Colt Special Combat Government 45ACP opinions/experiences?

[JMoore]

Hey guys. I recently came across 2 NIB Colt Special Combat Governments that I couldn't pass up. I went ahead and purchased them. I'm still figuring all this 1911 stuff out. I'm still "green" to this platform. I planned on picking up SA TRP, but this has set e back on getting one right now.

I bought these to basically sell (FFL holder), but after researching the SCG, I don't know if I will ever get another chance to own one. They are very hard to find. I finally broke and had to fire one of them last week. Accuracy was excellent. I was very impressed. But I had one problem. On both magazines, this happened, when feeding a new shell in, the slide would stop about 1/4", maybe a little more , from fully closing. I was shooting some Winchester jacketed hollowpoints. It's the only 45ACP ammo I had on me.

I should of stripped the gun and given it a good cleaning before going out. I was pressed on time and failed to do so. There was also brass marks on the top side of the ejection port after firing. Not for sure if this is normal or not. I figured these problems could be an ammo problem, not being cleaned since it left Colt (8 years ago) or possibly something else.

I'm looking to get some user experience of this Colt model from you guys and to see if you have any suggestions on what might be making the slide come up short when feeding another round into the chamber. I haven't had the chance to get it back out yet. I did pull the slide off and cleaned/lubricated everything. I just need to see if this was the problem or not. Maybe pick up a few different types of ammo also.

I'm going to attempt to post a few pictures of the SCG along with this post...I just signed up to this forum yesterday. If there are any SCG owners out there that have any recommendations on after factory upgrades they recommend, etc, please share. I'll take anything I can get. I still have a lot to learn about this 1911 platform. Both are series 80 1911s

Best Regards,

Jeremy Moore

It won't let me post a link to pictures since I'm a new member. The model number is 01980CM . Both are Satin Nickel/blued slide.

[lee blackman]

Your gonna wanna find a good gunsmith. I own several Colt 1911 type handguns, series 70 and series 80's, and I've never had one shoot reliably out of the box, ever... I don't know anything about the newer Colt 1911's, so I don't know if things are different with the XSE's. None of the Colts I have were made after 1997. If you bought the guns for nostalgia, I wouldn't touch them. If you bought them to shoots, send them off and have a good reliability package done on them by a reputable gunsmith.

[Round_Gun_Shooter]

Special Combat is a Custom Shop gun according to Colt that they do in limited runs. The one I had also had problems feeding certain bullet designs until I had the barrel throated and polished. Ejection port is already lowered, trigger was fine for me but for many could be lightened. S&A mag well on mine was blended very nicely. I found gun very accurate and I am sorry I ever sold it.

[Jadeslade]

Those guns suck. I will buy them off you and take the problem out of your hands.

[Jadeslade]

Just kidding. They may need to be shot in. Wayne Novak is still the best Colt gunsmith I know. He's getting up there, but his shop is still going great. Fast turnaround on reliability package. Maybe you could send the one you shot and have them do a "reliability" package on it and then when you get it back in a couple of weeks, you can look at it and see how they do. I have never had a new Colt never not go bang out of the box. NIB means never handled. A lot of "new" guns have been opened , handled, and displayed, or exposed to air. In my area, its humid all the time-so just taking a gun out and handling it exposes it to elements leading to rust, fingerprint marks, etc. I am constantly reminding my friends that the by-products of combustion are CO2 and H2O. That H2O will mess up a gun real quick. Those are great guns. For real. There are lots of good gunsmiths, but they are either super busy making custom guns, or don't have parts. Or are just not set up to move weapons in and out quickly. I occasionally run into a retired Army armorer at matches and they are usually all over Colt's and knowing what to do for them. Good luck.

[bofe954]

It may need break in, and I'd try that first. If you need to send it off, send it back to Colt. It's a custom shop gun, it should run.

The "reliability package" should be that you bought a top of the line Colt. If it doesn't work they should fix it on their dime.

