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Colt 22LR 1911 Gold Cup Trophy – Observations & Experience

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Finally received my purchase permit from Middletown Township and picked up my Colt 1911 22LR Gold Cup. I had purchased the pistol at a gun show in the Philly area back in Dec. The gun was hard to find and I was fortunate to locate one at this particular show.

 

Prior to purchasing, I had done some investigation regarding 1911 pistols chambered for 22 LR. I wanted one to familiarizing myself with 1911 operation so I could comfortably and confidently handle a standard 45ACP version that I would be acquiring in the future. The idea of using ammo that costs 6 cents vs 40 cents per cartridge was also quite inviting. After much research, I decided to go the route of separate pistols for 22 and 45 calibers. My interest lies in target shooting and I believe it will be easier to sight in separate pistols than dealing with a single pistol and a conversion barrel/slide. Also, I prefer a pistol where the slide will lock back after the last shell has fired. None of the 22 conversion kits that I investigated could support that operation and the consensus is that it can be hit or miss as to whether you get a kit that works well with your 45ACP 1911. In looking at the reviews of the GSG/Sig 1911 22LR, early build issues, poor quality finish, a lighter weight than a standard 45ACP 1911 and lack of an adjustable rear sight, led me to look at the Colt Gold Cup trophy imported by Umarex. The Colt Gold Cup is made by Walther of Germany and carries a licensed Colt logo. This is similar to the arrangement that Walther has with Smith & Western for the manufacture of the M&P22.

 

The Gold Cup model is nicely balanced weighing in at 37 oz with an empty magazine. This is about 2 oz lighter than the S&W 1911E, which is the 1911 45 ACP that I plan to get. The Gold Cup’s slide is aluminum alloy while its other internal components are steel. There is no information as to what type of steel alloy, but the instructions indicate that all surfaces should be oiled. One external component that I noticed was also aluminum is the beaver tail grip safety. The finish on all parts is eggshell black. I don’t know if this finish is powder coated, painted or anodized. It will take longer term handling to see how durable it is. Since this is a ~ $400 handgun, I would expect some quality compromises in its manufacture. One of these compromises was noticeable immediately. The slide appears to have a very slight lateral play, perhaps ~1/64” when sitting on the frame. Since the sights are mounted on the slide, this play could impact shooting accuracy. The lateral play was most noticeable with the magazine removed. With the magazine in place lateral deflection was significantly reduced but not completely eliminated.

 

There are two safeties, typical of a 1911 style pistol. The thumb safety locks the trigger, slide and hammer. For this safety to be engaged, the hammer must be in a cocked position. This is the standard safety position for a 1911, i.e., cartridge in the chamber, hammer cocked and thumb safety engaged. While this state is identical for any semi-automatic weapon, my experience is limited to the S&W model 41, which uses an internal hammer. One never sees the state of the hammer on internal hammer pistols. (The internal hammer is typically always in the ready state since it is not recommended to dry fire a 22 pistol). There is something unsettling about seeing a cocked hammer on the pistol. Your eye immediately looks to check that that the thumb safety is engaged if you are not shooting the pistol. This is not a bad thing! There is one big difference in safety checking a 1911 relative to an internal hammer semi-automatic. You have to always disengage the thumb safety to open the slide.

 

There is a half penis position for the hammer. This is a vestige of the standard 1911 configuration and relates to its original design as a cavalry pistol, i.e., to prevent accidental firing when thumb cocking the hammer. For my shooting, I don’t expect to be thumb cocking the pistol. One needs to move the slide to load the first round in the chamber and this action cocks the hammer. Why would one want to then un-penis the hammer? I presume there are some shooters who prefer to un-penis the hammer as a safety setting rather than relying on the thumb safety.

 

The second safety is the grip safety which locks only the trigger. You must have the web of your palm firmly placed against the grip safety for the trigger to release. I expected this to be more of a problem than it actually was. A firmly grasp was sufficient to always disengage the grip safety.

 

Another instance of a quality compromise for me was the trigger feel. The trigger force seemed high for a single action pistol and the action felt a little ruff or scratchy compared to my S&W 41, but that is probably not a fair comparison. I expect that the required force and feel will improve with age and use.

 

While the black composite grip complements the look of the pistol, I was disappointed with the width of the grip and the feel of the checkering, especially along the front of the grip, where the checkering is unique to the Gold Cup model. I decided to replace the one piece wraparound grips with a pair of wider, full checkered wood grips featuring original Colt logos. I purchased these grips on eBay for about $35 a pair. They feel much better in my hand and add some character to the appearance of the pistol. The wood grips are a perfect fit, attesting to the swapability of this part with 45ACP based 1911s. The only adjustment I had to make was to slightly enlarge the mounting holes to accept the screws the Walthers used in mounting the composite grips.

 

The owner manual recommends use of either standard or high velocity ammo. I have a supply of CCI Standard Velocity and Minimag 22LR, as these are my preferred ammo for use in my other 22 pistols. I fired over a 300 rounds of the Minimags in my first outing and had no failures to load, fire, extract or eject. The recoil was a little more than I experience with my S&W 41 and 617, but that is to be expected given both of those pistols have more mass, weighing in at ~ 41 oz.

 

The rear sight was set to the correct elevation; however, the windage was not, as the pistol initially was shooting significantly to the right. I don’t believe any effort was made at the factory to roughly sight in the pistol. After several rounds in which I had to slowly adjust the rear sight, the pistol was shooting quite accurate at 15 yards – I didn’t get a chance to shoot at 25 yards as that range was in heavy use at the time. A close examination of the front sight following the shooting session revealed it to be mounted about .25 in to the left of the barrel’s centerline. This is the reason the rear sight was so far off. I will be returning the front sight to a centerline position (easy to do as it is held in place by a set screw within its dovetail mount) and realigning the rear sight to eliminate the possibility of centerline parallax.

 

A pleasant surprise that I had not seen referenced before is that the pistol came with a simplified magazine loader. It’s a plastic jig that fits over the top of the magazine and helps to push down the mag button during loading to relieve stress on your thumb or forefinger. Extra magazines are available. I purchased two of them (holds 12 rounds) through the Gunbrokers for about $25 each.

 

The only unusual phenomenon that I encountered was a gunfire residue blowback pattern appearing at forward side area of each spent shell. I don’t know if this is unique to my pistol or a potential issue/warning sign of a more serious problem. I intend to try CCI Standard Velocity ammo to see if this makes a difference.

 

Bottom line at this stage is that the pistol is meeting my expectations. It has allowed me to become familiar with the operation of a 1911 pistol and most importantly, it is proving to be a lot of fun to shoot when I want a change from S&W 41 and 617. As for long term durability, time will tell. It is not a good sign, however, that Umarex warrants the pistol against defects for only 1 year and there is no ownership registration program.

 

For a more detailed description of the Government version with the same internals as the Gold Cup model check out the following review that was posted to the 1911 forum,

 

http://ezine.m1911.org/showthread.php?t=86

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In case anyone is interested in what the gun looks like with its replacement checkered wooden grips and Colt factory emblems, here are links to a couple of pics.....

 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/zidecar/6820250453/in/photostream

 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/zidecar/6820250329/in/photostream

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