Silver Jack Hammer
08-30-2015, 10:46 AM
Yesterday a NIB Colt Wiley Clapp .45 lightweight Commander blue went from the LGS to home then to the range with me. I bought it because it's 29 ounces and my steel 5" Series 70 was hurting my back. Cost was $1,000.00.
This Colt is a Series 70 that comes with a checkered frontstrap, beavertail with a memory swell for the palm, long trigger, Novak rear and Novak front with a brass bead, serrations on the slide front and rear that run at an angle. The model comes with a 1918 WWI thumb safety, thankfully no full length recoil guide rod. Stainless steel barrel. The grips are a dark laminate with checkering only where the fingers rest on the grips and the Colt logo engraved in the checkering. The mainspring housing is flat checkered metal.
At the range I intended to give it a good airing out with my five (5) Wilson seven (7) round magazines. 200 rounds of American Eagle red box ball, 20 rounds of Federal HST +P and 100 rounds of my 452347 .452" ww Alox over 6.0 gr of Unique.
There were three (3) malfunctions where the top round failed to chamber. First step will be call Wilson and get a recoil spring and new magazine springs to see if this fixes the issue.
The point of impact was about 3 1/2" to the left of my point of aim. I apologize I don't have group sizes to report. I was at a public range with a new gun and wasn't able to go forward and measure the targets after five (5) shots. The public range was just open after a Youth Day and it was getting dark. The mission was to get as many rounds through the new gun as possible. More on the group size later after another range session.
What I came away with was the conclusion that there some are some guns that are good to shoot, some guns are good to carry, but after over 300 rounds my wrist hurt. This is a good gun to carry. Asking a 4.25" alloy frame to eat +P ammo like a 5" steel is a tall order. The gun did well but the slide comes rear farther on the 5" than it comes back on the Commander, so magazine spring is more critical because it has less milliseconds to push the top round up for feeding.
The real failure was the grip screws. All four (4) kept coming loose. They are the flathead type and hex head grip screws will be ordered Monday morning.
This Colt is a Series 70 that comes with a checkered frontstrap, beavertail with a memory swell for the palm, long trigger, Novak rear and Novak front with a brass bead, serrations on the slide front and rear that run at an angle. The model comes with a 1918 WWI thumb safety, thankfully no full length recoil guide rod. Stainless steel barrel. The grips are a dark laminate with checkering only where the fingers rest on the grips and the Colt logo engraved in the checkering. The mainspring housing is flat checkered metal.
At the range I intended to give it a good airing out with my five (5) Wilson seven (7) round magazines. 200 rounds of American Eagle red box ball, 20 rounds of Federal HST +P and 100 rounds of my 452347 .452" ww Alox over 6.0 gr of Unique.
There were three (3) malfunctions where the top round failed to chamber. First step will be call Wilson and get a recoil spring and new magazine springs to see if this fixes the issue.
The point of impact was about 3 1/2" to the left of my point of aim. I apologize I don't have group sizes to report. I was at a public range with a new gun and wasn't able to go forward and measure the targets after five (5) shots. The public range was just open after a Youth Day and it was getting dark. The mission was to get as many rounds through the new gun as possible. More on the group size later after another range session.
What I came away with was the conclusion that there some are some guns that are good to shoot, some guns are good to carry, but after over 300 rounds my wrist hurt. This is a good gun to carry. Asking a 4.25" alloy frame to eat +P ammo like a 5" steel is a tall order. The gun did well but the slide comes rear farther on the 5" than it comes back on the Commander, so magazine spring is more critical because it has less milliseconds to push the top round up for feeding.
The real failure was the grip screws. All four (4) kept coming loose. They are the flathead type and hex head grip screws will be ordered Monday morning.