Hi guys, thanks for tuning in to another video on ForgottenWeapons.com.
I'm Ian McCollum, and I am here today at the Rock Island
Auction Company taking a look at a pistol that is in
their upcoming April of 2020 Premier Auction.
This is far from forgotten yet, but while I have access
to one now I wanted to share a bit of its story with you.
This is a Colt M45A1.
This is a pistol that was issued to the US Marine Corps,
specifically the Marine Expeditionary Unit and Force Recon,
as ... a standard service sidearm
because it's in .45 and that's what they like.
When the US military adopted the Beretta M9 in 1985,
some elements of the US Marine Corps opted to stick to their 1911s.
We can explain the rationale behind that in a couple of different ways.
On the one hand you might say the Marine Corps is an organisation with a focus on history and tradition,
and a particular emphasis on marksmanship. And the 1911 suits ... all of that very well.
You could also say they're a bunch of stubborn, pig-headed brutes who just don't want some 9mm Italian sissy pistol.
I think they'd probably agree with either one of those. At any rate,
the problem was there was not so much institutional ... logistical support for the 1911
in the US military system after the adoption of the Beretta M9.
Now the 1911 was being used as a speciality weapon by a small number of units, there weren't a lot of them,
and what they were doing is basically rebuilding existing 1911A1s.
These guns would go to the Precision Rifle Team at Quantico and they'd be rebuilt
with really good high-end civilian aftermarket parts. Basically turning them into match guns.
And that worked fine for a relatively low volume of pistols and low volume of use,
which is the situation until like 2001.
When the War on Terror really kicked off there started to be a lot more demand for these units,
they were seeing action more, and they were needing more pistols. And this low volume thing,
it's like 50 or 60 guns a year that the Quantico rifle team was able to put out
along with all of the other stuff that they had to do, and that wasn't ... sufficient.
So in 2003, as an interim measure, they actually contracted to purchase Kimbers,
Kimbers with rails on them, as an interim stand-in pistol.
That would ... give them the volume that they needed as a temporary measure,
and they started looking for a more permanent contract.
And they finally got that in 2012 when they picked the Colt Rail Gun,
so named because of its accessory rail for light or laser.
They picked that as the official M45A1 new service pistol for Marine Expeditionary Units,
Force Recon, the elements of the Marine Corps that had opted not to transition over to the Beretta 9mm.
Now these have actually just recently formally been replaced by the Glock, the Glock 19, I believe.
So they're all going to be transitioning out of service eventually.
But just fairly recently Colt got back a batch of
service issued M45A1s as part of an upgrade program.
And they, in the classic American tradition, put them on the civilian market as surplus.
And so we've got one here to take a look at so we can show you
what were Marine Special Forces using as their sidearm.
So the gun that Colt used to win the M45A1 contract is effectively like it's a really nice high-end custom M1911.
It's based on their Rail Gun frame, so named because it has this accessory rail for mounting a light or laser.
Along with them the Corps got Wilson Combat magazines, 7 rounders interestingly, not 8, but very good magazines.
They have an ambidextrous safety. They have Trijicon 3 dot tritium night sights.
Kind of ... an industry standard there.
An extended beaver tail to prevent hammer bite.
The rounded hammer instead of a M1911 style spur hammer. Flat mainspring housing.
... There are just a lot of really good features one might put on if one were building a fighting 1911.
The grips are not really what you would expect to see at first glance for a military pistol.
They are composite laminated G10 grips, and they are very nice and grippy.
They have a sort of a desert tan Cerakote finish, which is what the Corps was looking for.
Although there were some issues in the field with this finish wearing a little bit more quickly than they would have liked.
Colt threw in a few little appeals to the Marine Corps in the markings.
So we have a standard Colt manufacturer's mark.
This is the serial number with an EGA suffix, which stands for Eagle, Globe and Anchor, the Marine Corps emblem.
That's just in there to appeal to the Corps.
And then some of the what are now standard sort of military markings, along with a 2D barcode.
Colt marked these on the left side of the slide with Colt USMC three stars.
When they sold them ... as surplus, basically, onto the commercial market,
they went ahead and Xed out the USMC as an indication that the guns are out of service.
I think that's about all there is to say about the M45A1s.
This really is, I believe, the last gasp of the M1911 as a US military formally adopted service pistol.
In 2016 these, even for Marine Special Forces, were replaced with Glock 19s. ...
So these are still relatively common on the market today because they were released by Colt fairly recently.
However, I can pretty well guarantee that they're the sort of thing that are going to be bought up by collectors.
And they're going to become pretty scarce and the prices are going to go up.
That's just how this sort of thing works. So if you're interested in getting one,
this one is here, they are certainly available at other places as well,
but you can check out all the specs on this one in Rock Island's catalogue.
As well as looking at everything else that they have coming up in their April auction.
Thanks for watching.
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