Guys,
I am thinking about picking up a Colt Officer’s lightweight. WHY? I KNOW it won’t work. It will feed like crap, and it will probably eject the brass straight through my head.
Anybody have any GOOD Colt Lightweight Officer’s stories to make me feel better about this?
Ya know, I wonder if it’s timing thing.
Officer’s are pesky with timing issues anyways and with less mass being it’s a lightweight. That would translate to force pushing back during feed cycle I was always intrigued with that thought.
Anyways I just did a Commanding Officer that I’m elated over. Shot it today and was pleased w/ results.
Hope you have fun and yours comes out the way you want.
https://www.m4carbine.net/showthread.php?p=270964
Sometimes a gun is just neat to have. Why does it have to be 100% stone cold reliable if it’s a cool, fun pistol? If you have a reliable carry pistol already, go for it. They ain’t making any more.
Personally, I like Colts, duckbill grip safety and razor sharp edges and all. Don’t know why. I just do.
My father carried one as his duty weapon, we still shoot it. The feed ramps were polished and that seemed to take care of any issues he had with feeding. The only other problem he had was the thing use to tear up extractors. That was fixed with a Ed Brown extractor. Never had a problems since.
He trusted his life to it and ran it in competition. If I remember correctly it has over 12,000 rounds through it.
I had an all-steel one before that actually ran fine. I sold it like an IDIOT.
I have 1 LW & 2 steel. I like them for CCW, but you have to be aware of their limitations. I recommend replacing recoil springs frequently, about every 500 - 800 rds. & inspect all parts very carefully whenever cleaning; especially the bushing, spring plug & the barrel lugs.
COLT LW OFFICERS ACP
Ed Brown grip safety
Micarta slim grips
Novak rear sight, plain black
Trijicon tritium front sight
Serrated front grip strap
Serrated lightweight mainspring housing
Beveled mag well
Lowered/flared ejection port
4 lb. trigger pull
Bead blasted barrel hood
Black/Gray Gunkote finish
Daily carry for many years & several thousand rounds down range. I admit that most of my practice & training is with either a steel Govt Model or a LW Commander. However, this Officers ACP has been more than a few weekend training classes & has been very reliable. I can’t say the same for all short 1911s, but I can vouch for this one.
That is pretty sexy!
I have a Colt LWOM that I purchased used twenty years ago.It was stock except the stocks were swapped out for Pachmayrs.I took it to the range and inside 50 rounds the gun stopped cold.The front recoil spring plug was now somewhere down range in pieces.The flimsy barrel bushing was tweaked and hard to open the gun,a little rubber mallet took care of that.
The gun sat for a year or so before reading(No INTERNET) some magazine articles on curing the OM woes,WTF were Colt engineers thinking??That little “bump” of metal was the retaining tab?These guys must have been related to the Titanic build team.The barrel bushing was equally thin and weak.Never cared for the dual recoil spring system.
Ed Brown made(no longer) a SS reverse recoil spring plug,easily fitted by hand with a file and micrometer measurements.I then fitted a Kings SS barrel bushing,very heavy duty unit.Wolff makes replacement recoil springs in 22(factory) and 24 lbs, I stuck with the factory weight.
The gun ran fine except occasionally on the last shot the slide would not lock back.The slide velocity on these shorty .45s is really high and the mag springs cannot keep up to trip the hold open(slide top).These are with factory Colt 6 rounders.I don’t run the 7 rounders due to them using a Devel type followers that is prone to gouging alloy frames.I have yet to swap mag-springs to see if they give the extra power to catch up to the fast recoiling slide.
CHANGE RECOIL SPRINGS OFTEN!!EVERY 500 ROUNDS!
Positives:
The gun comes with adequate fixed sights.The trigger was “decent” for social purposes,5 lbs fairly smooth and only a hint of creep.
The Pachmayers are nice,I normally don’t like Pachys on autos cause they are thick,but these are thin and wrap around.
My gun feeds ball and Federal HS no problem(old and new style)The HS do not beat up the alloy feed ramp on my gun.
Accuracy is fine for close range personal communication,its not a bullseye gun.
Very thin,light and compact.Recoil is easily managed and I do not consider the .45acp a brute,slide cycling is fast.
The gun is a good for carrying alot and shooting a little.
If your Officers Model is bone stock,replace the recoil spring plug,barrel bushing and recoil spring system.The factory recoil spring plug will break eventually.
Due to differences in tolerances in different weapons some parts will last a long time & some will not. Inspect yours closely as you clean it after shooting & you’ll see if it’s likely to fail anytime soon. Typically there’s peening on the recoil spring plug, watch for excessive wear or cracks on the bushing & check the barrel lugs for excess wear and/or peening.
I’m not saying it’s better to keep the original parts - I’m just saying that they should be inspected closely as they wear. There is very this is a weak area in this design because it’s so abbreviated. If you shoot it a lot either inspect all the time or change the parts for something more substantial. If you don’t shoot it much, keep inspecting for telltale signs. They’re pretty obvious after the fact. If you’ve seen some that’ve failed, you’ll know exactly what it looks like.
I think I have worked out a deal on a lightweight. I will definitely be adding nightsights and thin grips. Will have to see about the trigger.
I actually prefer a Colt style grip safety with the halfway beavertail over a full aftermarket beaver tail.
I don’t need a horn protruding from my gun.
I don’t disagree at all. This is off-topic a bit, but I bought a Defender about a year ago and I found the duck-bill safety very functional and comfortable. If I knew then what I know now, I wouldn’t have paid good money to have a functional, comfortable part replaced with the Les Baer that I had installed.
Now, aesthetically I don’t like the duck-bill. Because the Colt got relegated to a range-toy role after I figured out my full-size M&P40 conceals about as well as the Defender, I’m not kicking myself all that much for swapping out a known-good part with a new, pretty one. But I would rather have spent the cash on ammo or a good pistol class.
I had one and got rid of it. Replaced it with a Springfield Lightweight Ultra Compact with an aluminum frame and steel slide. The Springfield rocks. The Colt never would feed reliably and ejects would often stovepipe. It had been worked on by some good people… maybe I had a lemon. I was glad to get rid of it.
I said GOOD stories Cobra!
I know all the bad ones, LOL.
Sorry, your right, you did ask for good stories. 
O.K. Long story short, I got it last Friday. It was a LNIB stainless Officer LW. I have since added a drop-in beav and changed to Mccormick Rosewood grips and an aluminum trigger. Oh, and I put a VZ checkered mainspring housing on it. The only two other things it needs are 1 a trigger job (BAD!) and 2. a night sight.
