Army in World War I and as the M1911A1 in World War II. Because of its incredible stopping power, the M1911 became the standard sidearm for the U.S.
45-caliber semiautomatic pistols and, the most famous. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Colt worked closely with and profited from his relationship with the famous gun designer John Moses Browning, producing his many models of machine guns, the Browning Automatic Rifle (BAR), the Model 1903 and Model 1908. With the success of the Colt Walker, Samuel Colt started yet another of his own business ventures in 1848, which seven years later became the Hartford, Connecticut-based Colt’s Patent Firearms Manufacturing Company, now shortened to Colt’s Manufacturing Company (CMC). The Colt Walker was initially ordered and used by a group of mounted law enforcers in Texas that later spawned the famous Texas Rangers. This larger caliber Colt Walker was manufactured at the armory in Connecticut. In 1846, during the Mexican-American War, Colt designed a new revolver prototype that was further revised by Captain Samuel Hamilton Walker. For a variety of reasons, Colt’s early production companies from 1837-1842 ended in failure. Colt received a British patent on his improved revolver design in 1835 along with two American patents the following year. Choosing the M1911: The Military Service Replacement for the RevolverĪlthough Samuel Colt did not invent the revolver, his designs played a major role in the popularization of it with the ensuing shift away from earlier single-shot pistols. The Colt Commando revolver’s inclusion in the realm of World War II handgun ordnance remains an ongoing curiosity almost 75 years after the firearm’s introduction. 38 Special” on the left side of the barrel. Many handgun enthusiasts’ blog entries recount how they stumbled onto a local gun show table only to find a dull-finished revolver that clearly bore the impression “Colt Commando.