[JMoore]

All the research I've done on the Special Combat model has only made me want to keep one of them. I've only read great things about them. Like I said, I'm new to the 1911, so when I break it down, I don't really know what I'm looking at or looking for. You Tube has helped me a lot, along with all the Internet material I've came across. I plan to take it out tomorrow and put somemore lead down it, I just want this pistol to shoot whatever I feed it. Seems like most everyone else I've found to have one can feed it anything. But, my luck is never good.

These pistols have been in a glass display for the past year or so. Before that, they were in the box. I cleaned the exterior of them right when I got them home. They were a little dirty, but no different then any other displayed pistol.

I'm just curious if Colt will honor their warranty service even though it's been 8 years since the pistol was originally bought. I would think they would since this pistol just now sold to me. At the price they are selling for, I shouldn't have to spend more money to make it run. Just my opinion. Hopefully Colts Customer Service is good. I've never dealt with them before. The reliability package is sounding like a very good option also. I will let you guys know how it does tomorrow evening. Hopefully it was just a gimmick.

Thanks for the responses. I'm still looking into getting a SA TRP. I wish I was in the position to get a Wilson, but I'm not. Not really for sure if a Wilson is worth the extra $1000+ . It might be, but I think I need to get a lot more familiar with the 1911, so I will know what I want in future purchases.

Again, thanks !!

[A38337]

I owned a SCG. Nickled receiver and blued slide. Early 2000s production.

Very cool rollmark and cool name for the model. Very nice looking gun.

Lots of problems, though.

Lots of very sharp edges.

Series 80 means the bomar is mounted more rearward than I cared for. The slight increase in sight radius was offset by problems with holster fit and the sharp corners of the bomar blade had more opportunities than I liked to tear things up.

Fit of the beavertail was very good. It lacked a pad on the bottom, though, so I problems with not fully engaging the grip safety (no such problems with my multiple other 1911s).

The extractor was way, way, way too loose. Had to tune that myself.

Nickled receiver meant the only way for me to improve grip on the slippery frontstrap was skateboard tape.

The front strap was not high-cut. Hated that about it.

Trigger was nothing to write home about.

Test target was OK but not great.

The fit of the barrel bushing to the slide and the barrel, and the fit of the slide to frame was as loose as some of the 40+ yr old GI guns that I handled when I was in the Marines (K-Bay in 93/94).

The S&A magwell was merely slid onto the gun. It was NOT fitted to the gun.

The barrel link pin was not staked correctly and it fell out on field stripping it.

The dovetail joint of the ambi safety wasn't fitted corretly (the gap on the female side was excessive), so no amount of effort on my part would ever provide a reliable fit, unless I wanted to buy and fit a new one. The halves of the safety were always separating and then when manipulating the RH side of the safety, the left-wards pressure would made the LH side of the ambi bind against the receiver.

All in all, I was tremedously disappointed in this gun and sold it at a loss, but good riddance to it. It would have cost so much more to make all the problems right. I've had other Colts that I've been happy with, just not this one.

[Bansheex]

I would not send them to Colt. They have had my wife's carry gun for 3 months now and still can't tell me when it will be finished.

[Mpie427]

I purchased mine in 2011. It was never fired and manufactured in 2001. Since, I've used it in IDPA and like matches. The only issues I've ever had was using the after-market 10 rounder’s. Other than that the "safe queen" now has some holster marks. Anyone else use these in competitions?

[Rhodie]

I have one that is around a 1998-1999 model. I inherited it from my father when he passed away. All that I remember him doing to it was removing the firing pin plunger to make the trigger pull a little better. It now has a sweet 2.75# pull. It will shoot one ragged hole @ 20 yards with my Bayou Bullet 200 LSWC loads.

The only jams I have ever had were due to worn out brass that did not have enough neck tension. When the bullet hit the feed ramp it set back into the case instead of continuing to feed into the chamber. After I went through and culled all of my old brass, I never had another problem.