Series 70 Colt M1911

[jcj54]

Yes, a Series 70 Government model barrel will fit a 1911A1 requirig only minor fitting. A Gold Cup Series 70 barrel will not, as the hood is different.

[lucky52]

Thanks for that.

[milprileb]

Some back ground, when the Series 70 came out , all the negative hype about a change in Brownings sacred 1911 was off the charts. It was sacrilege and no one wanted a "Series 70" , then it became realized only barrel and bushing had changed and the rush to replace the collet bushing stoked up. About this time arose the cry of alarm that collet bushings break and a Tsunami like wave of Series 70 owners dumping collet bushings and putting in solid bushings ...which work perfectly.

The issue with collet bushings was owners were taking them off the barrels ...on/off /on /off and fingers on collets became weak. If you left them on the barrel (no small inconvenience), they'd last but owners induced failure and failure happened.

During the period of fear, when collet bushings were the plague, I picked up over 30 of them from various gunsmiths dirt cheap. I like them, accuracy is improved, I replace them every 15K fired (I keep round counts) and my range 1911's all have them. Now have I had one break...yes, on one original Series 70 Colt that I bought in 1970 and the round count was 22,231 but I had a few years abuse on the collet in that pistol...a few years when I was unaware the SOP was not to take the collet off barrel. It was, admittedly my fault and it was a Royal PITA to take down the pistol and get the broken collet removed...I did but it was a chore.

I consider the collet a target shooting enhancement only, never would I use one in a defense pistol. I like collets for target shooting and they do perform and they will perform in non Series 70 Colt 1911 barrels as well.

Collets tough to find anymore and not worth hunting for them, far easier to fit up a solid bushing on your barrel. I got no problems with the collets, they work just fine as a range use item only.

Lots of hate out there on collets so I am sure some villagers will be at my door with pitch forks and torches .

[rickgman]

Originally Posted by milprileb

The issue with collet bushings was owners were taking them off the barrels ...on/off /on /off and fingers on collets became weak. If you left them on the barrel (no small inconvenience), they'd last but owners induced failure and failure happened.

I consider the collet a target shooting enhancement only, never would I use one in a defense pistol. I like collets for target shooting and they do perform and they will perform in non Series 70 Colt 1911 barrels as well.

Collets tough to find anymore and not worth hunting for them, far easier to fit up a solid bushing on your barrel. I got no problems with the collets, they work just fine as a range use item only.

This is the truth. I, too, was unaware of the need to leave the bushing on the barrel until many years later but even though I had tens of thousand of round through my Gold Cup NM pistol, the bushing never failed. I replaced it to be on the safe side since the failure mode was fatigue and that pistol still has the replacement bushing in it to this day. I did give a solid bushing a try and accuracy was negatively affected.

[rcolarco]

The bushing on mine failed after 10,000+ rounds. Quick fix was an Ed Brown drop in match bushing. A contradiction in terms, but it worked (works) and accuracy is better. Pistol has been with me since 1978 and is approaching 30,000 rounds.

[NChick]

Originally Posted by milprileb

The issue with collet bushings was owners were taking them off the barrels ...on/off /on /off and fingers on collets became weak. If you left them on the barrel (no small inconvenience), they'd last but owners induced failure and failure happened.

This is reminiscent of the wear on Winchester Model 97 and 12 takedown systems. It is said that most of the wear therein is due to repeatedly separating the front end from the rear, with little to no wear resulting from just shooting the shotguns. Don't mess with it!

[TomD999]

Hiya,

I'll jump into the collet bushing pool a little here. When I had my shop open I did see some of the failures of the collet bushings on series 70 and 80 pistols, (especially on the "strike guns" when the UAW workers struck and Colt had office staff putting together parts to ship out guns.) After seeing a few of these I started asking the customers how they were taking the pistols down for routine cleaning and lube if it came in with a broken collet. Every one of the failures the owner was using a bushing wrench the turn the collet with the slide in battery, the way a solid bushing pistol is taken down.

The correct way to remove the recoil spring plug and disassemble a collet bushing pistol is to retract the slide from battery slightly so the collet fingers aren't wedged onto the barrel and subject to side loads as the bushing wrench turns it. My customers that had collet bushing Colts that followed this procedure never brought them in for bushing issues. If you think about it, the design of collet is to grip the insert, in this case the insert is the barrel, and lock it in place. If you turn the collet with the fingers locked, you put rotational stress at the root of the fingers, right where they tend to snap off.

I would give the customer the option of either having me fit a solid bushing or simply replace the collet bushing, about half went with the fitted bushing. Of the ones that I replaced the collet, after given the proper procedure for it, I don't remember any of them coming back because it broke again.

I have 2 collet bushing Colts myself, 80 series, 5" Gvt models, both have the original barrels and bushings and have seen tens of thousands of rounds, from me and students in my classes. When I clean these, the bushings get removed from the barrels however, I'm careful not to tilt the bushing off the barrel centerline and I hold all 4 fingers to prevent them from vibrating like a tuning fork as these are very hard and we all know what thin, very hard parts do when they ring.

OK, as always, just my experience over the years and 2 cents, not trying to say I'm an expert by any means.

Tom

[lucky52]

Does it take a gunsmith to fit a solid bushing on a collet type(tapered) barrel?

[rcolarco]

Originally Posted by lucky52

Does it take a gunsmith to fit a solid bushing on a collet type(tapered) barrel?

Not necessarily. I can fit a bushing, and have done so. However, I have also used the Ed Brown "drop in" bushings, and they work fine.