in an attempt to slow down the ejection. It just never really caught on, and production was somewhere around 9500.

In my experience with both of them, the S&W was a far better pistol. I shot better with the S&W 52-2, but that may have been just me.

[ignats]

Over the years I have run into a number of .38 Super Colts that were altered to chamber and fire .38 wadcutter ammo. I have one now that had the chamber lined and reamed for .38 Spl cartridges to chamber. When I shot bullseye, I just used my .45 pistol as most shooters I competed with did. So, I never even owned a Model 52. Those who did, swore by them.
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[gwp]

I have a Model 52 and have owned a Gold Cup 38 Special. I modified the gold cup magazine to accept 6 rounds and shot PPC matches with it when the auto class scores were low. It was able to give me good scores. I sold it when I stopped shooting PPC. The Model 52 is very accurate but it is not as forgiving to shoot and it requires a precise follow through to shoot well.

[Johnny P]

The late pistolsmith Jim Clark used "stickum" on his hand when shooting in a match so that once he had positioned the pistol his hand position didn't change between shots.

[gwp]

I was shooting the 5th Army Matches next to Sergeant Major "AL" and he put a tincture from a pharmacy bottle on his hand. I asked him about it and he said it remained sticky and it could have a medical purpose. He asks me if I wanted to try some, being somewhat new to Army matches, I said yes. It did prevent the 45 from shifting, but it also collected a lot of dirt and grass when I policed the brass. One of the guys was laughing about it, and he said if someone shot a good score with an anvil on his head, at the next match there would be ten people with anvils on their heads. Someone else piped in "and the match after that someone would have an anvil with an Aimpoint attached”. Later I found Powergrip powder worked well without being too sticky.

[Sunray]

"...used "stickum"..." Did that with my GP. Sorta worked but now the grip screws don't come out.
"....38 Super Colts that were altered..." Lotta work doing that. Changing from rimless to rimmed etc, etc. Be a lot more than just reaming the chamber and lining anything.
Colt NM/Gold Cup .38 Specials run about 3 Grand on Guninternational. 2 grandish on GunBroker.
Rumour has it the Colts were made for countries where there are calibre and mag capacity restrictions.

[Johnny P]

Clark made his first .38 wadcutter pistols out of Colt Super .38's that he made new barrels for. He used the breech end of the Colt barrel to retain the locking lugs, but drilled it out and cut a Douglas blank which was soldered into the breech. He made the barrels for his long slide pistols the same way.