It used to be that Colt 1911 handguns were pretty much the only 1911 game in town, but many people thought they were out of business the past few years. Today we’re looking at the enhanced Combat Elite Enhanced 1911 .45 ACP handgun.
Colt 1911 Handguns
For the longest time, if you wanted a 1911 pistol you had to take a look at the Colt 1911 line of handguns. For the most part, they were the 1911 to own. However, today, there are more companies manufacturing 1911s than I can list. Most companies are producing some high-end 1911s while some are producing bare bone basic 1911s. Of these 1911s, most are very well made handguns, and the sky is the limit. This is true as well about how much leaves your checking account because of prices on 1911s. In my humble opinion, Colt has recently fallen by the wayside, when it comes to 1911s. They are no longer the leader in producing 1911s, not even close. Some companies just refuse to step into the 21st century with the marketing, manufacturing, and improving of their products. Colt is guilty of all three!
Owned More Colt 1911 Than Any Other Brand
Over the years, I’ve probably owned more Colt 1911s than any other brand. Especially when I was a snot-nosed kid, I was always on the look out for the newest or “best” 1911 that Colt made. Unfortunately, even back then, in the late 1960s and even into the early 1980s, Colt just didn’t have a huge selection of 1911s to pick from. However, it never deterred me.
Back in 1989, I was the chief of police in a small western Oregon town, and one of the handguns I often carried was a brand-new Colt 1911 Commander that was all stainless steel. Unfortunately, when I received this gun brand-new in the box, it wouldn’t even feed full metal jacket ammo. It took quite a bit of work on my part to tune this gun to not only feed FMJ but JHP ammo as well. That’s not a good thing in a brand-new handgun from the leader (at the time) in 1911s.
Colt Combat Elite Enhanced 1911
The local gun shop that I haunt, Fast Cash in Lebanon, OR, recently traded into a used but 99% as-new Colt Combat Elite Enhanced 1911, which is the full-sized Government Model with a 5-inch barrel. It’s not a rare Colt, to be sure, but a little hard to come by just the same. It had a blued slide and stainless steel frame, giving it a very nice two-tone look. The great three white dot combat sights are a nice touch on this gun. While the slide was evenly blued, it wasn’t up to the old Colt standard, in my opinion, with a very rich and deep blue to it. The slide was lowered and flared, and it was nicely done, too.
Frame, Grips, Safety
The frame had a nice pair of rosewood grips, which were half checkered and half smooth. They were very beautiful grips. Still, I replaced them with my own design “Code Zero” 1911 that is produced by Mil-Tac Knives & Tools. We have a nice three hole match trigger that broke right at 4.5 lbs. Also, there is a single-side thumb safety that snicked on/off with authority and a Smith & Alexander beavertail grip safety. It has a speed or combat hammer with an elongated slot in it. Overall, I really liked the look and feel of the Combat Elite 1911 from Colt.
Slide-to-Frame Fit and Barrel
As stated, this gun was 99% as-new; however, I was a little bit disappointed in the slide-to-frame fit. It was a bit sloppy, if you ask me. Colt can do better, or at least they used to. There is also a match-grade fitted .45 ACP barrel, and there was no up/down play when pushing down on the barrel hood. That’s a good thing.
Why Colt Firearms Expensive
It used to be, though I admit that I don’t know if this is still true, that Colt was a union-run shop, and that explains part of why Colt firearms are so expensive. When you have someone making $80 to push a button on a CNC machine, that’s not a good thing for the consumer, though for the employee it’s great.
Colt Seemingly Fallen Into Disrepair
Over the years, Colt has seemingly fallen into disrepair, not updating milling machines with CNC machines and other similar things. I don’t know who does (or doesn’t) do the PR/Marketing for Colt, but they do a terrible job. As a gun writer with more than 25 years under my belt, I have made some pretty good contacts at gun and knife companies, and I can usually get a sample of their products for testing and review.
Difficulties in Getting a Sample From Colt
Getting a sample from Colt to review has not been easy, but maybe it has changed. As an example of my difficulties with Colt, back in 1992 I obtained a gun sample from Colt, after a long effort. It seems at that time there was no one really in charge of sending gun samples to writers, and this was very strange. I decided to purchase the sample, and Colt didn’t really give us, gun writers, a decent price on purchasing samples. Still, I purchased it. More than six months later, my wife informed me that Colt never cashed the check we sent them. Numerous phone calls went unanswered, and no one returned my messages I left with Colt. Once again, no one seemed to be in charge of this aspect of things.
Some time later, my wife put a stop payment on the check. Don’t you know it. A week later, someone from Colt called and asked why. Ya think? Anyway, it was explained that we made every attempt we could to find out why the check had not been deposited by Colt, and the person on the other end of the phone understood the frustration we had and asked if we could send them another check, which we sent. It was promptly deposited, though I haven’t requested any gun writer samples since then from Colt. That’s just a little history.
Colt 1911s- Decent Guns
I have owned Colt 1911s since then, and they’ve all been decent guns, nothing outstanding but decent guns. They were all purchased used. I didn’t want to spend the extra money to buy a brand-new 1911, as I figured I’d let someone else take the beating on depreciation on buying a new gun over a used one.
I honestly have no axe to grind with Colt, but I just wish they could get their ducks in a row. They don’t produce very many different gun models these days, and you rarely see an ad in a gun magazine for their guns. Why?
Ammo For Testing
I had a great selection of .45 ACP ammo to run through this Colt Combat Elite. From Black Hills Ammunition, I had their 230-gr FMJ, 230-gr JHP, 230-gr JHP +P, and their new 135-gr HoneyBadger ammo– an all-copper solid round. From Buffalo Bore Ammunition, I had their 255-gr Outdoorsman +P Hard Cast FN load, 230-gr FMJ FN +P, 230-gr JHP +P, 200-gr JHP +P load, and also their 160-gr Barnes TAC-XP all-copper hollow point low recoil, standard pressure load, so I had a great selection of ammo to run through this 1911.
Testing
The match-grade barrel on the Combat Elite was throated and the frame’s feed ramp was polished, so I didn’t expect any feeding failures during my testing and I didn’t have any. That’s good news. I fired 400-rds of .45 ACP through this 1911 in one shooting session, That’s a lot of work, believe it or not, and I didn’t have anyone assisting me this time out.
Accuracy
Accuracy testing was done at 25 yards over a sleeping bag that was rolled up over the hood of my Jeep Wrangler. I don’t use any sort of fixed rest for testing accuracy, for the simple reason that it doesn’t give me real-street accuracy results.
I did a lot of casual blasting at rocks and tree limbs down range. If I did my part, I hit what I was aiming at, even with some of the targets at least 50 yards away. This shooting was done standing off-hand. During my accuracy testing, most ammo was giving me groups right around three inches. Some groups were a tad smaller and some right at three inches. There was one stand-out in the accuracy department, and that was the Black Hills 230-gr FMJ load, which is always a good performer. It was giving me groups right around two inches, so long as I was on my game. The Buffalo Bore 160-gr Barnes TAC-XP all-copper hollow point, low recoil, standard pressure load was burning on the heels of the Black Hills load though.
Recoil Spring Swap and Added Skateboard Friction Tape
I swapped out the factory 16-lbs recoil spring with a heavier 18.5 lbs recoil spring, because I do a lot of shooting with +P loads and the heavier recoil spring helps prevent battering of the frame. It’s an inexpensive investment, to be sure. I also added a small piece of black skateboard friction tape to the front strap of the Colt for a better grip under all weather conditions. This is a fairly common practice of mine, with most 1911 handguns.
Isn’t Much To Complain About
While I was pleased with the accuracy results, I think if the frame-to-slide fit were a little bit better, the gun might have given me some smaller groups. The barrel was perfectly fitted to the slide, so that helped accuracy. All-in-all, there isn’t much to complain about with this fine Colt Combat Elite Enhanced 1911. It is fit for duty for law enforcement or military combat service, and it would be a great self-defense carry piece, albeit a bit large and heavy. It’ll do the job just fine. These models are a bit hard to fine but well worth the search. Check one out, if you can find one.
I’ve always thought that Colts made beautiful firearms, no question. But I’ve never been in a position to pay $1,000+ just because a gun is pretty. So far as used Colts go, I can pay $700 for a used Gold Cup (if I’m lucky), or I can pay $700 for a NEW Glock 21 with 3 magazines. I’m not trying to stoke the tired Colt vs Glock debate (buy what you want, I don’t care), just giving my opinion that Colt is simply paying for a name and shiny metal, and I can’t see doing that.
Thanks for another great review Pat.
If I remember correctly, the loose slide-to-frame fitting of the original design of the Colt 1911 was built in to account for lots of mud, freezing water, lack of cleaning, and other rough usage at the hands of the average GI during wartime. No binding, no jamming, no stoppages that would cause some frontline mother’s son grief, and being sent home in a body bag.
Yeah, I unfondly remember those Series 80 Colts, too – horrible to work on. It wasn’t just the collet bushing and the trigger block, the whole design/build didn’t seem to work worth beans compared to Series 70.
Loose slide to frame gives more opportunity for foreign object entry. I’m not a Glock fan either, but they are dependable. I no longer own one but respect them. My Taurus 1911 is my fallback for putting grains down range while modestly accurate, but there isn’t any looseness in slide to frame spacing like the Colt.
I would like to see Pat do an analysis of Canik 9mms being marketed by Century Arms. In my field experience they are more dependable in adverse conditions, and the price point lets you get 2 for every 1 Glock you could purchase. Corrine Mosher shows some pretty good capability with barrels longer than 4 inches in contests. How about a Canik evaluation, Pat?
Thanks for all you do and God Bless.
But thank you for the TP9SF review in April of 2017. They are my EDC CC now.
During my gunshow years in the 1970s I bought every “clunker” 1911 I could find. Cheap; commonly around $150. Easy to rebuild and follow the advice in Halleck’s book on the 1911. My pet was a Lightweight Commander; my carry gun for many years.
I shot IPSC back in 1980-1983 and even with few modifications my nearly-stock 1911 fed lead SWCs flawlessly.
“They just fit my hand real good, is why.”
Sorry bro but 1911? Big, fat and clunky on its best day. Have owned two WWII 1911, a Singer and a G.M. hand me downs and was issued one in the military with a shotgun barrel. Gave that piece of junk back and bought a .38 Spc. Smith&Wesson at the P.X. to carry in country. The last weapon I would carry is a 1911 followed closely by any Glock. The world has come a long way in a hundred years so when my life is on the line a 1911 won’t fill the bill. Sig is wonderful, H&K is dandy, Springfield is handy so why do I need anything else?
Pat, your local gun shop “Fast Cash” seems from it’s title to be a pawn shop. Am I correct?
A gun shop named “Fast Cash”…?…poor choice of words these days!
I’ve owned Grand Pop’s 1911 since the early 80’s. I carry it in the winter in a shoulder holster. It’s a CMP gun he received in 1964. The gun was first built in 1918 and rearsenaled probably after WWII. It’s exceptionally accurate and dependable. I have smallish hands and find the grip to be a bit large but I still shoot it mostly one handed, never have dropped it. I have never owned any newer colt products, the newest I own is a colt detective made in ’59 and it is an extremely well made gun. I only buy/use old guns, mostly pre WWII as they are all hand fitted and are much smoother than “modern” guns. If you want a real blaster find an old Colt New Service in .45lc. If you can get by with 6 rounds and can wear a shoulder holster you’ll have a real man stopper!